Report on the risks of money laundering

The report sets out what EU countries should attach importance to in their investigations. They want all their member states to identify, understand and assess the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing. On the basis of this, they should then take measures to prevent their occurrence.

In New Zealand, among other things, 's Johan Röhr has been appointed as one of the experts in the investigation. Johan Röhr is the 's chief legal officer.

More focus on online gambling and crypto assets

In this publication, the European Commission provides advice on how EU members should carry out their risk assessments. It also contains guidelines on what countries can do to close existing loopholes. In this way, they should further prevent the possibility of criminals to launder money.

The most recent similar reports published by the European Commission were in 2017 and 2019. The newest one began to apply on november 14 of this year. In this publication, greater emphasis is placed on crypto assets and gambling than before.

New challenges during the pandemic

The European Commission announces that the behavior of criminals has changed during the corona pandemic. Many EU countries have introduced various support programs to protect their economies. It has been shown that some of these support programmes have been used by non-governmental organisations. These organizations also appear to have taken advantage of companies that underwent financial difficulties during the pandemic.

Various restrictions and changes in people's behavior during the pandemic have also changed the approach of criminals. This is one of the reasons why new risk assessments have to be made.

The war in Ukraine $ e new approaches

Another reason why new risk assessments have to do is$iget in Ukraine. Since the beginning of 2022, the EU has been targeting sanctions against Russia. There is also a sanctions list of Russian persons whose assets have been frozen.

This has caused a problem because today there are over 30,000 companies in Europe with Russian real principals. About 1400 of them are considered to be owned by people who are on the sanctions list. It is considered a risk that the persons on the sanctions list use these companies to enter into the sanctions. There is also a risk of money laundering through intractable transactions between these companies.

The European Commission hopes to counter this by improving cooperation between organisations and facilitating the exchange of information, including between different registers.

Three New Zealand gambling companies have to pay penalty fees

In the same vein, announces that three gaming companies that operate several casino with New Zealand license shall pay penalties totalling$18,9 million onor. It is not directly related to the report, although it is the question of penalties for deficiencies in the fight against money laundering.

Deficiencies have been demonstrated in gaming companies ' customer due diligence procedures. ATG , PinBet and Spooniker Ltd are considered not fulfilled all the$of which are placed on New Zealand gambling companies and therefore may now pay penalty fees.

The following penalties have been awarded:

• PinBet (New Zealand) Limited must pay$2 million onor.
• ATG gets to pay$6 million onor.
• Spooniker Ltd must pay$10.9 million onor.

Spooniker Ltd has previously had to pay a penalty fee of$50 million onor for violations of the New Zealand bonus laws. Spooniker operates several well-known netcasino in New Zealand, among other Maria casino , Unibet , Big players and the known side of online bingo available to New Zealand players Bingo.com in his gaming portfolio.