Article 1
These Regulations are formulated in accordance with Paragraph 3 of Article 7, Paragraph 4 of Article 8, Paragraph 3 of Article 10 and Paragraph 3 of Article 13 of the Money Laundering Control Act (hereafter referred to as “the Act”) and Paragraph 5 of Article 7 of the Counter-Terrorism Financing Act.
Article 2
The terms used in these Regulations are defined as follows:
1.Attorney: refers to the practicing attorney as defined under Article 19 of the Attorney Regulation Act and the foreign attorney as defined under Paragraph 2 of Article 114 of the same Act.
2. High-risk country or territory: refers to a country or territory listed in the Paragraph 2 of Article 9 of the Act.
3. Beneficial owner: refers to an individual natural person who exercises ultimate effective control over a legal person or agreement, or who directly or indirectly holds more than 25 % of shares of capitals of such legal person.
Article 3
The attorney, who is retained to prepare or engage in the designated transactions under each matter of Subparagraphs 3,6 of Paragraph 3 of Article 5 of the Act, shall conduct Customer Due Diligence (CDD) and Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) procedures to verify the identity of the client according to the provisions of Article 4 to Article 8, and shall retain the document to verify identity and necessary transaction records according to Article 9. If the retained matter includes any situation in the provision of Article 10, it shall be reported to the Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Justice according to provision of Article 11.
The act of “prepare” specified in the preceding paragraph refers to the preliminary works of managing transactions after attorney being retained.
Article 7
In respect of the politically exposed persons (PEPs) and their family members and close associates as defined in Paragraph 3 of Article 8 of the Act, by applying a risk-based approach, if he/she is assessed as high-risk according to provisions in Paragraph 2 of Article 4, the attorney shall verify the client’s identity and conduct EDD procedures as follows:
1. Shall obtain the consent of the leading attorney or the attorney in charge of operation/management of a law firm or a dedicated person designated by him/her while establishing the attorney-client relationship.
2. Understand the purpose of retained matter and the ways of acquiring funds.
3. Pay constant attention to any situation that should be reported according to Article 10 during the attorney-client relationship.
Article 9
The documentations acquired according to the CDD procedures under Paragraph 2 of Article 8 of the Act refer to copies, electronic files or copied information of identification documents or statements of the client and other related personnel as required by these Regulation; if their identities are verified by reasonable facts or methods, the description or certificate of such facts or methods shall be stored accordingly.
The necessary transaction records specified in Paragraph 2 of Article 10 of the Act refer to copies or electronic files of the business relationship documents and record certificates of retained matters.
The documentations under the preceding paragraphs refer to information and necessary transaction records of customer due diligence kept by the attorney which can restore respective transactions and to which rapid access of the competent authority after authorization by law can be assured.
Article 10
The situation that attorney shall report according to the provision of Paragraph 1 of Article 13 of the Act refers to the retained matter under any of the following situation:
1. There is an objective fact to indicate that identity documentation or transaction documentation provided by the client is false, and no reasonable explanation is provided for the false documentation.
2. The client or the representative does not provide the document for CDD within the time limit set by the attorney.
3. In the event of the remuneration or transaction amount exceeding NTD 500,000, the amount was paid by cash, foreign-currency cash, traveler check, foreign currency bill or other bearer financial instruments without a proper reason.
4. In the event of the remuneration or transaction amount exceeding NTD 500,000, the client on his/her own or demands to pay in cash less than NTD 500,000 for several times or successively without a proper reason.
5. Demand to purchase and sell real estate or business entity immediately without a proper reason.
6. The client is the designated individual, legal person or entity sanctioned under the Counter-Terrorism Financing Act, or the terrorist or terrorist group identified or investigated by foreign governments or international organizations published by the Ministry of Justice.
7. The transaction funds directly come from or will be paid to high-risk countries or territories and are associated with terrorism activities, terrorism organizations or terrorism financing.
8. In the event of being retained to operate the designated transactions specified in Subparagraph 6 of Paragraph 3 of Article 5 of the Act, the client does not explain the reason for arrangement.
9. Knowing clearly that there is no existence of such client; or there is a fact to indicate that the client’s identity is used fraudulently by others.
10. In the event that the client is a natural person, the client refuses to meet with the attorney or be directly contacted by the attorney without a proper reason.
Article 11
If there is an objective to indicate that the client has any of the circumstances under the preceding paragraph, the attorney shall report the following matters in writing to the Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Justice by mail, fax, e-mail or other methods in accordance with the format designed by the Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Justice within five working days after finding out such fact.
1. The following basic information of the client; if the retainer is made by client’s representative, the following basic information of the representative shall be included:
(1) If the client is a natural person: name, date of birth, gender, identity certificate number, occupation, nationality, address of residence and contact information.
(2) If the client is a legal person: name, enrolled or registered date and its approval number, contact information and address of responsible person or manager.
(3) Whether the client is the politically exposed person (PEP) and his or her family members and close relatives specified in Paragraph 3 of Article 8 of the Act.
(4) The relationship between the representative and the client.
2. Retained matters:
(1) Transaction type.
(2) Starting date and termination date of the transaction
(3) Payment method and amount
(4) Transaction account number
(5) The situation and reason that is in compliance with Article 10
3. Name, attorney certificate number and contact information of the reporting attorney.
If several attorneys are jointly retained, they may choose one attorney to be the reporting representative.