The Financial Services Commission of Bailiwick of Guernsey has levied financial penalties on Safehaven International Limited, a licensed fiduciary company which helps rich individuals to create companies to own and operate aircrafts and luxury yachts, for AML failures. The Commission has also penalised the company’s directors Richard Bach, Michael Good, David Whitworth and Stephen Dickinson, and Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO) Tracey Ozanne.
Safehaven’s services are inherently high-risk due to a clientele of individuals who are high-risk, politically-exposed, and/or linked with high-risk countries. The nature of the Safehaven’s services makes them vulnerable to be used for laundering illegal proceeds. As such, in 2016, the Commission conducted an on-site visit to assess if Safehaven’s procedures adequately met the regulatory requirements. In 9 of the 13 files that the Commission reviewed during this visit, there were serious violations of regulations. Firstly, Safehaven failed to adequately perform relationship risk assessments, Client Due Diligence and Enhanced Due Diligence of high-risk customers. It also failed to comply with timing of customer identification and verification requirements. It did not implement and maintain adequate procedures to ensure and review compliance with regulatory AML/CFT requirements.
Thus, the Commission concluded that Safehaven and its directors had failed to ensure compliance with the regulatory requirements. Additionally, the company, its directors and the MLRO failed to meet the minimum requirements for licensing. Therefore, in December 2020, the Commission decided to impose a financial penalty of £100,000 ($137,154) on the company, £50,000 ($68,577) on Bach, £10,000 ($13,715) on Good, £10,000 ($13,715) on Whitworth, £1,000 ($1,372) on Dickinson, and £5,000 ($6,858) on Ozanne. Further, Bach cannot assume the responsibilities of a controller, partner, director, manager, MLRO and compliance officer for 6 years. Meanwhile, Ozanne cannot be a money laundering reporting officer and compliance officer for 5 years.