Applying preemptive and enforcing measures in order to legitimize income from criminal activities, and to avoid the financing of terrorism (integrating EU Directive 2015/849)
SCOPE, CONTENT, DEFINITIONS, MAIN CRIMINAL OFFENCES, PERSONS INVOLVED
The Scope of this present law is to integrate in the Greek legal world EU Directive 2015/ 849 of the European Parliament and of the European Council of May 20th, 2015, the abolishment of both Directive 2005/ 60/ EU and Directive 2006/70/ EC and the codification of the relevant national provisions
The Content (and aim) of the present law is the prevention and suppression of the legitimization procedure regarding income from criminal activities and the financing of terrorism, the way these criminal offences have been described within the provisions of the present law, as well as the protection of the financial system from the dangers entailed in these actions
Competent persons regarding the scope of the present law are as follows:
a. Financial institutions and any credit-oriented entity acc. To la. 4428. 2016 (Of. Gaz A’ 220)
b. Economic and financial organizations
c. Auditors – accountants and auditing-accounting companies that have been registered with the public registry of the Committee of Accounting Formation and Auditing, as well as private auditors
d. Freelance accountants-tax professionals and legal persons providing accounting-tax services
e. Notaries and lawyers when participating on behalf of and in the name of clients of theirs, in financial transactions or real estate property transactions and even when they have been assisting in the design or the execution of transactions on behalf of their clients in certain actions such as (indicatively here but thoroughly in terms of the actual law itself):
– purchase or sale of property
– money management, titles or asset management on behalf of their clients etc
f. Entities providing services to companies dealing with trusts or companies that do not fall within certain types of legal persons
g. Persons providing services to companies or trusts, with the exception of persons as referred to in certain cases of the provisions of the law itself, that are able to provide in terms of entrepreneurial activity any of the following services to third parties, as for instance:
– forming companies or other sorts of legal entities etc.
h. land-brokers according to law 4093/ 2012 (Of. Gaz. A’ 222) whose transactions might be estimated to 10.000, 00€, regardless of whether the sum is about purchase, sale or monthly lease rent regarding certain property, and credit-brokers according to law 4438/ 2016 (Of. Gaz. A’ 220) regarding any credit agreement that might rise up to 10.000, 00€
i. casino businesses and casinos in general operating on-board in Greece or under Greek flag, as well as businesses, organizations and other entities able to provide gambling services and agencies related to such endeavors
j. merchants and liquidators of products of considerable worth, when such worth is estimated on at least 10.000, 00€, regardless of whether this transaction is taking place through a single action or more, among which there seems to be a connection of some sort. As merchants of products the following should indicatively be perceived accordingly:
companies dealing with the merchandise of private use vehicles, helicopters, aeroplanes and in general vehicles of meant for recreational purposes
k. Pawnbrokers and money-lenders
Competent Authorities regarding the overview of the application of provisions of the present law by the persons obliged to act accordingly read as follows:
a. The Bank Of Greece
b. Committee of Capital Markets
c. The Financial Police Service and the Office of Prosecution of Electronic Crime
d. The Committee of Accounting Standardization and Investigations
e. The Independent Authority of Public Finance
f. The Committee of Gaming Overview and Control
g. The Ministry/ Department of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights
h. The Ministry/ Department of Finance and Growth
i. and as far as the located in Greece branches of financial institutions with their seat abroad, the competent authority is related to the every time competent authority among the Greek financial institutions, that happen to have respective mandate to the ones involved in similar projects abroad
The Ministry/ Department of Finance is the Central Coordinating Entity
There is also the Committee of Strategy regarding the response against the legitimization of income from criminal activities, the financing of terrorism and the financing of spread of weapons of mass destruction (hereinafter Committee of Strategy) that has been formed within the Ministry/ Department Of Finance according to article 9 of law 361/ 2008 (Of. Gaz. A’ 166), a mechanism necessary to set, in terms of national level, the strategy to deal with the aforementioned mandate.
President of the Committee of Strategy has been appointed the General Secretary of the Financial Policy of the Ministry/ Department of Finance, who shall be assisted in his work by a number of high profile Public Servants.
