Staikouras from TIF: A new era in the prevention of money laundering

The beginning of a new era in the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing in Greece was marked by the previous three years, with the government undertaking a total of nine initiatives and launching new goals and actions with measurable results in this direction, as the minister pointed out of Finance, Christos Staikouras, during his greeting at an event for the Central Register of Beneficial Beneficiaries, on the occasion of the 86th International Exhibition of Thessaloniki (the Register helps the auditing authorities to trace the thread of illegal financial activities in Greece and reach easier for the persons who are the actual responsible and beneficiaries – owners and beneficiaries – of businesses, but also of non-profit entities, so that they are able to exercise more complete control in terms of the possibility of the existence of illegal activity).

In more detail, according to Mr. Staikouras, as part of the government’s initiatives, among other things, the fifth EU directive on the fight against black money and the financing of terrorism was incorporated into the Greek legal order, and law 4557 of 2018 was amended, so as to decide those liable to be registered in the Central Register of Beneficial Beneficiaries, the control mechanism (the SDOE) was established and the fines were adjusted, a national list was published of those who exercised or exercise an important public function, a report of the Committee’s activities was submitted for the first time to the Committee on Institutions and Transparency of the Parliament Strategy on Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing for the years 2020 and 2021, and cooperation with all co-competent agencies was launched to update the national risk assessment report on Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, based on a methodological tool of the World Bank.

“At the same time, the ministry, having increased reflexes, is present in all relevant European and international discussions, participating in them with a stable and strong position as a shaper of developments” noted the minister and added that, among other things, the Greek side participates, through Financial Action Task Force- FATF (intergovernmental organization established at the initiative of the G7 group for the development of anti-money laundering policies), in updating the recommendations regarding the Beneficiary (beneficiary owner, each a natural person who actually owns – or who actually controls – a corporate entity or on whose behalf the transactions or activities of a company are conducted. The concept of beneficial owner is contrasted with the concept of legal owner, who is declared as a controlling shareholder of the legal person/entity).

The deadline for registration in the Register of Beneficial Beneficiaries is until October 31

So far, more than 308,390 declarations have been submitted to the Greek Central Register of Beneficial Beneficiaries, as Dimosthenis Anagnostopoulos, secretary general of the ministry’s Information Systems, announced at the event. October 31st is the deadline for submitting an initial or amending statement to the Registry for liable legal persons and legal entities, as pointed out by Nikos Koulocheris, general secretary of Economic Policy, while Emmanuel Mastromanolis, general secretary of Tax Policy and Public Property, emphasized that “the expiration of the relevant deadline also marks the beginning of the checks by the Financial Crimes Prosecution Service (FSPO) for those debtors who have not complied (have not submitted a declaration, have submitted false information, etc.), who will be ordered to pay the corresponding fines. Mr. Mastromanolis also pointed out that the Joint Ministerial Decision (JMA) on the audit will be published next week.

The important new possibilities opened up by the Central Registry for the three units of the Anti-Money Laundering Authority, making it less difficult to access information that was not easily accessible until now, was presented by its president, Charalambos Vourliotis.

The president of the Capital Market Commission, Vassiliki Lazarakou, noted that the Registry increases transparency and allows the commission to control issues of share manipulation and to reach the real beneficiaries, but also to cross-check whether the supervised entities are doing their job correctly in relation to the money laundering. The commander of the Independent Public Revenue Authority (AADE), Yiannis Pitsilis, finally pointed out the importance of the work of the Central Registry for the fight against tax evasion and added that “anything that strengthens the international image of the country in the fight against money laundering has a lot to do benefits.

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