ACAMS Certification Exam - Chapter 1
ACAMS Certification Exam - Chapter 1
ACAMS Certification Exam - Chapter 1
FATF 40 Recommendation on
Money laundering and terrorist
financing/ 4th European Union
Directive on prevention and use of - Knowlegedge/intent-prove
the financial system for the purpose money laundering offence—
of money laundering and terrorist based on factual
financing (2015) circumstances.
-prerequisite-money laundering
definition-"Knowledge" that money
derived from criminal offence
"Willful blindness"="Deliberate
avoidance of Knowledge of illegal
sources of funds"/actual knowledge of
illegal source of fund-intentions of
- Legal principle of “willful customers
blindness” to prove Willful blindness = Purposeful
knowledge indifference
funds from perfectly legitimate
sources
Hide the purpose and destination
rather than source
funds-operating expenses of
2 Terrorist Financing terrorist/terrorist acts.
funds in circulation through financial
institutions
Blending of funds-commingling
3 illegitimate and legitimate funds
stage foreign exchange- buy with illegal
s of -physical disposal of cash/other funds
Mon assets-criminal activity Breaking up amounts-small amount-
ey - introduce funds-FIs depositing-under threshold
Laun - place in funds circulation via Currency Smuggling-physical -cross
derin FIs/casinos/legitimate border
3 g Placement businesses(national-international) Loans- repayment - cash
-terminated inter-bank or
correspondent banking services
-increased borrowing and funding
16 Operational risk costs
-Legal risks:lawsuits, adverse
judgements, unenforceable contracts,
fines and penalties
-unenforceable contracts by the fraud
of criminal customer
17 legal risk -fines/penalties
18 Concentration risk -too much loan/credit -one/group
borrower
-not knowing benefecial owner of the
large borrower--may be criminally
linked.--aggravated when common
source of income/assets for
repayment
-loss-unenforceable contract-fictitious
person
Financial Crimes Enforcement Strong culture of compliance
Network(FinCEN) of US department of - Entire staff responsible for
2014 Treasury and US FIU Advisory to FIs AML/CFT compliance
- Investigations- corporate
misconduct- focus-individual
Memorandum on “Individual Accountability wrongdoing
and Corporate Wrongdoing” from US - Resolution of corporate case-
Department of Justice’s Deputy Attorney no protection individual-
2015 General, Sally Quillian Yates criminal/civil liability
- Individual accountability in
banking sector
- Money Laundering Reporting
Officer(MLRO)= senior
United Kingdom, the Financial Conduct manager or excecutive level
Authority(FCA) published financial rules for - Senior manager personally
19 2015 Senior Manager Regime accoutable
New York Specific
Applies to-banks/trusts/private
banks/saving banks/saving and
loans ---chartered pursuant -New
York banking law
All branches and agencies of foreign - Monitor txn- compliance Bank
banking corporations licensed- Secrecy Act/ AML- SAR
under banking law- conduct banking - Prevent unlawful txn-
operations New York economic sanctions-OFAC
New York State of Department of Financial - Non-banking FIs with BOD and senior officers - annual
June services(DFS) issued Final rule requiring Banking Law License- check certification-taken necessary steps-
30, related Institutions to maintain”Transaction cashers and money comply trasaction monitoring and
20 2016 Monitoring and Filtering Program” transmitters filtering program by jan 1 , 2017
21 Meth FATF and FATF-style Regional bodies publish - Key methods and trend in these
ods periodic typology reports to “monitor areas
of changes and better understand the - FATF 40 recommendation remain
effective and relevant
Mon underlying mechanism of money laundering
ey
Laun
derin
g and terrorist financing”
- Electronic means
- ACH, ATM, electronic
terminals, mobile phones,
telephone or magnetice tapes
- Federal Reserver Wire
Network(FedWire), Society for
worldwide Interbank Financial
Telecommunication(SWIFT),
Clearing House Interbank
Payments System(CHIPS)
- Commingle funds
22 Electronic Transfers of Fund
23 Indicators of Money laundering - cash advance- stolen credit card-put
in a/c to receive funds
- layering stage- varying amount sent-
under threshold-using reputable org
-fund transfer--financial secrecy
haven/high geographical location no
apparent biz reason-incosistent
pattern with customer history
-large incoming fund transfers- behalf
of foreign client-no reason
-small, incoming fund transfers-
