GOVERNMENT IS MOVING to make it easier for law enforcement to track the true owners of companies registered here, especially if they are suspected of involvement in money laundering.
When the House of Assembly meets today at 10 a.m., Attorney?General Adriel?Brathwaite is expected to pilot an amendment to the Companies Act which will provide for the establishment of a ‘Register of Beneficial Owners’ of companies.
The amendment to the law, passed in 1984, will reflect more comprehensively the Forty Recommendations and Nine Special Recommendations of the Financial Action?Task Force, which Barbados is committed to implement by virtue of its membership in the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force, an associate member of the former body.
The recommendations provide a complete set of counter-measures against money laundering covering the criminal justice system and law enforcement, the financial system and its regulation, and international co-operation.
They set out the principles for action and allow countries a measure of flexibility in implementing these principles according to their particular circumstances and constitutional frameworks.
Changes in trends
Though not a binding international convention, many countries have made a political commitment to combat money laundering by implementing the 40 recommendations.
Initially developed in 1990, they were revised for the first time in 1996 to take into account changes in money laundering trends and to anticipate future threats.
The draft amendment provides for every body corporate to file a notice with the registrar containing the name of each individual who beneficially owns or controls the body corporate, and to give the particulars of any change within 30 days.
This register, however, shall not be open for public inspection, and its contents may only be disclosed by the registrar where such disclosure is necessary for the proper administration and enforcement of the Money?Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (Prevention and Control) Act 2010.
A body corporate failing to file a list of beneficial ownership is liable to a penalty of $100 payable to the registrar for every day during which the default continues and every director and officer who knowingly and wilfully authorises or permits the default is also liable to that penalty.
And anyone who unlawfully discloses the contents of the register is liable on summary conviction to a fine of $5 000 or six months’ jail or both.
The House is also expected to debate a supplementary resolution for $3.6 million, covering the Ministry of the Attorney?General and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
