Financial Crime World

Title: Belgian Law Cracks Down on Money Laundering with Penalties for Involved Parties

Brussels Takes Action to Combat Money Laundering

In an effort to combat money laundering and strengthen the Belgian financial system, Article 505 of the Belgian Penal Code outlines strict penalties for those involved in handling, purchasing, converting, or concealing goods with suspicious origins.

Penalties for Involved Parties

  • First-degree offenders (those who handle, in whole or in part, goods obtained by crime): imprisonment of up to five years and a fine of up to €100,000.

  • Second-degree offenders (those who purchase, receive, own, or manage goods with known illicit origins): similar penalties.

  • Third-degree offenders (those who convert or transfer goods to conceal their illicit origin or to help money launderers): similar penalties.

  • Fourth-degree offenders (those who conceal or disguise the location, ownership, or movement of suspected goods): penalties to be determined based on the circumstances of the case.

Penalties Apply to Many Offenses

These penalties apply regardless of whether the perpetrator was directly involved in the underlying crime, except for those directly responsible. However, they only relate to serious tax fraud cases in terms of taxation.

Relief from Penalties

The Financial Intelligence Processing Unit (FIPU) and other designated bodies under Belgian law can seek relief from these penalties if they have complied with their information obligations towards the FIPU (Article 28, Law of 11 January 1993).

Confiscation and Disqualifications

Once convicted, the goods subjected to the penalties, whether they belong to the convicted person or not, are confiscated to prevent further misuse. Confiscation may be reduced to spare the convict from an unreasonably harsh sentence, in cases where the goods cannot be located. Instead, an equivalent amount of money will be confiscated.

Convicted persons may also face disqualifications as per Article 33.

Deterrent Effect

The Belgian government aims to make these penalties a strong deterrent for individuals seeking to use the financial system for money laundering and other illicit activities.

Attempts to Commit Offenses

Attempts to commit these offenses are also punishable by imprisonment and fines.