The recently enacted Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 contains new provisions that were not present in the repealed Money Laundering Act of 2011. Some of the new provisions are discussed herein. The new law introduces the requirement to report cash transactions in the excess of $10,000 or its equivalent (in funds or securities) to or from a foreign country and carried out by a person or corporate body, to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), in addition to the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The NFIU has been added to the list of agencies to be notified of such transactions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Section 11(4) of the Act provides that\nlawyer-client confidentiality shall not apply to transactions such as the purchase and sale\nof property or a business, management of clients\u2019 money securities and assets,\nthe opening or management of a bank, savings or securities accounts and the\ncreation, operation or management of trusts, companies or similar structures. This\nprovision raises a question about the extent of application of the Rules of\nProfessional Conduct (RPC) for legal practitioners, which provide for confidentiality in lawyer-client\nrelationships. It is also worth noting that section\n192 of the Evidence Act 2011 echoes the provision of the RPC on\nconfidentiality, such that communication between lawyer and client in the\nnormal course of employment is privileged. This is also acknowledged in section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act\n2015, as well as in S16(2) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act\n2022. In the light of the inconsistency of this provision to similar\nprovisions in other laws, further clarity is required for the purpose of implementation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Section 13 of the Money\nLaundering Act mandates financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses\nand professions to perform due diligence in order to identify and assess the\nmoney laundering and terrorism financing risks that may be associated with the development\nof new products, business practices and delivery mechanisms, as well as the use\nof new or developing technologies for new and existing products. The relevant\ninstitutions, businesses and professions must take appropriate measures to manage\nand mitigate such risks prior to the launch and use of such products, practices\nand technologies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the functions of the Special Control\nUnit Against Money Laundering now established as a department under the\nEconomic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is to conduct offsite, onsite, and on the spot checks and\ninspection of designated non-financial businesses and professions for the\npurposes of money laundering control and supervision. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The penalties for directors and employees of financial\ninstitutions for offences under the Act now range from between a fine of N10\nmillion or an imprisonment term of at least 2 years, to a fine of N10 million\nor imprisonment term of at least 3 years or both (for individuals) and a fine\nof N25 million for corporate bodies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Section 23 of the new law expands the jurisdiction of the Federal\nHigh Court to try offences regardless of the location where the offence was\ncommitted. This implies that it can try offences that were not commenced or\ncompleted in Nigeria, where such offences were committed in Nigeria or on a\nship, vessel or aircraft registered in Nigeria or by a citizen or non-citizen of\nNigeria if the person\u2019s conduct would also constitute an offence under the law\nof the country where it was committed. The Court will also have jurisdiction\nwhere the offence was committed outside Nigeria and the alleged offender is in\nNigeria and not extradited to any other country for prosecution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Act requires that the Attorney General prepare and submit a Nigerian\nMoney Laundering Strategy Report to the President every two years, which shall\ncontain details such as the number of currency transactions and activities\nundertaken within the period, convictions for money laundering and terrorism\nfinancing offences, areas of high risk concerns encountered, amount of money\nfrozen for drug trafficking, corruption and other criminal activities. The\nreport is also expected to detail plans to reduce and develop a coordinated\nresponse to money laundering, as well as improve inter-agency cooperation,\namong others (section 26). The Act also empowers the Attorney General of the\nFederation to make orders, rules, guidelines or regulations for the efficient\nimplementation of the Act (section 28).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The interpretation section of the Act contains\nnew and expanded definitions. It is important to note that the new Act now\nremoves non-profit organisations from the list of designated non-financial\nbusinesses and professions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The recently enacted Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 contains new provisions that were not present in the repealed Money Laundering Act of 2011. Some of the new provisions are discussed herein. The new law introduces the requirement to report cash transactions in the excess of $10,000 or its equivalent (in funds or securities) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2692"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2701,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2692\/revisions\/2701"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}