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Trinidad and Tobago Cracks Down on Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing

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The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of Trinidad and Tobago has outlined a range of serious penalties for entities that fail to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) regulations, including money laundering offenses, terrorist financing offenses, and related offenses.

Money Laundering Offenses

According to the Proceeds of Crime Act, money laundering is defined as:

  • Concealing, disguising, transferring, receiving, bringing into or removing from Trinidad and Tobago money or other property knowing or suspecting that it was obtained from a specified offense.
  • The penalty for this offense is up to 25 million TT dollars and 15 years imprisonment on indictment.

Tipping Off

The act also criminalizes tipping off, which involves:

  • Disclosing information to any other person knowing that the matter is subject of investigation or proposed investigation.
  • This offense carries a fine of up to 5 million TT dollars and 5 years imprisonment on summary conviction.

Failure to Disclose Knowledge or Suspicion

Supervised entities are required to report knowledge or suspicion of money laundering to the FIU. Failure to do so can result in:

  • A fine of up to 250,000 TT dollars and 3 years imprisonment.
  • Failure to disclose suspicious transactions can result in a fine of up to 500,000 TT dollars and 2 years imprisonment on summary conviction, or up to 3 million TT dollars and 7 years imprisonment on indictment.

Regulatory Compliance

Entities are required to comply with Financial Obligations Regulations, including:

  • Customer due diligence requirements.
  • Record keeping requirements.
  • Failure to do so can result in a fine of up to 500,000 TT dollars and 2 years imprisonment on summary conviction, or up to 3 million TT dollars and 7 years imprisonment on indictment.

Terrorist Financing Offenses

The Anti-Terrorism Act criminalizes terrorist financing offenses, including:

  • Disclosing the facts or content of a Suspicious Transaction/Activity Report (STR/SAR) to any person.
  • The penalty for this offense is up to 250,000 TT dollars and 3 years imprisonment.

Failure to Disclose Information

Supervised entities are required to provide information requested by the FIU. Failure to do so can result in:

  • A fine of up to 500,000 TT dollars and further fines of 25,000 TT dollars for each day the offense continues on summary conviction, or up to 1 million TT dollars and further fines of 50,000 TT dollars for each day the offense continues.

Disclosure of Information

The FIU has also outlined penalties for disclosing information received from the unit, including:

  • A fine of up to 250,000 TT dollars and 3 years imprisonment.