The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) has extended the scope of UK anti-money laundering legislation and imposed new obligations on those in the ‘regulated sector’. The definition of what constitutes the regulated sector has not been finalised but it will include lawyers in private practice, and is likely to include in-house lawyers.
The new legislation is designed to restrict criminals’ enjoyment of ‘criminal property’. A person will commit an offence if he conceals, disguises, converts, transfers or removes criminal property from England and Wales. This wording is more or less carried over from existing anti-money laundering legislation and does not extend lawyers’ duties. Lawyers who have previously actively engaged in money laundering were criminals before POCA and remain criminals now.
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