deposits by checks/money orders--
tranfer to different geographical
location--inconsistent pattern with
customer business or history
-payments/reciepts-not link –
contracts goods/services
-sent/reciept same person--different
persons
24
-scan check-electronic image to bank
-deposit
-also with mobile phones
- banks -decrease cost-not paper
based
--ML-set up multiple imaging
devices(scanners/mobiles phones)--
allow others to process checks
--ML-set up account for others and
ability to deposit checks
-- lead-violations of sanctions
requirement- txn in sanction countries
--Fraud-altered check or multiple
deposits of same- as no human
25 Remote Deposit Capture intervention
-reviewed sequential number
cheques
-money order without payees
-total volume of activity-an account-
via RDC--overall txn monitoring Money order is
-limits on check deposit prepaid financial
26 Mitigations -facility to appropirate customer instrument
-provision of banking services by one
bank(correspondent bank) to another
bank(respoendent)
-check clearing , fcy exchage
services/payable through a/c, wire trf
- respondent banks- international
financial txn-for
themselves/customers-jurisdiction no
27 Correspondent Bank physical presence
28 Due diligence of Respondent bank -who owners are
-nature of regulatory oversight
-based on credit risks for letters of
credit/business account for credit card
--provide non-credit, only cash
management-less known respondent
bank
TWO MAIN REASONS
-indirect relationship-services to
individuals/entities-niether verified
identities nor obtain first hand
knowledge
-large volume of txn-not have Credit union- small
information on actual parties cooperative- non
conducting txn- difficult to identify profit-return given to
suspicious member
-wholesale markets
-unregulated funds
-wealth management
-Investment funds
FATF-greatest money laundering -Bearer Securities
64 vulnerabilities -Bills of exchange
-customized security product—
complex and esoteric
-under-regulated/illegitimate
securities -sold over-the-counter-pink
sheets-minimal reporting-obscure
A transfer agent is
beneficial owner-difficult to determine
a trust company,
association with sanction
bank or similar
jurisdictions//trading many platforms financial institution
assigned by a
-many intermediaries-financial corporation to
institutions, broker-dealers,financial maintain records of
advisors, transfer agents, securities investors and
lenders, custodians, brokers and sales account balances.
agent- cross border and standardized
65 ML Challenges control not applicable.
66 FATF -supicious indicators -long standing client-liquidates all- When a
remove wealth jurisdiction reverse1:50 split
happens, the
market systems
adjust the stock
price upward by a
factor of 50. While
the company
valuation remains
the same, the
-purchase product for number of
loss/commission-including early outstanding shares
cancellation is reduced.
-appear as depository a/c-wire Shareholders who
transfers/payment-not security end up with less
activity than a share after a
- customer txn-sustained loss-trfing reverse split may
value be automatically
-txn with loss(buy-high&sell-low)-trf cashed out of their
value holding by their
-invest without knowledge- but want broker.
to invest
-insider trading-close relatives-held Restrictive legend: buy
non-public information shares in
-two or more unrelated accounts unregistered, private
dealing illiquid-low price security- sale from issuing
suddenly and simultaneously company of from
-deposit physical securities affiliate issuers. Bear
---large quantities restrictive legend that
---title in diff name from the account it can be sell in public
---not bear restrictive legend market only if no
---aquiring securities lack sense objection is raised by
-Case study: stock issuers-promotional SEC.
campaign-customers trading
67 case study -pump and dump- fraudulent reports Over-the-counter
about company prospects- sharp (OTC) or off-
increase value-launder funds via sale exchange trading is
done directly
between two parties,
of shares -dumping of shares by sale without the
at artificial price supervision of
-settlement in certified checks an exchange.
A certified
check or certified
cheque is a form
of cheque for which
the bank verifies that
sufficient funds exist
-Retail Brokers-frontline defense-
in the account to
most vulnerable access point- cover the cheque,
commission driven as client base and and so certifies, at
manage more assets the time the cheque
68 control policies is written.
