Section 1, The Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2005

(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires - “Attorney-General” means the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice; “Authority” means the Anti-Money Laundering Authority appointed by section 12; “business transaction” means any arrangement between two or more persons where the purpose of the arrangement is to facilitate a transaction between the persons concerned and includes the opening of an account and any related transaction between any of the persons concerned and any other person; “business transaction record” includes, where relevant to a business transaction - (a) the identification records of all the parties to that transaction; (b) a description of that transaction sufficient to identify its purpose and method of execution; (c) the details of any account used for that transaction, including bank branch and sort code; and (d) the total value of that transaction; “CISU” means the Central Intelligence and Security Unit referred to in section 11 of the National Security and Central Intelligence Act, 2002; “competent authority” means the Attorney-General, the Director-General of CISU or the Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone and includes any person or persons appointed by any one of them to carry out the functions of the competent authority as provided in this Act; “court” means a Magistrates’ Court or the High Court; “document” means any record of information, and includes– (a) anything on which there is writing; (b) anything on which there are marks, figures, symbols or perforations having a meaning for persons qualified to interpret them; (c) anything from which sounds, images or writings can be reproduced with or without the aid of anything else; or (d) a map, plan, drawing or photograph; ‘‘financial institution” means any person whose regular occupation or business is the carrying out of– (a) any activity listed in Part I of the First Schedule and includes the activities of the non-financial businesses and professions listed in Part II of the First Schedule; and (b) any other activity specified by the Authority by order made by statutory instrument; “freezing” means restraining any transaction or dealing in anything; “identification record” means– (a) where the person is a corporate body, the details– (i) of the certificate of incorporation, notarised, where the corporate body is incorporated abroad; (ii) of the most recent annual return to the registrar under the Companies Act, or such returns notarised where the corporate body is incorporated abroad; Interpretation. Act No. 10 of 2002. Cap. 249. No. 6 Anti-Money Laundering Act 2005No. 6 Anti-Money Laundering Act 20054 5 (iii) of any officer of the corporation as required in subparagraph (b) of this definition; (b) otherwise, sufficient documentary evidence to prove to the satisfaction of a financial institution that the person is who that person claims to be; and for those purposes “person” shall include any person who is a nominee, agent, beneficiary or principal in relation to a business transaction; “money laundering” means the offence stated in section 2; “proceeds of crime” means the proceeds of unlawful activity wherever committed and includes any property that is acquired and traceable to proceeds of unlawful transactions; “property” includes money and all other property real or personal, heritable or moveable, including things in action and other intangible or incorporeal property wherever situate and includes any interest in such property; “requesting State” means any State which makes a request for assistance under Part V; “unlawful activity” means any activity which under any law anywhere is a crime and is punishable by death or imprisonment for a maximum period of not less than twelve months; (2) A reference in this Act to a document includes a reference to– (a) any part of the document; (b) any copy, reproduction or duplicate of the document or of any part of the document, or (c) any part of such copy, reproduction or duplicate. PART II–MEASURES TO COMBAT MONEY LAUNDERING