The European Parliament has approved proposals put by the Special Committee on Organised Crime, Corruption & Money Laundering (CRIM) as part of the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive.
Organised crime is of particular concern to the European Parliament; they believe that there are at least 3,600 gangs working within the single market. It is estimated that corruption costs €120 billion i.e. 1.1% of EU GDP.
Organised crime in Europe includes people trafficking (there are approximately 800,000 forced labourers in the EU, of which 270,000 are victims of sexual exploitation); online gambling has an increasing role in money laundering and underlines the issue of organised crime in gambling, sports match fixing and illegal sports. These are all current criminal issues for the EU.
So the EU Parliament has approved the following approach which is likely to be ratified in spring 2014 and implemented by member states between 2015 and 2016.
In short, there will be European harmonisation of criminal law on money laundering: more anti-money laundering checks will be applied to all forms of gambling; companies should have in place adequate measures and procedures in order to obtain full accurate information regarding beneficial ownership; the abolition of tax secrecy (although the US have achieved much in this area already through FATCA); and the elimination of EU tax havens, amongst other issues.
The Fourth AML Directive will have enormous repercussions if fully ratified (which is very likely). It will affect Extradition/Euro warrants, civil recovery of assets in European jurisdictions, business regulatory compliance, and European business transactions. The list is seemingly endless.
We will be publishing a series of blogs on each of these issues over the next few months as the Fourth AML Directive moves towards ratification and adoption by each of the EU member states.
If we can help you with any of the issues raised in this blog please contact us by either telephoning us on 020 7387 2032 or by completing our online enquiry form here.