United States, SEC and Financial AML programs
Industry Regulatory ---appoint BSA officer:perfom CDD,
Authority(FINRA) directed by BSA STR monitoring, independent audit
-creating/managing corporate
vehicles or complex legal
arrangements(trust)-obscure link
between criminal proceeds and
perprtator
- Buing and selling property. Use in
laying(cover for transfer) and
86 2013 Typology report FAFT indicators to ML risk integration stage(ivnestment)
- performing financial txns:issuing
checks,deposits,retail foreign
exchange, stocks, international fund
transfers
- providing tax evasion advice
-introducer to FIs.
-undertaking litigation
-managing charity
-provides respectability-dissuade
questioning-or added step in chain of
investigation
-misuse client's account
• Anonymous cardholders.
• Anonymous funding.
• Anonymous access to funds.
12 • High value limits and no limits on the
2 Risk factor pre-paid cards number of cards individuals can
acquire.
• Global access to cash through ATMs.
• Offshore card issuers - high
jurisdictions.
• Substitute for bulk-cash smuggling
-ectronically store value on integrated
12 Electronic purses(e-purses or stored- circuit chips.
3 value or smart cards) -store funds on memory chips
12 Methods of funding:
9 -allowing cash funding
-possibility of reloading without any
limit
-alternative to the physical cross-
border transportation of cash
-funded using numerous methods
such as banks accounts, non bank
methods money transmitters,
electronic monies, virtual currencies
Access to cash:
-prepaid cards-allow funding in one
country-cash withdrawals in another-
via ATM networks
-Increasing connectivity-mobile and
13 online payment methods with prepaid
0 card-fund or withdraw in cash
Segmentation of services:
-require several parties to execute
transactions like program manager,
issuer, acquirer, payment network,
distributor and agent
-Mobile and online services-
oordination with numerous
interrelated service providers-partner
with international counterparts to
provide cross-border transactions
-Use agents and unaffliated third
parties - customer acquisition
- NPM provider maintain bank
accounts-ettle accounts with agents or
13 partners -banks do no know ultimate
1 customer
13 Record-keeping, transaction
— Retain transaction records of
payments and funds transfers.
— Retain identifying information on
the parties to the transaction.
— Retain and identify any account(s)
involved.
— Retain the date of the transaction
and the amount involved.
— For Mobile, obtain the phone
number of the sender and receiver.
— Implement and utilize transaction
5 monitoring and reporting: monitoring
13 Virtual Currency - medium of exchange in digital space
6 - converted into either a fat (e.g., a
government-issued currency) or it can
be a substitute for real currency
- two types: centralized and
decentralized
- Decentralized (e.g., Bitcoin) VCs have
no repositories or administrators but
work as peer-to-peer media of
exchange as cryptographic protocal
without any need for an intermediary
- non-convertible VCs (i.e., Q Coins
and World of Warcraft meGold) that
are intended to be specifc to a
particular domain.
-value to be able to be transmitted
anywhere in the world without the
requirement of a centralized bank or
institutional authority
-Bitcoin derives its value from what
another party is willing to trade for
that item
- Bitcoins, there is a value that is
expressed in fiat currency
that is based upon economic and
market forces.
-Bitcoin, in a transfer
between two individuals, no
personally identifable information is
disclosed to the two individuals or to
any third-party intermediaries.
-each transaction is registered in the
blockchain and the
publicly available distributed ledger-
valuable information than cash-to-
cash exchange-not actual identities-
behind the corresponding wallets.
VC businesses facilitate -use,
purchase, transfer of VCs- provide
wallet ownership and source of fund
information.
User:person that obtains virtual
currency to purchase goods or
services
Exchanger: person engaged as a
business in the exchange of virtual
currency for real currency, funds, or
other virtual currency.
Administrator :person engaged as a
business in issuing a virtual currency
-authority to redeem such virtual
currency
Marc Administrator and exchanger are
13 h FinCEN-participants in VCs based on usually MSB- comply with registration,
7 2013 interpretative guidance on VCs reporting, record-keeping
13 Corporate Vehicles Used to Facilitate Illicit Sheltering assest -hiding
8 Finance - Anominity to ownership and protecting asset
Public traded- information available
freely-significant regulation
-private limited companies are not
publicly traded, restrictive in the
number of shares, ownership can be
13 Public Companies and Private Limited one or many, and are subject to
9 Companies minimal regulatory oversight.
-corporate vehicle subject to misuse is
the limited liability company (LLC)
-virtually anyone can own or manage
an LLC, including foreign persons and
other business entities.
