Notaries and lawyers are now required to report suspicious transactions of their clients

Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov approved the Procedure for transmitting information to the Federal Service for Financial Monitoring (FSFM) by lawyers, notaries and persons engaged in business activities in the field of providing legal or accounting services, Vremya Novostey reports. According to the new procedure, lawyers are required to report to the FSFM about transactions that hypothetically “could be carried out for the purpose of legalization.”

The Law “On Combating the Legalization (Laundering) of Proceeds from Crime and the Financing of Terrorism” includes almost any transaction in the list of suspicious financial transactions - from the purchase and sale of real estate to the registration of companies, and at the slightest suspicion, lawyers are required to report the transaction to the FSFM.

However, the practical implementation of the new order may encounter some difficulties. “The law “On Counteracting Legalization” states that the requirements to inform “do not relate to information that is subject to the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation on maintaining attorney-client privilege,” Yuri Vorobyov, partner of the Moscow Bar Association “FBK-law,” explained to a Vremya Novostei correspondent. “ So formally, a lawyer can notify the FSFM only about those clients with whom he refused to cooperate.”

Lawyers who are not members of bar associations will also be able to justify their “non-reporting”: it is not easy to prove that the expert knew or could have known that he was taking part in an illegal transaction.

Sources

• Kolesov L. Start with yourself // News Time. 2005. February 25.