- The Office for Money Laundering Prevention of
the Republic of Slovenia is a constitutive body of the Ministry
of Finance, which started operating on 1 January 1995. It plays
the role of a clearinghouse between the institutions of the financial
system on the one hand and the authorities of the detection and
prosecution of criminal offences on the other. The office receives,
gathers, analyses and disseminates the information that it obtains
from financial and other organisations referred to in Article
2 of the Act on the Prevention of Money Laundering (herein after
referred to as the APML) and professions referred to in Article
28 of APML.
- The organisations referred to in Article 2 of the APML must
forward to the Office information on the following:
- cash transactions exceeding SIT 5,000,000
- several connected cash transactions which together exceeding
SIT 5,000,000
- transactions or clients in connection with whom there exist
reasons to suspect money laundering
- The professions referred
to in Article 28 of the APML must forward to the Office information
on the transactions or clients
in connection
with whom there exist reasons to suspect money laundering.
- If in the judgement of the Office, reasons exist to suspect
money laundering in connection with a transaction or certain
persons, the Office may request from the organisations referred
to in Article
2 of the APML to provide the data stipulated in the first paragraph
of Article 38 of the APML, data on the statement of assets and
bank accounts of these persons as well as other data and information
required for the detection of money laundering. Organisations
must, upon its request, send to the Office also all the necessary
documentation.
The Office may request from the organisations written information,
data and the documentation concerning the performance of their
duties according to the provisions of the APML and other data
required for the execution of control.
- If in the judgement of the Office, reasons exist to suspect
money laundering in connection with a transaction or certain
persons, the Office may request from the lawyer, law firm, notaries
public's
office, audit company, independent auditor and legal or natural
person performing accountancy services or tax advisory services
(professions referred to in Article 28 of AMLP), the data and
information required for the detection and provision of proof
of money laundering.
The Office may, likewise, request from these subjects written
information, data and the documentation concerning the performance
of their
duties according to the provisions of the APML and other data
required for the execution of control.
- The organisations referred to in Article 2 of the APML and
other liable subjects must forward to the Office the data, information
and documentation requested for without delay and not later than
15 days from the day of receiving the request. The violation
of
this deadline constitutes to a most serious administrative offence
of the provisions of the APML (administrative offences) and is
punishable by a high fine.
- If in the judgement of the Office, reasons exist to suspect
money laundering in connection with a transaction or certain
persons, the Office may request from state bodies and organisations
with
public authorisations, the data and information required for
the detection of money laundering. The Office may, likewise,
request
from these subjects the data, information, and documentation
required for the introduction of proceedings.
- In accordance with the provision of Article 39 of the APML,
data, information and documentation are forwarded from personal
data records to the Office, free of charge.
- If, upon analysing the data, information and the documentation
received, the Office judges that reasons exist to suspect the
commitment of a criminal offence of money laundering in connection
with a
transaction or a certain person, the Office sends a written report
accompanied by the necessary documentation to the competent authorities
(the police and public prosecutions).
- The Office may issue a written order postponing temporarily
the execution of a transaction for 72 hours if it judges that
there are reasonable grounds to suspect money laundering. The
Office
must notify the competent authorities about such action. The
new APML introduces a new obligation for the competent authorities
who are required to take very quick action after receiving notification
of the temporary postponement of a transaction and who must,
within
72 hours from the temporary postponement of the transaction,
act in accordance with their competencies.
- Another important novelty is that the Office may forward written
information to the competent authorities also in case it judges,
on the basis of the data, information and documentation obtained
under the APML, that there are reasonable grounds to suspect
in connection with a transaction or certain person, the commitment
of the offence of criminal association, corruption and other
serious
criminal offences (punishable by a prison sentence of not less
than 5 years). With such regulation, which broadens the possibilities
of the use of the information gathered at the Office also to
the detection and prosecution of certain other criminal offences,
the
APML is keeping abreast with international regulations and standards
as well as with the practices of other countries, which have
more experience in this field.
- The Office provides the court, on its written request, certain
data from the personal records and transactions referred to in
the first and second paragraph of Article 10 of the APML (cash
transactions exceeding SIT 5,000,000 and connected cash transactions
exceeding SIT 5,000,000) and in Article 27 of the APML (data
on the transportation across the state border of cash and bearer
securities
exceeding the amount of SIT 3,000,000), needed by the court for
investigating the circumstances which are vital for the findings
and for the dispossession of financial profit, in accordance
with the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Act. This obligation
of
the Office widens the possibility of the use of the data gathered
also to the detection and dispossession of financial profit acquired
through criminal activity. The aim of this regulation is to assist
and simplify the work of the court in the search for property
that may be subject for seizure.
- For the purpose of the centralisation and analysis of all data
in the field of money laundering, the Bank of Slovenia, courts,
public prosecutions and other state bodies are obliged to forward
to the Office certain data on administrative offences and on
money laundering criminal offences.
- The Office is authorised, under specific conditions, to exchange
data with foreign bodies and international organisations.
- Furthermore, the Office also conducts (indirectly) control
over the work of the organisations referred to in Article 2 of
the APML
with respect to their execution of the tasks stipulated by the
APML. The new law has extended this control also over the work
of lawyers, law firms, notaries public's offices, audit companies,
independent auditors and legal or natural persons performing
accountancy services or tax advisory services.
- The Office performs duties concerning the prevention of money
laundering such as:
- it proposes to the competent bodies changes and amendments
to the regulations concerning the prevention and detection of
money laundering
- it participates in the preparation of indicators for the identification
of suspicious transactions
- it participates in the expert training of workers in organisations,
state bodies, organisations with public authorisations, lawyers,
law firms, notaries public's offices, audit companies, independent
auditors and legal or natural persons performing accountancy
services or tax advisory services
- it publishes, at least once every year, statistical data in
the field of money laundering and informs the public, in another
appropriate manner, about the various forms of money laundering.
|
|
|
