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EU Money Laundering Rules - Tough Implementation Needed
October 18, 2001 12:00 AM
Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, Liberal group spokesperson on justice & home affairs, has urged EU member states to adopt a common sense interpretation of the rules against money laundering when implementing the new EU Directive into national law, especially on requiring lawyers to report suspicious transactions by their clients.
"It will be argued by some that the newly-agreed Directive only requires lawyers to report on their clients' involvement in money laundering if they know that is the purpose of the transactions they are asked to advise on. But this would of course make a nonsense of the fight against the 'washing' of dirty money".
"Fortunately the actual text makes clear that reporting is required 'of any fact which might be an indication of money laundering', and the specified exemption for lawyers is only under tightly defined criteria of legal privilege. So the only feasible interpretation is that lawyers who have a shrewd suspicion, when they are consulted, that their clients are up to no good should inform the authorities."
"As successive international reports have made clear lawyers become even more vulnerable to being exploited as banks tighten up, so their sensible inclusion in the scope of the Directive is essential".
"In addition, I hope all Member States will declare that they have no intention of invoking the option to exempt lawyers from the ban on tipping off clients that the authorities have been alerted".
"In my opinion, the majority in the European Parliament has not covered itself in glory over this saga. Relieved as I am that a consensus has at last been reached, the Directive now needs to be implemented with vigour".
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