BCL partner, John Binns writes an article on the financial crime risks to businesses for Property Journal.
Published for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Property Journal covers changes in law and regulation, market and investment developments, business practice and research, lettings and management issues, and the latest RICS policy decisions.
An extract from the article*:
"An increasingly tough and complex set of laws on financial crime around the world puts more and more of an onus on law-abiding businesses and individuals to play their part in preventing, detecting and reporting such activity. The recently published RICS professional statement Countering bribery and corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing both imposes requirements and provides guidance on these issues for RICS-regulated firms and members, alongside applicable local laws. It is therefore important to understand this legal context before putting the statement into practice.
In the UK, the principal relevant laws are the Terrorism Act 2000, the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, and the Bribery Act 2010. Broadly speaking, the first prohibits the payment of bribes and makes commercial bodies criminally liable for such payments by persons associated with them, including employees and agents, unless they can show they had 'adequate procedures' to prevent it. The 2000 and 2002 Acts in turn prohibit, among other things, the purchase of property with the proceeds of crime or its use for terrorism, and enable anyone with suspicions about such acts to report them, overriding any duties of confidentiality."
*This article was originally published by Property Journal on 2nd July. Read the full article