Seasonal goodwill – ringing the changes to POCA

It was a chance remark from a well-connected source that made MLB’s editor sit up sharply (who said journalists’ lunches are all perk and no work?) The latest UK legislative programme is worth a closer look, he suggested, and after a bit of digging, so it proved. Given all the brouhaha in the last couple of years, it is surprising that more has not been made (at time of writing, in early December) of prospective substantive revisions to Part VII of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA). Admittedly the changes are buried in Part 2, Chapter 6 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill, currently before Parliament, but they are of a nature to bring more than a fleeting smile to even the most care-worn MLRO’s features this Yuletide.

Timon Molloy, Editor

The ‘Spanish bullfighter’ hypothesis will no longer serve if Parliament passes a proposed amendment – an almost identical form of words in each instance - to sections 327 (concealing, etc.), 328 (arrangements), 329 (acquisition, use and possession), 330 (failure to disclose: regulated sector), 331 (failure to disclose: nominated officers in the regulated sector) and section 332 (failure to disclose: other nominated officers) of POCA. The suggested changes would constrain the extraterritorial dimension of the Act under which parties are currently liable if they become caught up in or fail to report suspicions of money laundering in connection with an action overseas which would constitute criminal conduct in the UK but that is not an offence in the foreign jurisdiction. The wording in the bill clarifies that a person would not commit an offence under the various sections above if “he knows, or believes on reasonable grounds” that the “relevant criminal conduct” [ sections 327-9 ] or “money laundering” [ sections 330-332 ] “(i) is not unlawful under the criminal law of that country or territory, and (ii) is not of a description prescribed in an order made by the Secretary of State.” The latter condition preserves the UK Government’s right to exercise long-arm reach of UK law; it might be applied, for example, where an overseas jurisdiction does not outlaw paedophilia. The UK lawyer who wishes to act for a Spanish bullfighter in a property purchase will, at least, no longer be obliged to notify the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS, which houses the UK’s Financial Intelligence Unit [FIU]).