The Ministry of Finance explains

On October 7, 2014, the plenary session of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine passed a decision on taking the draft law On Prevention and Counteraction of Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Proliferation of Mass Destruction Weapons as a basis (No.5067), the press-office of the Ministry of Finance reports.

As regards adherence to provisions specifying the rights of lawyers and accountants, here is the point to be made.

Since 2010 lawyers and accountants have been regarded to be the entities involved in the system of prevention and counteraction of money laundering and terrorist financing.

The said entities should implement the requirements of the legislation in this sphere and notify the Ukraine’s National Financial Monitoring Service of suspicious financial transactions and provide the information on request.

Draft law No.5067 does not change valid rights and procedures that lawyers and accountants should follow.

With regard to regulations, they correspond to the international standards for combating money laundering and terrorist financing, namely: 22 and 23 FATF Guidelines.

Pursuant to 22-ї (item “d”) and 23-ї of FATF Guidelines, lawyers and accountants are liable to inform of suspicious financial transactions they can be involved on behalf of a client.

This is set out in part 1, article 8 of the draft law No. 5067.

The information given by lawyers and accountants is to be used by the National Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine solely to analyse the data on financial transactions subject to financial monitoring, other financial transactions or the information on suspicion in legalization (money laundering) of illicit income or terrorist financing, or proliferation of mass destruction weapons, but not to “put strain or taking away” (part 1 of article 18, draft law No. 5067).

Lawyers and accountants are entitled to not inform the National Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine of their suspicions if the information has been disclosed to them in the circumstances if the subject matter is regarded to be commercial secrecy, and in cases when they fulfil obligations to protect clients, represent their interests in court and pre-trial process (part 5, article 8, draft law No. 5067).