Russia amended its Anti-Money Laundering law to require the disclosure of beneficial owners of legal entities. The law came into effect in December 2016 and requires legal entities to identify their beneficial owners (UBO), hold information on them and to renew the records at least on an annual basis. Our local expert explains.
Russian Federal law N215 states that companies must keep information on their Beneficial Owners (UBOs) for at least five years from the day of receipt of the information, and sets the measures to take to identify them. They must provide this information to the tax service and other authorised bodies upon request.
Companies have the right to request information necessary to identify its UBOs, from its founders / shareholders or parties controlling the organisation in any way; these parties are obliged to provide the available information. Transfer of such information does not violate Russian Federation Law on Personal Data Protection. The law stipulates the list of companies who do not fall within the requirements of the new requirements.
Legal entities penalty for violation of the listed obligations of identifying, renewing, storing and providing information of UBOs can be of 100,000 to 500,000 USSR.
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