PURCHASES OF HIGH-END REAL ESTATE IN SOUTH AFRICA BY CORRUPT PEPS LAUNDERING THE PROCEEDS OF CRIME AND CORRUPTION POSE MAJOR RISKS FOR COMPLIANCE

The continued purchase and subsequent sale of luxury real estate in South Africa presents a serious problem for compliance officers at SA banks and non-bank financial institutions, for the general absence of due diligence by the original sellers allows Politically Exposed Persons from abroad to take title, using illicit funds, which they can launder at the time of subsequent sale. Many PEPs are not actually foreign government officials, but family members, nominees and businessmen closely linked to them. This requires that compliance officers have access to databases containing extensive personal information on individuals in Sub-Saharan Africa, where most of the PEPs transferring illicit wealth into South Africa come from.

We will be identifying the data sources which will assist SA compliance officers in their pursuit of seller identification information, as well as Source of Funds and Source of Wealth resources, to aid them in their enhanced due diligence inquiries, on behalf of lenders and purchasers of high-end properties from foreign sellers, to rule out PEP status, at our upcoming virtual seminar entitled UNMASKING AFRICA'S FINANCIAL UNDERWORLD. If you are a practising compliance officer, attorney or financial professional, you will learn how to identify the PEPs in advance of any transaction that poses a potential risk to your clients, as explained in detail by a former bank lawyer-turned career money launderer who successfully cleaned millions of his clients' criminal profits through real estate transactions.