Rtl today – in Luxembourg: a bar committed as never before in the fight against money laundering
Control of law firms, reporting of suspected cases, whistleblowers, etc. In the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, the Luxembourg Bar has changed its attitude in recent years.
Since the entry into force of new laws against money laundering in 2004, 2016 or even last year, the bar association has reportedly earned more than “muscular“ to act against money laundering and it uses it.
The Control Commission of the Bar one so 35 controlled studies, which concerned 877 lawyers. Questionnaires were sent to all studies. A disciplinary procedure was hired in five suspected cases in 2020. Four cases are still pending and another has been closed, says the Bar’s first report.
The Bâtonnière, Valérie Dupong underlined the importance of the education and training of lawyers so that they themselves protect the risk of money laundering and report suspicious cases. The bar also offered lawyers who did not yet have access to databases in order to monitor their clients and set up a “whistleblower channel“, which has already been used twice.
SUSPECTED CASES ON A SIGNIFICANT INCREASE
The Bar has changed its attitude not only because of the new laws, but because, to retain its power to self-regulate, everything must work, according to Valérie Dupong.
The number of suspicious case reports that lawyers have been sent to the Bar or to the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Public Prosecutor’s Office has also increased in recent years, from 19 in 2017 to 128 in 2020.
The president of the Bar Control Commission, François Prüm, however, explained that these declarations often had no follow-up. The mentality would now be prefer to report too many suspected cases rather than not enough. That would be good in itself, but the Bar would train lawyers so that we do not come to the point of denouncing. In other words, do not exaggerate with denunciations.
The Bar announced free consultations on October 25, on the occasion of Lawyers’ Day. Participants in the list of lawyers can be consulted on the Bar website. And a large Round table at Kinepolis, to which everyone is invited, is scheduled for October 28.
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