Tag: money laundering

The popularity of cryptocurrencies stems from the fact that trading takes place in an anonymous environment where individuals may use pseudonyms and are not face-to-face. However, as the crypto industry grows and becomes more developed, it is becoming less true that “crypto is anonymous”.

Every society is built around the rule of law and adherence to that law. However, the custodians of the law (police and lawmakers) can't be present in every instance where there is a breach of legal and ethical behaviour. Citizens must be equally invested in being law-abiding citizens and exposing instances where questionable behaviour occurs.

Late last year, South Africa changed the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA) to alter the status of several business types, including motor vehicle dealers. Under the new changes, dealerships are accountable institutions. How does this affect their operations, and can they adapt to the new requirements?

New designated items listed as accountable institutions in Schedule 1 of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA) are urged to continue registering with the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) even after the deadline of close of business on Monday, 20 March 2023, to avoid being in non-compliance with the registration requirements.

The Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) is pleased to announce that it is planning to establish and implement a beneficial ownership (BO) register to be released upon approval of the regulations, pursuant to the commencement of the General Laws Amendment Act, 2022, that was signed into law by the President of the Republic of South Africa on 29 December 2022.

South African companies will need to respond quickly to mitigate the risks stemming from this development. Global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), has placed South Africa on its so-called grey list.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, had the unenviable task of delivering the annual Budget Speech. Over the last year, and especially over the last few months, South Africa has taken one knock after another.

Since the emergence of Bitcoin in 2009, cryptocurrency has gained significant traction in popularity over the years, with more and more people investing in the now many variations of digital currencies available such as Ethereum, Tether, Binance, and even Dogecoin.

The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) recently announced their intention to declare cryptocurrency as a financial product, which is in line with current worldwide trends as well as the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) which published a draft declaration of crypto assets as financial products in 2020.

Recently, the FBI announced that more companies have been reporting people applying to jobs using deepfakes. Imposters use video, images, recordings, and stolen identities pretending to be someone else to get a remote IT position.