The Anti-Money Laundering Supreme Council has approved the Instructions on the Act of Anti-Money Laundering, which have been communicated for enacting by Securities and Exchange Organization (SEO).
"Anti-money laundering act was approved by the parliament in February 2008. The offense has been defined in this act. The definition is based on the internationally received Vienna Convention definition of money laundering", stated Maryam Ebrahimi, director of legal affairs, Tehran Stock Exchange.
"There are several definitions on money laundering that more or less are consistent with each other. The essence of theses definitions refer to the operations of concealing the source of illegally obtained money such a way that appears to be legal. But a definition that associate money laundering process with the unofficial economy is important", she added.
"Money laundering is the process through which offenders camouflage the source and nature of wealth generated from the transactions of the illicit funds and turns it into the official economy. In this process, the financial, accounting and law contexts are used as a means to change the source, nature, and ownership of the illegally derived assets", Ebrahimi clarified.
"Following the approval of implementing regulations of anti-money laundering act by the Cabinet in December 2009, in order to prevent this offense, as well as financing terrorism in the capital market, SEO provided the anti-money laundering instructions and proposed it to the Supreme Council. The Instruction approved by the Supreme Council and is now communicated by SEO for implementing.
According to this instruction, anti-money laundering unit was established in SEO to fight against money laundering in the Iranian capital market. The unit is required to do a range of practices, including collecting specifications and information about the suspects of money laundering and terrorism financing activities, and declaring them to the entities under supervision.
In these instructions, various assignments are provided for the entities under the supervision of SEO, including exchanges, financial institutions, securities firms and associations. Among these assignments, financial institutions should undertake due diligence in identifying and verifying customers with reliable and independent sources. Entities under supervision should not keep anonymous accounts or accounts in obviously fictitious names and should not provide services to the prohibited parties for transactions.
If a financial institution staff suspects or has reasonable grounds to suspect that funds are the proceeds of a criminal activity, or are related to terrorist financing, the staff is required to report promptly to the anti-money laundering officer at SEO.
According to the act, the criminals will be fined for the committed offense, required to refund the revenues resulted from the activity, and make the payment of an amount equal to a quarter of the misdeed proceeds.