Some lawyers have sent the Inspectorate a completed questionnaire, while others, angry, have neither filled it out nor sent it, and some have filled the entire questionnaire with ‘NO’ answers.
writes Ivica Grčar
[email protected]
On the website of the Croatian Bar Association, it has been announced that every lawyer, joint law office, or law firm must complete the ‘Informative Questionnaire’ regarding the Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing by January 31, 2010, at the latest. The Bar reminds that among other obligated parties mentioned in the Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing are lawyers. I can vividly imagine lawyers, such as Prodanović and Nobil, hurriedly entering data about their clients’ business activities, which they defend against USKOK accusations, into the aforementioned questionnaire on Sunday, January 31, and instead of official delivery, following the instructions of the Bar Association, ’emailing’ the completed questionnaire to the Financial Inspectorate of the Ministry of Finance at the email address: [email protected].
Undefined role of the Bar But how should a lawyer who performs work for their own account, for which they should provide information about the client to the Financial Inspectorate according to the Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering, proceed? Simply put, if, for example, lawyer Hanžeković wants to manage his money, financial instruments, or other property he owns, he must engage a colleague who can then report him to the Financial Inspectorate. He could take Leo Andreiss, the president of the Bar Association, who is well-versed in how to fill out the infamous ‘Informative Questionnaire’. However, lawyers I have seriously spoken to are confused by the fact that their Bar has an undefined role as an intermediary between its membership and the Financial Inspectorate of the Ministry of Finance, that the ‘Informative Questionnaire’ is not prescribed by the Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, and they do not understand why this questionnaire must be sent to the Financial Inspectorate by email, rather than officially. Furthermore, it is absurd that according to the Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, a lawyer must create a written act by which they obligate themselves to assess the risk of money laundering in their clients’ business activities according to certain criteria that are not contained in the law itself (most lawyers work as individuals, and fewer work in joint offices or law firms).
