Filenews 15 April 2022 - by Michalis Hadjivasilis
Fines starting from €8,000 and reaching €79,000, were recently imposed in four cases of law firms, the Cyprus Bar Association, for violation of laws, including money laundering, in relation to naturalization cases.
The fines were imposed, as stated in "F" by the president of the Cyprus Bar Association Christos Clerides, by the Board of Directors of the Association that operated as a Supervisory Authority under the Prevention and Suppression of Money Laundering Activities Law of 2007. He also said that cases are pending for other offices. The largest penalty of €79,000 was imposed on a law firm that had been involved in a significant number of naturalizations of foreign investors and entrepreneurs.
It faced a total of 45 categories concerning, inter alia, the non-implementation of adequate and appropriate systems for the assessment and management of client risk and/or the categorization of clients in order to effectively address and prevent the risks of committing or attempting to commit money laundering and terrorist financing offences in violation of the Articles of the Directive of the Cyprus Bar Association to its Members on procedures of Preventing and Combating Money Laundering Activities.
According to the ruling issued last February, an accused company has previous convictions for the years 2001, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2015 and 2016 for violations of the Prevention and Suppression of Money Laundering Activities Law. The charges in which she was found guilty relate to services offered on behalf of the company to 10 customers during the period 2014-2018.
Another law firm was fined €21,000 for the same charges, while in a third case, a total fine of €8,000 was imposed for four charges related to a naturalization case. A few days ago, a fourth law firm was convicted with a €16,000 fine for similar charges.
In its decisions, the Bar Association stresses the need to fulfil the statutory obligations of lawyers and generally of the supervised entities of the Cyprus Bar Association, in order to prevent any actions aimed at money laundering.
