Conway & Partners’s obligation to identify clients due to the implementation of European legislation to combat money laundering, effective as of 1 June 2003.
Lawyers in the Netherlands are legally obliged to identify their clients. An obligation to disclose unusual transactions has also been instituted as well. The WID (Wet Identificatie bij Dienstverlening) prescribes that the identity of new or existing clients must be established for each new case.
The MOT (Wet Melding Ongebruikelijke Transacties) prescribes that lawyers transactions of an unusual nature (“unusual” being defined according to objective indicators) to an independent agency, the Office for the Disclosure of Unusual Transactions in Zoetermeer, the Netherlands. In such situations, we are not permitted to invoke our right of non-disclosure. Pursuant to the MOT, reporting is mandatory and we are not permitted to inform the client about the report.
Failing to meet the obligations pursuant to the aforementioned Acts is an economic offence for which our firm or individual lawyers could be prosecuted.