Parliament toughens money laundering law

On Thursday the State Duma, the lower house of the parliament, supported the amendments proposed by the President to the law "On counteraction of legalization (laundering) of illegally received revenues".

According to Alexander Kotenkov, the plenipotentiary representative of the President in the Duma, the draft law establishes regulations to counteract financing of terrorism. In the opinion of Alexander Kotenkov, in accordance with the draft law the mandatory control shall be established over the operations with monetary funds or other property even if only one of the parties of such an operation is a natural person or a legal entity in relation to which information regarding his/its involvement in terrorist activity is available.

A list of organizations to provide information about financial operations to an authorized body was expanded to include organizations engaged in such areas as trade in precious metals and gem stones, gambling business, management of investment and non-governmental pension foundations.

At the same time the operations subjected to mandatory control shall comprise deals with precious metals and stones, as well as cash payments in the form of winnings.

Alexander Kotenkov pointed out that additional justifications were being introduced for authorized bodies to rightfully request documents and information on operations carried out prior to the present law entering into force, for example regarding deals of an inter-related character.

The law stipulates the procedure to suspend operations with monetary funds or other property in case of suspicion that such operations might be related to financing of terrorism.