Section 1: In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires–

“Attorney-General” means the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice; “beneficial owner” means. (a) an individual who ultimately owns or controls the rights to or benefits from property, including the person on whose behalf a transaction is conducted; or (b) a person who exercises ultimate effective control over a legal person or legal arrangement; “business relationship” means any arrangement between a person and a reporting entity where– (a) the purpose or effect of the arrangement is to facilitate an occasional, frequent, habitual or regular course of dealing between the person and the institution; and (b) the total amount of any payment to be made by any person to any other institution in the course of that arrangement is not known or capable of being ascertained at the time the arrangement is made; “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 bank account used for that transaction, including bank branch and short 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: “Central Bank” means the Bank of Sierra Leone; “competent authority” means the Attorney General, the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Director of CISU, the Inspector General of Police, Commissioner of the Anti Corruption Commission, the Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone, the Director, any law enforcement agency and any person exercising such powers on behalf of the these authorities as provided in this Act; “confiscation” means the permanent deprivation of funds or other assets by order of a competent authority or a court and includes forfeiture; “court” means the High Court; “customer” in relation to a transaction or an account includes– (a) the person in whose name a transaction or account is arranged, opened or undertaken; 2 3 Interpretation. Act No. 10 of 2002. (b) a signatory to a transaction or account; (c) a person to whom a transaction has been assigned or transferred; (d) a person who is authorized to conduct a transaction; or (e) any other person as may be prescribed; “customer due diligence” or CDD means the process of– (a) identifying the customer and verifying the customer's identity on the basis of documents, data or information obtained from a reliable and independent source; (b) identifying, where there is a beneficial owner who is not the customer, the beneficial owner, and taking adequate measures, on a risksensitive basis, to verify his identity so that the relevant person is satisfied that he knows who the beneficial owner is, including, in the case of a legal person, trust or similar legal arrangement, measures to understand the ownership and control structure of the person, trust or arrangement; and (c) obtaining information on the purpose and intended nature of the business relationship; “data” means representations, in any form, of information or concepts; “Director” means the Director appointed under section 7; “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 any other thing; or (d) a map, plan, drawing or photograph; “enhanced due diligence” means, for higher risk customers such as non face-to-face customers, in addition to conducting customer due diligence, a reporting entity taking specific and adequate measures to compensate for the higher risk, for example, by applying one or more of the following measures:– (a) ensuring that the customer's identity is established by additional documents, data or information; (b) supplementary measures to verify or certify the documents supplied, or requiring confirmatory certification by a credit or financial institution which is subject to the money laundering directive; (c) ensuring that the first payment is carried out through an account opened in the customer's name with a credit institution; “financing of terrorism” means the offence stated in section 16; “Unit” means the Financial Intelligence Unit established by section 2; 4 5 “freezing” means to prohibit the transfer, conversion, disposition or movement of funds or other asset on the basis of and for the duration of the validity of an action initiated by a competent authority or a court order; “funds” means financial assets, property of every kind, whether tangible or intangible, movable or immovable, however acquired, and legal documents or instruments in any form, including electronic or digital, evidencing title to or interest in, the funds or other assets, including bank credits, travelers cheques, bank cheques, money orders, shares, securities, bonds, drafts, or letters of credit, and any interest, dividends or other income on or value accruing from or generated by the funds or other assets; “identification record” means– (a) where the person is a corporate body, the details of– (i) the person, including a nominee, agent, beneficiary or principal, in relation to a business transaction, (ii) the memorandum and articles of association and certificate of incorporation, notarized, where the corporate body is incorporated abroad: (iii) the most recent annual return to the Registrar under the Companies Act, 2009, or such returns notarized where the corporate body is incorporated abroad; (iv) any officer of the corporate body, (b) sufficient documentary evidence to prove to the satisfaction of a reporting entity that the person is who that person claims to be; “Inter-Ministerial Committee” means the Inter- Ministerial Committee established by section 3. “KYC” means Know Your Customer; “law enforcement agency” means Government agencies such as the Police, the National Revenue Authority, CISU, the Anti Corruption Commission and the Immigration Service; “Minister” means the Minister responsible for finance; “money laundering” means the offence stated in section 15: “offence”means money laundering offence or financing of terrorism offence; “ongoing monitoring of a business relationship” means– (a) scrutiny of a transaction undertaken throughout the course of the relationship (including, where necessary, the source of funds) to ensure that the transaction is consistent with the reporting entity's knowledge of the customer, his business and risk profile; and (b) keeping the documents, data or information obtained for the purpose of applying customer due diligence measures up-to-date. Act No. 5 of 2009. 