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ACRA Cancels Registration of Company for AML/CFT Failures

Richard Marley
February 21, 2022
2 minutes read
1575

The Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) has revoked the registration of a company after it failed to implement enhanced measures to mitigate ML/TF risks.

According to the authority, SGCN Link and its sole director and shareholder Lew Chian Hwa got their registration canceled by the ACRA with effect from January 29, 2022.

ACRA canceled the company’s registration due to a lack of enhanced measures to mitigate money laundering and terrorism financing risks when establishing business partnerships.

SGCN is a provider of corporate secretarial services for business entities, like helping clients to file annual returns or to meet requirements stated in the Companies Act.

As per ACRA investigations, Ms. Lew had filed documents with the authority for the companies owned by her clients even though she had “reasonable grounds” to believe that the information was not accurate. Moreover, the information was shared without the consent of her clients.

“This is in breach of the terms and conditions prescribed in the Second Schedule of the ACRA (Filing Agents and Qualified Individuals) Regulations,” said the authority.

ACRA investigations further showed that SGCN had failed to adhere to the terms and conditions mentioned in the authority’s regulations.

“In particular, SGCN failed to perform enhanced customer due diligence measures to mitigate the money laundering and financing of terrorism risks in relation to the incorporation of the companies,” said ACRA in a press release.

“SGCN also failed to take reasonable measures to verify the identity of the beneficial owners of the companies before filing said information on beneficial ownership with ACRA.”

The authority said that registered qualified individuals and registered filing agents are required to ensure that filings with ACRA are carried out as per the instructions from their clients and that the filings are accurate and true.

Lastly, it said that registered qualified individuals that breach their obligations could face penalties of up to S$10,000 per breach and/or have their registration suspended or canceled.

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Qatar Takes Steps to Strengthen its AML/CFT and Sanctions Compliance
A webinar organised by ICC Qatar emphasised the efforts of Qatar to strengthen its AML/CFT and sanctions compliance across financial and non-financial sectors.

The International Chamber of Commerce Qatar (ICC Qatar), held a webinar on “Spotlight on the latest risk and financial crime trends” in collaboration with Refinitiv Protiviti and FinScan on 18th May.

Keynote presentations were given in the virtual event by Nipun Srivastava, Managing Director and the Middle East Leader of Financial Crime and Regulatory Advisory Practice at Protiviti, Marina Agathangelou, Customer Success Manager at Refinitiv, and Ibrahim Doubli, Regional Director, Middle East & Africa at FinScan Compliance & Data Quality Solutions.

Depicting the latest events in Eastern Europe, and how the problems related to data security with advanced matching technology can help in making the risk and compliance measures of the company more robust, major attention was paid to Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Mutual Evaluations inspections of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC); the sanctions and the recent financial frauds trends in the webinar.

Srivastava told the participants about the actions Qatar has been implementing to strengthen its AML/CFT and sanctions compliance framework across various financial and non-financial institutions.

Agathangelou said the Mutual Evaluation is just an initial phase of work to prepare the country to combat current and emerging financial threats. With the implication of the automation/machine learning based programs, Qatar will be able to invest its resources efficiently in combating financial frauds.

“Implementation of the Public Private Partnerships among the National Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Committee (NAMLC), Qatar Central Bank (QCB), Financial Information Unit (FIU) and other bodies may bring out the best industry tools for aiding the government to complete their national agenda” added Agathangelou.

Doubli showed appreciation towards the ICC Qatar for conducting an effective webinar while saying “I look forward to continuing working with the institutions in Qatar in their efforts to comply with fast-changing local and global regulations”.

Suggested Read: China Strengthens Anti-Money Laundering Rules for Financial Institutions

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Furthermore, there are other crucial aspects of crypto operations including the technologies to be used. It often happens that crypto firms that aren’t well-established deploy tech solutions that are based on the concept of one solution for every problem. For this reason, instead of looking for automation and outsourcing operations, crypto firms must incorporate robust solutions for identity verification, AML screening, and transaction monitoring.

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Anti-Money Laundering screening involves the verification of an end-user by screening them against watch lists compiled by regulatory authorities such as the FATF, UN, FINTRAC, AUSTRAC, and others. It involves authenticating the user information against criminal watch lists, global sanctions, and Politically Exposed Person (PEP) lists. As a result, fraudulent customers are detected and compliance targets are easily met.

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ACRA Cancels Registration of Company for AML/CFT Failures

Cryptocurrencies and AML Compliance

Challenges Faced by Crypto Firms

Crypto AML Regulations

US and Canada’s Crypto AML Regulations

Europe’s Crypto AML Regulations

Asia Pacific’s Crypto AML Regulations

What Shufti Pro Offers

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