WILLEMSTAD - Following a complaint filed by the Financial Intelligence Unit Curacao (FIU) in April 2019, the Public Prosecution (OM) issued 44 transaction proposals to brokers and car dealers. The complaint was filed by the FIU following a pilot with a group of brokers and car dealers, of which registration with the FIU has been investigated. This registration is mandatory for those under supervision of the FIU Supervision department. If they are not registered with the FIU Supervision department it will result in a criminal offense for them. In addition, all organizations and professions that are obliged to report must also register with the FIU Analysis department.
The OM considers the registration of persons obliged to report, such as brokers and car dealers, to be of great importance. The registration is the starting point of the responsibility of these companies to report unusual transactions to the FIU. Reporting unusual transactions and conducting customer due diligence are important pillars in combating money laundering and terrorism financing. The reports of unusual transactions are essential to make it as difficult as possible for criminals to bring money from the underworld to the upper world.
After sending out the transaction proposals at the end of April 2019, which involved fines of up to 1500 guilders, many reporting agents still registered with FIU. The OM is satisfied with this result. However, there are still reporting parties in the pilot who still have not registered and have not paid for the transaction. These companies will now receive a reminder from the Public Prosecution Service to still pay for the transaction. This will give them another chance to prevent a writ of summons, and thus a visit to a public hearing at the criminal court. In addition to paying for the transaction, these companies must of course also register with the FIU.
More information about registering and reporting to FIU can be found at www.fiucuracao.cw.