In brief
In our previous article (link), we pointed out that, in addition to businesses in the financial sector, certain other businesses also have obligations under the Money Laundering Control Act, B.E. 2542 (1999) (“Act“).
In this article, we will highlight the first key legal obligation of these businesses, which is transaction reporting.
Contents
Non-financial businesses that fall within the scope of the Act also have an obligation to report to the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) cash transactions that meet certain thresholds, varying according to the types of business.
There is also a more general requirement to report any transaction that could reasonably be regarded as suspicious, regardless of the method of payment. A suspicious transaction is one that could reasonably believe to have been made to avoid the applicability of the Act; is connected, or possibly connected, to the commission of a predicate offense under the Act (e.g., offense relating to public fraud under the Penal Code or smuggling under the custom law); or is to support terrorism. This is irrespective of whether the transaction is made one or more times, and includes attempts to make the transaction.
Businesses therefore need to educate their staff and establish processes for identifying suspicious transactions, and become familiar with the typical characteristics of these transactions, in order to comply with the transaction reporting obligations.
In our next article, we will discuss know-your-customer (KYC) and customer due diligence (CDD) procedures.
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