Anti-Money Laundering
Under the legislation so-called "Anti-money laundering" (Legislative Decree no. N. 231 of 21 November 2007, as amended) notaries, "when, in the name of or on behalf of its clients, perform any financial or real estate transaction", must comply with the requirements of the customer due diligence:
A. Identification and verification of identity
All customers will be identified and all those who care for them both during the preparation of the practice in the conclusion ( brokers , professionals, consultants , relatives, friends , etc ...) by copying or scanning of identity documents (identity card or passport and possibly also: driver's license, boat license, pension card, gun license, permit) .
Identity documents must be valid.
For the legal representatives of companies or entities will always checked even the actual existence of powers.
B. Identification and verification of the identity of the beneficial owner
The "beneficial owner" is the natural person on whose behalf a transaction or activity is carried out, or, in the case of a legal entity, the person or persons who ultimately owns or controls the entity, or resulting beneficiaries.
Pursuant to art. 21 Legislative Decree no. 231/ 07 "for the purposes of identification of the beneficial owner , customers provide in writing, under his own responsibility, all the necessary information and date of which they are aware."
To this end, each customer must complete and sign a form that will be delivered by the Notary (individuals, attorneys, legal persons).
It will be a penalty pursuant to art. 55, paragraph 2, of Legislative Decree no. 231/ 07, which reads as follows: "Unless the fact constitutes a more serious offense, the executor of the operation that fails to indicate the identity of the person on whose behalf he possibly do this or provides false shall be punished with imprisonment from six months to one year and a fine of from 500 to 5,000 Euros."
C. Information on the purpose and intended nature of the professional service
Pursuant to art. 21 Legislative Decree no. 231/07 "Customers provide, under their own responsibility, all the necessary information and updated to allow recipients of this decree to fulfill the obligations of customer due diligence". And therefore any information on the actual purpose and intended nature of the professional service.
It will be a penalty pursuant to art. 55, paragraph 3, of Legislative Decree 231/07, which reads as follows: "Unless the fact constitutes a more serious offense, the executor of the operation that does not provide information on the purpose and intended nature of the business relationship or the provision of professional or provides false shall be punished with imprisonment from six months to three years and a fine ranging from 5,000 to 50,000 Euros".
To this end, the customer must indicate all the means of payment and must provide the notary every indication appropriate in order to rebuild and demonstrate their capacity adequate capital against operation being carried out, in particular, identifying the origin of money (bank loans, third person by way of donation or loan, etc...).
D. POLITICALLY EXPOSED PERSONS (PEPs)
Customers must declare if they are or have relations with "politically exposed persons" and these are "natural persons resident in other EU or non-EU countries, who are or have been entrusted with prominent public and members of their immediate family members or those with such persons known to be close bonds."
1. For individuals who are or have been entrusted with prominent public means:
a) Heads of State, Heads of Government, Ministers and Deputy Ministers or Secretaries of State;
b) Members of Parliament;
c) members of supreme courts, of constitutional courts or of other high-level judicial bodies whose decisions are not subject to further appeal, except in exceptional circumstances;
d) members of courts of auditors or of the boards of central banks;
e) ambassadors, charge d'affaires and high-ranking officers of the armed forces;
f) members of the administrative, management or supervisory bodies of State-owned enterprises.
In none of the above categories fall under the mid-level officials or less. The categories referred to in subparagraphs a) to e) shall include, where applicable, the positions at European and international level.
2. For immediate family means:
a) the spouse;
b) children and their spouses;
c) those who have lived the last five years with the entities referred to in subparagraphs;
d) the parents.
3. For purposes of identifying individuals with whom the person referred to in number 1 known to be close ties refers to:
a) any natural person who is known to have joint beneficial ownership of legal entities or any other close business relations, with a person referred to in paragraph 1;
b) any natural person who has sole beneficial ownership of legal entities or legal entities is known to have done for the benefit of the person referred to in paragraph 1.
4. Without prejudice to the application, depending on the risk of enhanced requirements of the customer due diligence, when a person has ceased to occupy prominent public by a period of at least one year, the recipients of this decree are not required to consider such a person as politically exposed.