These 16 industries need anti-money laundering e-learning

Money laundering – a topic that makes many people immediately think of organized crime and dubious machinations on the big international stage. But you often don't have to look that far. Money laundering can also affect your own company. Even if you are not personally involved in illegal business, there is still the risk in some cases of becoming a victim of a money laundering transaction. With our new e-learning course "Money Laundering Prevention", companies now have the opportunity to sensitize employees to this delicate topic and do the right thing in suspected cases.

Money laundering – what's behind the term

Money laundering is about "cleaning" "dirty" money that comes from serious crimes and making it appear legal. This is done – to put it very simply – by making investments with which illegal profits, often in the form of cash, are fed into legal, economic processes. This generally continues for as long as, and in such a complex way, that the origin of the money can no longer be properly traced.

For this reason, an EU directive on combating money laundering under criminal law was issued for the first time in 1991. From this point on, money laundering was also established as a criminal offense in the German Criminal Code (Section 261 of the Criminal Code). The overriding goal of this law is "the detection of profits from serious crimes," as well as the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing, as happened with the attacks in Paris and Brussels.

Even though it is called that, the regulation does not only apply to the illegal transfer of money. Every asset, whether "physical or non-physical, movable or immovable, tangible or intangible," is subject to the Money Laundering Act.

Not just the guilty – everyone involved can potentially be prosecuted

Companies that do not fulfill their due diligence obligations regarding money laundering prevention can get into serious trouble. In addition to financial losses, which victims of money laundering transactions often experience, there is a risk of extremely high fines of up to 10% of the previous year's turnover if companies negligently or even intentionally violate the Money Laundering Act (GwG).

The publication requirement anchored in the Money Laundering Act then does the rest: the responsible supervisory authorities are obliged to publish the respective violation, the fines imposed, and the persons concerned on their website. This information can be viewed by anyone there for five years. Furthermore, coercive fines are threatened in the event of continued non-compliance with the GwG. You should spare yourself this embarrassment.

Find out more about the online course "Money Laundering Prevention" with 6 micro-learning units now!

Some industries are more affected by money laundering than others: the obliged entities

All well and good, but what does this have to do with my company, some might ask. And it is true that some industries are exposed to greater risks than others. However, that does not mean that less exposed industries do not have to worry about being protected from criminal machinations.

Particularly vulnerable companies are mainly found in the financial and real estate sectors; more than that, employees of these business branches are so-called "obliged entities" according to the law. This means that these companies are required to implement professional risk management for money laundering prevention. The list of "obliged entities" can be read in detail in the GwG, Section 2. These are:

1. Credit institutions
2. Financial services institutions
3. Payment institutions and e-money institutions
4. Agents / e-money agents
5. Self-employed traders who distribute or exchange e-money from a credit institution
6. Financial enterprises as well as domestic branches and subsidiaries of financial enterprises based abroad
7. Insurance companies that offer life insurance activities, accident insurance with premium refunds, that grant loans, or that offer capitalization products
8. Insurance intermediaries
9. Capital management companies
10. Attorneys, legal assistants, patent attorneys, and notaries
11. Legal advisors who are not members of a bar association
12. Auditors, sworn auditors, tax advisors, tax agents, and associations
13. Service providers for companies and trust assets or trustees
14. Real estate agents
15. Organizers and intermediaries of gambling
16. Goods dealers, art intermediaries, and art warehouse keepers, provided the storage takes place in customs-free areas.                                                                                                               (Source: GwG, shortened and generalized, details under Section 2 Obliged Entities, Authorization to issue ordinances)

Conclusion: Responsibility obliges. Training and sensitizing employees make the difference.

As inscrutable as criminal activities often are, the law that attempts to curb these activities is just as complex. The responsibility is increasingly shifted by the state onto those responsible in the companies concerned. The state's "duty to collect" has long since changed into a "duty to provide" on the part of companies.

It is all the more important to know the most important aspects and requirements of the Money Laundering Act and to implement them if necessary. Our e-learning course "Money Laundering Prevention" makes a valuable contribution to this. It informs about the most important requirements and obligations – in a clear and easy-to-understand way. An absolute must if you and your company are among the obliged entities within the meaning of the GwG.

To the Money Laundering Prevention online course – developed in cooperation with specialist lawyers.

By the way: we offer further standard online courses for training your employees.

Take a look:

E-Learning Occupational Safety

E-Learning Data Protection

E-Learning IT Security

E-Learning General Equal Treatment Act "AGG"

E-Learning Quality Management

All standard courses

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Your Keeunit team from Mainz

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