-A member of an LLC is equivalent to
a shareholder in a corporation.
-A manager, is equivalent to an
executive offcer or a member of the
board of directors
14 - An LLC may lack managers in which
0 limited liability company (LLC) case the members manage the LLC
14 International business corporations (IBCs) -International Business
1 Corporation(IBC)entities formed
outside of a person or businesses’
country of residence, typically in
offshore jurisdictions
-for confdentially or asset protection
purposes.
- reduce transparency between its
owner in his/her home country and
that of the offshore entity where the
company is registered
-asset protection, access to multiple
investment markets, estate planning,
legitimate tax benefts and serving as
holding companies.
- created in a tax haven and usually
require incorporation with a local
agent, who may further reducethe
transparency of the IBC (e.g., serving
as a nominee owner or director) and
facilitate opening accounts in the
name of the IBC.
-established and used in a similar
manner as IBCs
- they are typically limited to holding
14 investment assets in tax-neutral
2 Private investment companies (PICs) offshore fnancial jurisdictions.
-Bearer bonds and bearer stock
certifcates or bearer shares
-prime money laundering vehicles
belong on the surface to the “bearer.”
- transfer physically handing over the
bonds or share certifcates no registry
for owners.
- person who holds the bonds or
shares gets to claim wnership.
14 - concealing ownership for tax
3 BEARER SHARES IN CORPORATE FORMATION optimization purposes. anominity
-ask questions about the identity of
benefcial owners before issuing,
accepting or creating bearer shares
and trusts
14 -keep registries of this information-
4 Mitigations book entry transfer
- may established to commingle
14 October 2006, fatf,”The criminal proceeds with legitimate
5 Shell and Shelf Companies misuse of corporate revenue or claim proceeds at
legitimate revenue
- easily created and dissolved
- conceal the sources of funds while
keeping their ownership concealed.
- shell- set up in onshore as well as
offshore locations -ownership
structure different forms
-shares can be issued to a natural or
legal person or in registered or bearer
form.
-single purpose and multiple purpose
- legally incorporated and registered
by criminal
- . Often purchased “off the shelf”
from lawyers, accountants or
secretarial companies
- stock of these shell corporations is
issued in bearer shares
- tax haven/strict secrecy laws-
vehicles, including conceal true ownership
- information held by professional who
trust,and company service claim secrecy
providers”
- no activity
- created and put on the shelf
- sold to one who prefers a previously
14 registered corporation over a new
6 Shelf company one.
at the time of incorporation has no
14 signifcant
7 Shell company/corporation: assets or operations.
15
0
- use real businesses to launder illicit
money
- businesses differ from shell
companies in that they operate
15 legitimately, offering industrial,
1 criminally controlled companies: wholesale or retail goods or services.
-Nominees will often used as
owener/officer/director,but not
“Money Laundering in Canada: An analysis of
RCMP cases” :following money laundering necessarily, have no criminal record.
15 techniques used in conjuction with criminally Using Nominees as Owners or -established by lawyers in lawyers
2 controlled enterprises Directors: name
16 24 FATF”Guidance for Financial institution in Susceptible to Terrorist Financing =FIs to exercise “reasonable
judgment”evaluating potential
suspicious activiyt
- Use of an account as a front for a
person with suspected terrorist links.
- Appearance of an account holder’s
name on a list of suspected terrorists.
- Frequent large cash deposits in
accounts of non-proft organizations.
- High volume of transactions in the
account
- Lack of a clear relationship between
the banking activity and the nature of
the account holder’s
business.
- dormant, low-sum accounts that
suddenly receive wire transfer
deposits followed by daily cash
withdrawals that continue until the
transferred sum
is removed, and lack of cooperation by
april the client in providing required
8 2002 detecting terrorism financing” information.
-Global sanction efforts reduce-state
sponsor terror
- forged destructive and very proftable
links with drug and criminal syndicates