Three individuals of two companies breaching obligations under the AML/CFT Act has led to a High Court judgement preventing them from holding roles as reporting entities or compliance officers, DIA has announced.

DIA had filed a civil proceeding in the Auckland High Court seeking injunctions against three individuals associated with Auckland based money remitter OTT Trading Company and a Christchurch based money remitter, MSI Group Limited in November.

The proceeding related to allegations OTT and MSI breached their obligations under the AML/CFT Act between May 2014 and April 2019.

“Businesses that provide money remittance services are assessed as high risk of being used by criminals to disguise and conceal the proceeds of crime. The obligations of the Act require businesses to have robust processes in place to protect them from misuse” says Andrew Holmes, Deputy Director of Operations in the Department’s AML Group, Regulatory Services.