Since the story on sanctions featured in our last AML e-alert, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) has received a number of suspicious activity reports (SARs) from solicitors about clients allegedly on the sanctions list.
SOCA is concerned that firms are submitting a SAR for clients who simply have a similar name to someone on the sanctions list when they only need to seek permission from the Asset Freezing Unit.
Checking your client's identity
If a client comes up as a possible sanctions match, you should review all the client identity information you hold against the sanctions list, to make sure you do not have a false-positive identification.
You may also ask your client for more identity information to help confirm or rule out whether there is an accurate match.
The list contains information on:
- Name
- Date of birth
- Nationality
- Passport or identity card numbers
- Last known address
SOCA or Asset Freezing Unit?
You only need consent from SOCA to continue with a transaction if:
- you know or suspect that the actual funds are, or are tainted by, the proceeds of crime, or
- you know or suspect that the client is raising, using or laundering terrorist funds through the retainer.
However, if the person is also on the sanctions list, you will also need a licence from the Asset Freezing Unit to deal with those funds.
On the other hand, a person on the sanctions list may be suspected of terrorist involvement but may not have received a benefit from those activities or been involved in raising funds for those activities.
The transaction they may be asking you to undertake could have no involvement at all with their alleged terrorist activities, for example a divorce or a personal injury claim.
Where this is the case, you will not need to get consent from SOCA, but you will need to get a licence from the Asset Freezing Unit to deal with those clean funds belonging to a person on the list or to make clean funds available to such a person.
More information