1. What is money laundering?
The Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority (NAMFISA) is an independent institution established by virtue of Act No. 3 of 2001 to regulate and supervise the non-banking financial sector in Namibia.
This relates inter alia to the business ensure Anti Money Laundering and CFT compliance by accountable and reporting institutions and reporting to the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) at Bank of Namibia. What is money laundering?

Money laundering is the process whereby criminals take the money they make from their criminal activities and perform a lot of transactions with it so that it seems in the oldest end as if that money was made from legitimate activities. E.g. buy a house and selling the house after a short period; take the same money to buy shares and sell the shares after a while; take the same money and buy something else just to sell it again. In this process of buying and selling the “illegal footprints” of the money is wiped away.

2. Why should we fight money laundering?

The Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority (NAMFISA) is an independent institution established by virtue of Act No. 3 of 2001 to regulate and supervise the non-banking financial sector in Namibia.
This relates inter alia to the business ensure Anti Money Laundering and CFT compliance by accountable and reporting institutions and reporting to the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) at Bank of Namibia
Crime has a negative impact on society and on the economy. Crimes like drug trafficking, human trafficking and organized prostitution erodes the very fabric of society. Money is power and where criminals are in charge of a country’s economy, the economy becomes highly cash based and the inflation rate is very high. Countries that do not combat money laundering are regarded as posing a risk to the international financial system, which leads to such countries losing investors and other countries being reluctant to trade with them.

3. The penalties for non-compliance with Financial Intelligence Act of 2012 (FIA)
The Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority (NAMFISA) is an independent institution established by virtue of Act No. 3 of 2001 to regulate and supervise the non-banking financial sector in Namibia.
This relates inter alia to the business ensure Anti Money Laundering and CFT compliance by accountable and reporting institutions and reporting to the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) at Bank of Namibia.
The penalties for non-compliance are steep:
a) Administrative notice, prescribed fine without recourse to a Court
b) FIC may apply to High Court for an order compelling any or all the officers or employees of that supervisory body to comply
c) If High Court satisfied NAMFISA has failed, may issue order or other appropriate action
d) FIC may enter into an enforceable undertaking with NAMFISA to implement any action plan to ensure compliance
e) Fine not exceeding N$10 million or imprisonment not exceeding 10 years, or both and;
Continuing offence, further fine not exceeding N$50 000 each day offence continues after conviction.

Penalties for non- compliance.

The penalties for non-compliance are steep:
1. Administrative notice, prescribed fine without recourse to a Court
FIC may apply to High Court for an order compelling any or all the officers or employees of that supervisory body to comply
If High Court satisfied NAMFISA has failed, may issue order or other appropriate action
FIC may enter into an enforceable undertaking with NAMFISA to implement any action plan to ensure compliance
Fine not exceeding N$10 million or imprisonment not exceeding 10 years, or both and;
Continuing offence, further fine not exceeding N$50 000 each day offence continues after conviction.

AML: Know your rights

Dear Njeri,
I hope this e-mail will serve you well. Kindly advice on this one.
Will you craft messages for public notices on the below listed topics and we will request artwork as it is in an attachment (which probably give use 6 notices or less) ,

• What is Money Laundering?
• NAMFISA’s AML mandate;
• What are your AML obligations?
• What is an Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Program?
• How to implement and adopt an AMLCP; and
• Penalties for non- compliance.

Or
See how I break the one below (which give as 3 notices.
You can also edit the titles or introductory part of each to sound better.
1. What is money laundering?

Money laundering is the process whereby criminals take the money they make from their criminal activities and perform a lot of transactions with it so that it seems in the oldest end as if that money was made from legitimate activities. E.g. buy a house and selling the house after a short period; take the same money to buy shares and sell the shares after a while; take the same money and buy something else just to sell it again. In this process of buying and selling the “illegal footprints” of the money is wiped away.

2. What is financing or funding of terrorism?

This crime involves any kind of help, including financial assistance, to persons or groups engaged in terrorist activities; which are activities that causes serious injury or death to people or serious damage to public and private property in order to force a government to do something or to abstain from doing something, or to adopt or abandon a particular standpoint, or to act according to certain principles; like recent public bomb attacks in Kenya.

Why should we combat financing/funding of terrorism?

Terrorist activities cause devastation and impacts on innocent citizens; displacing families and leaving children as orphans.

3. Identification and client information
In terms of the Financial Intelligence Act of 2012 all businesses and institutions mentioned in Schedule 1 and 3 of that Act have, amongst other things, the following legal obligations:
• To identify their clients in line with the requirements of the Act and its Regulations
• To keep certain record regarding information on their clients, in line with the requirements of the Act and its Regulations
• To report Suspicious Transactions or Activities in line with the requirements of the Act and its Regulations.

Identification information may include: full names, nationality, national ID number/passport number/date of birth (with a copy of identification), address, contact particulars, occupation, source of income, nature of business activities (if any), the source of funds involved in this particular transaction, etcetera. A full record must also be kept of such information.

Failure by these businesses and institutions to comply with the above-mentioned obligations is a criminal offence and the persons responsible for such businesses and institutions, if found guilty, may be fined a maximum of N$ 100 million or 30 years imprisonment, or both the fine and the imprisonment.

It is therefore in the best interest of these businesses to comply with the FIA and to obtain the required identification and other information from their clients. Clients who refuse to give the required information may be regarded as acting suspiciously and these businesses can either refuse to do any further business with the client or to report the client’s suspicious behaviour to the Financial Intelligence Centre to take further.