Anti-money laundering and beneficial owners

This form is designed to collect the information necessary to comply with Italian anti-money laundering regulations. The applicable legal framework requires the identification and verification of customers, as well as the assessment of the nature and purpose of the professional relationship, in order to prevent and combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism. In this context, particular importance is given to the identification of the beneficial owner, defined as the natural person who ultimately owns or controls the entity or benefits from its activities. The information provided will be used to ensure transparency of ownership structures and to fulfil ongoing monitoring obligations required by law. All data collected will be processed and stored in accordance with regulatory requirements, including the documentation retention duty, and may be made available to the competent authorities where required. Accurate and complete completion of this form is therefore essential to ensure compliance with the applicable legal provisions.

ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING REGULATIONS – The anti-money laundering regulations in force in Italy, governed mainly by Legislative Decree 231/2007 and subsequent amendments, aim to prevent the use of the economic and financial system for illegal purposes, in particular for the laundering of proceeds from criminal activities and for the financing of terrorism. The legislator has established that a wide range of entities – including financial intermediaries, professionals, auditors and other economic operators – must adopt internal procedures and controls aimed at adequately knowing their customers and identifying any anomalous behaviour. The core of these requirements is the adequate verification of customers. Each obliged entity must identify the customer, verify their identity through reliable documents and assess the nature and purpose of the relationship or professional service requested. This process is not static: the legislation requires constant monitoring to verify whether the customer’s behaviour remains consistent with their declared economic and financial profile over time. Another pillar of the system concerns the retention of documentation: all data collected must be archived for ten years to allow for possible checks by the competent authorities. When, in the course of professional activity, transactions emerge that present anomalies or lack a plausible economic justification, there is an obligation to report the suspicious transaction to the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF), which is responsible for analysing and investigating such situations.

BENEFICIAL OWNER – Identifying the beneficial owner makes it possible to understand who ultimately exercises control or benefits from a given legal entity. The legislation requires going beyond the formal level of ownership to identify the natural persons who actually own or control the structure. For limited liability entities, the beneficial owner is normally the natural person who directly or indirectly holds more than 25% of the capital or voting rights. However, shareholding is not the only criterion: if it is not possible to identify a person on the basis of shareholdings, it is necessary to analyse control mechanisms, such as shareholders’ agreements, special rights or the ability to influence corporate decisions. If none of the above criteria allow a beneficial owner to be identified, the legislation provides for a residual criterion that attributes this status to persons in senior positions, such as directors or managers. The issue of beneficial ownership has taken on further importance with the establishment of the Register of Beneficial Owners at the Companies Register. Companies and other entities subject to this obligation must periodically report data relating to their beneficial owner and keep it up to date, thereby helping to strengthen the transparency and traceability of corporate structures.

MONEY LAUNDERING – a) the conversion or transfer of property, carried out with the knowledge that such property is derived from criminal activity or from participation in such activity, for the purpose of concealing or disguising the illicit origin of the property or of helping any person involved in such activity to evade the legal consequences of their actions; b) the concealment or disguise of the true nature, source, location, disposition, movement, or ownership of property or rights therein, carried out with the knowledge that such property derives from criminal activity or from participation in such activity; c) the acquisition, possession, or use of property while knowing, at the time of receipt, that such property derives from criminal activity or from participation in such activity; d) participation in any of the acts referred to in subparagraphs a), b), and c), conspiracy to commit such an act, an attempt to commit it, aiding, abetting, or advising someone to commit it, or facilitating its execution. Money laundering is considered such even if the activities that generated the assets to be laundered took place outside national borders. Knowledge, intent, or purpose, which must constitute an element of the acts referred to in paragraph 4, may be inferred from objective factual circumstances.

FINANCING OF TERRORISM – any activity directed, by any means, toward the provision, collection, procurement, intermediation, deposit, the safekeeping, or the disbursement, however carried out, of funds and economic resources, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, that can be used to carry out one or more acts for terrorist purposes as defined by criminal laws, regardless of the actual use of the funds and economic resources for the commission of such acts.