6 7 “occasional transaction” means any transaction involving cash that is conducted in a financial institution by any person otherwise than through an account in respect of which the person is the customer. “persons, groups or entities involved in terrorist acts” means– (i) persons who commit, or attempt to commit, terrorist acts or who participate in or facilitate, the commission of terrorist acts; and (ii) groups or entities owned or controlled directly or indirectly by such persons; (c) persons, groups and entities acting on behalf of, or under the direction of, the persons, groups and entities, including funds derived or generated from property owned or controlled directly or indirectly by the persons, associated persons, groups or entities; “Police” means the Sierra Leone Police Force; “politically exposed persons” means persons holding prominent public positions domestically or in a foreign country such as heads of state or government, senior politicians on the national level, senior government, judicial, military or party officials on the national level, or senior executives of stateowned enterprises of national importance, or individuals or undertakings identified as having close family ties or personal or business connections to such persons. “proceeds of a crime” means any money or property that is derived, obtained or realized, directly or indirectly, by any person, from an unlawful activity; “production order” means an order requiring a person to produce a document or information in readable form for the purpose of identifying, locating or quantifying the property, or identifying or locating the document or information, of a person who has been convicted of the offence of money laundering; “property” means currency and any asset of every kind, whether moveable or immovable, tangible or intangible, and legal documents or instruments in any form including electronic or digital, evidencing title to, or interest in, the assets, including bank credits, travelers cheques, bank cheques, money orders, shares, securities, bonds, drafts, letters of credit , whether situated in Sierra Leone or elsewhere and includes any legal or equitable interest in any property; “reporting entity” means any person or entity including a financial institution who conducts as a business, for or on behalf of a customer, one or more of the activities or operations specified in - (a) Parts I and II of the First Schedule; (b) any other activity specified by the Unit; “requesting State” means any State which makes a request for assistance under Part IX; “self regulatory organization” means a body that represents a profession, including legal practitioners, notaries, other independent professionals or accountants, and which– 8 9 (a) is made up of professionals, (b) has a role in regulating the persons that are qualified to enter and who practice in the profession; (c) enforces rules to ensure that high ethical and moral standards are maintained by those practicing the profession; and (d) performs certain supervisory or monitoringtype functions; “shell bank” means a financial institution that does not have physical presence, that is, meaningful mind and management in the country where it is incorporated and licensed, and is not affiliated to any financial services group that is subject to effective consolidated supervision; “structured group” means a group that is not randomly formed for the immediate commission of a terrorist act and that does not need to have formally defined roles for its members, continuity of its membership or a developed structure'; “supervisory authority” means the Central Bank of Sierra Leone or any other authority having oversight over a reporting entity; “terrorist” means a person who commits or attempts to commit, a terrorist act or who participates in or facilitates the commission of a terrorist act or conspires to do so; “terrorist act” means– (a) an act or omission in or outside Sierra Leone which constitutes an offence within the scope of a counter terrorism convention; (b) an act or threat of action in or outside Sierra Leone which– (i) involves serious bodily harm to a person; (ii) involves serious damage to property; (iii) endangers a person's life; (iv) creates a serious risk to the health or safety of the public or a section of the public; (v) involves the use of firearms or explosives; (vi) involves releasing into the environment or any part of it or distributing or exposing the public or any part thereof to– (a) any dangerous, hazardous, radioactive or harmful substance; (b) any toxic chemical; or (c) any microbial or other biological agent or toxin; (vii) is designed or intended to disrupt any computer system or the provision of services directly related to communications infrastructure, banking or financial services, utilities, transportation or other essential infrastructure; 10 11 (viii) is designed or intended to disrupt the provision of essential emergency services such as police, civil defence or medical services; (ix) involves prejudice to national security or public safety; (x) involves participating in the activities of a terrorist group, including by supplying information or material resources, or by funding its activities in any way, with knowledge of the fact that the participation will contribute to the criminal activities of the group, and is intended, or by its nature and context, may reasonably be regarded as being intended to– (a) intimidate the public or a section of the public; or (b) compel a government or an international organization to do or refrain from doing, any act, (c) seriously destabilize or destroy the fundamental political, constitutional, economic or social structures of a country or an international organization; and (d) advance a political, ideological, or religious cause. but an act which– (a) disrupts any services; and (b) is committed in pursuance of a protest, demonstration or stoppage of work, shall not be considered a terrorist act if the act is not intended to result in any harm referred to in sub-paragraphs, (i), (ii), (iii) or (iv); “terrorist group” means a structured group or organization of more than two persons, established over a period of time and acting in concert to commit terrorist acts; “terrorist property” means the property of a terrorist or any other property consisting of funds that are intended to be used to finance or otherwise assist the commission of a terrorist act; “trusts and company service providers” means all persons or businesses which, as a business, provide any or all of the following services to third parties:– (a) acting as formation agents of legal persons; (b) acting as or arranging for another person to act as a director or secretary of a company, a partner of a partnership, or a similar position in relation to other persons; (c) providing a registered office, business address or accommodation, correspondence or administrative address for a company, a partnership, or any other legal person or arrangement; (d) acting as or arranging for another person to act as a trustee of an express trust; (e) acting as or arranging for another person to act as a nominee shareholder for another person; 12 13 “unlawful activity” means– (a) any act or omission which is an offence under any enactment; or (b) an act or omission committed or done outside Sierra Leone, which if it were committed or done in Sierra Leone, would constitute an PART II–ESTABLISHMENT OF FINANCIAL INTELEIGENCE UNIT