Concealment of Beneficial Ownership
20/07/2018
Paris, 18 July 2018 -While corporate vehicles, such as companies, foundations, partnerships, and other types of legal persons and arrangements are important for supporting commercial and entrepreneurial activity, they can also be misused to conceal the ownership and control of illicitly gained assets. A new joint FATF-Egmont Group report assesses the vulnerabilities linked to the concealment of beneficial ownership in order to support further risk analysis by governments, financial institutions and other professional service providers.
The report uses over 100 case studies provided by 34 different jurisdictions of the FATF Global Network, the experiences of law enforcement and other experts, private sector input the private sector as well as open-source research and intelligence reports to identify the methods that criminals use to hide beneficial ownership. Vulnerabilities associated with beneficial ownership are analysed, with a particular focus on the involvement of professional intermediaries.
The ease with which legal persons, primarily limited liability companies (or similar) can be formed, make them particularly vulnerable, and are seen to be used in building complex legal ownership structures, often involving shell companies. Trust and company service providers frequently play a role in such structures. The use of nominee directors and shareholders, both formal and informal, exacerbates the risks by creating barriers between the owner or individual and laundered proceeds, and often professional intermediaries play a role in helping create or operate the structures used to conceal beneficial ownership, either complicitly or unwittingly.
The report highlights the importance of the effective implementation of the FATF Recommendations on beneficial ownership to ensure that competent authorities have access to adequate, accurate and timely information on the beneficial ownership and control of legal persons, and arrangements including express trusts.
Concealment of Beneficial Ownership
Concealment of Beneficial Ownership – Executive Summary
Concealment of Beneficial Ownership – Indicators of Concealed Beneficial Ownership
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As well as owning and publishing Comsure's copyrighted works, Comsure wishes to use the copyright-protected works of others. To do so, Comsure is applying for exemptions in the UK copyright law. There are certain very specific situations where Comsure is permitted to do so without seeking permission from the owner. These exemptions are in the copyright sections of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended)[www.gov.UK/government/publications/copyright-acts-and-related-laws]. Many situations allow for Comsure to apply for exemptions. These include 1] Non-commercial research and private study, 2] Criticism, review and reporting of current events, 3] the copying of works in any medium as long as the use is to illustrate a point. 4] no posting is for commercial purposes [payment]. (for a full list of exemptions, please read here www.gov.uk/guidance/exceptions-to-copyright]. Concerning the exceptions, Comsure will acknowledge the work of the source author by providing a link to the source material. Comsure claims no ownership of non-Comsure content. The non-Comsure articles posted on the Comsure website are deemed important, relevant, and newsworthy to a Comsure audience (e.g. regulated financial services and professional firms [DNFSBs]). Comsure does not wish to take any credit for the publication, and the publication can be read in full in its original form if you click the articles link that always accompanies the news item. Also, Comsure does not seek any payment for highlighting these important articles. If you want any article removed, Comsure will automatically do so on a reasonable request if you email info@comsuregroup.com.