Law No. 2019-017 on the Fight against Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing

REPUBLIQUE ISLAMIQUE DE MAURITANIA Honor-Fraternity-Justice Presidency of the Republic Law No. 2019-017 on the Fight against Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing The National Assembly has adopted;

The President of the Republic promulgates the law as follows:

Title I: Definitions Article 1: For the purposes of this Law, the following expressions mean: The Committee: the National Committee for the Fight against Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing; Supervisory authority: the body authorized, under Mauritanian laws or a decision by the competent authority, to supervise and monitor financial institutions, designated non-financial businesses and professions (DNFBPs), non-profit organizations, and other professions subject to this Law and its implementing regulations; Competent authority: the body authorized to implement all provisions of this Law; it includes the concerned ministries, the Committee, the Unit, the National Counter-Terrorism Committee, supervisory authorities, law enforcement authorities, investigative and prosecuting authorities, and courts; Shell bank: a bank registered and licensed in a state where it has no physical presence and is not affiliated with a regulated financial group subject to effective banking supervision; Beneficial owner: any natural person who ultimately owns or controls, directly or indirectly, a client and/or the natural person on whose behalf an operation is conducted; it also refers to the person who ultimately exercises effective control over a legal entity or legal arrangement. Implementing regulations: all decrees, orders, circulars, and other texts issued to implement the provisions of this Law; Unit: the Mauritanian Financial Investigations Unit; Designated non-financial businesses and professions (DNFBPs): They include:

1. real estate agents;
2. dealers in precious stones and metals;
3. lawyers, notaries, and other members of liberal legal professions, as well as accountants, when they conduct or execute financial operations for a client, within the framework of the following activities: a) buying and selling real estate; b) management of clients' funds, securities, or other assets; c) management of bank accounts, savings accounts, or securities accounts; d) organization of contributions for the creation, operation, or management of companies; e) creation, operation, or management of legal persons or legal arrangements, buying and selling commercial entities.
4. Company service providers acting on behalf of companies and trusts, when they prepare or conduct financial operations for a client, within the framework of the following activities: a) acting as a founding agent for legal persons; b) acting as a director or secretary of a partnership, a shareholder in a company, or holding a similar role in another legal person, or ensuring that others do so; c) providing a registered office, business address, residence, correspondence address, or administrative address to a legal person or legal arrangement; d) acting as a trustee for a trust, assuming similar roles in favor of a legal arrangement, or ensuring that others do so; e) acting as a nominee shareholder for another person, or ensuring that others do so.
5. All other designated non-financial businesses and professions to be defined by the implementing regulations. Funds: assets of any nature, regardless of their value, mode of ownership, corporeal or incorporeal, movable or immovable, tangible or intangible, including national currency and foreign exchange, as well as commercial instruments and securities and all documents and titles attesting to the ownership of such assets and related rights, as well as interest on said assets, in any form, including electronic or digital, and any eventual interest, dividends, or other income or value derived from or generated by such assets. Seizure: prohibition of any transfer or remittance of funds or other assets based on a mechanism allowing the competent authority or court to control them. Other seized funds or assets remain the property of the natural or legal person holding the share at the time of executing the seizure order during the procedure's duration or until the competent authority or court renders an expropriation or confiscation decision. Freezing:
6. in the case of conservatory measures, the prohibition on transferring, converting, disposing of, or moving any funds or other assets following a measure taken by the competent authority within a freezing mechanism, for the duration of said measure's validity, or until an expropriation or confiscation decision is taken by a competent authority or court;
7. for the implementation of targeted financial sanctions, the prohibition on transferring, converting, disposing of, or moving all funds and other assets owned or controlled by designated persons or entities following measures or resolutions adopted by the United Nations Security Council under Chapter VII of the UN Charter regarding targeted financial sanctions, including preventing and repressing terrorist financing, and preventing, repressing, and halting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction financing, by a competent authority or court in accordance with applicable Security Council resolutions, for the duration of validity of said measures or resolutions. Confiscation: permanent deprivation and dispossession of funds or proceeds of crime or their supports in accordance with a judgment rendered by a competent court. Underlying offense: any act constituting a misdemeanor or crime under current legislation in the State, whether committed within its territory or another State, and criminalized in both States. Financial institution: any person or entity exercising one or more financial activities or operations for a client or their representative, according to the mode defined by implementing regulations. Legal arrangements: express trusts or similar legal structures. Proceeds of criminal activity: all funds linked to or derived, domestically or internationally, directly or indirectly, from the commission of an underlying offense, including all benefits, interest, or other results generated by said funds, whether remaining in their initial state or partially or wholly transformed into other assets. Terrorist person: any natural person who commits, attempts to commit terrorist acts, participates as a partner, plans, organizes, directs, or orders others to commit terrorist acts by any means, directly or indirectly, or participates in a group of persons acting for the common purpose of committing a terrorist act aimed at increasing terrorist activity or knowing the group's intention to commit a terrorist act; regardless of whether the accused person is established in the same State or another State. Terrorist act: any commission, attempt, contribution, planning, organization, direction, or order to third parties to commit one of the following acts, whether by a person or group acting for a common purpose:
8. Any act constituting a crime under relevant conventions or treaties to which the Islamic Republic of Mauritania is a party.
9. Any act intended to cause death or bodily injury to a civilian or any other person not participating in hostilities during armed conflict, with the aim, by its nature or context, of intimidating the population or compelling a government or international organization to do or abstain from doing something.
10. Any act considered a terrorist act under the anti-terrorism law or any other law. Terrorist organization: any group of two or more persons that:
11. deliberately commits or attempts to commit terrorist acts by any means, direct or indirect;
12. contributes as an accomplice to terrorist acts;
13. organizes terrorist acts or orders others to commit them;
14. participates in the commission of terrorist acts by a group of persons acting for a common purpose, when this participation is deliberate and aims to facilitate the terrorist act or is provided knowing the group's intention to commit a terrorist act. As well as any organization considered terrorist under any other current law in Mauritania. Bearer instruments: all monetary bearer instruments such as traveler's checks, other negotiable instruments that are either to bearer or freely endorsable, or issued to the order of a fictitious beneficiary, or in any other form allowing transfer upon simple delivery, and incomplete signed instruments on which the beneficiary's name has been omitted. Non-profit organization: any organization, foundation, non-governmental organization, or other institution constituted in accordance with current legislative and regulatory texts, whose main purpose is the collection or distribution of funds for charitable, religious, cultural, educational, social, or fraternal purposes, or for other types of public benefit. Instruments: any property used or to be used, wholly or partially and in any manner, to commit a crime or misdemeanor. Controlled delivery: procedure by which competent authorities allow, under their supervision, the entry of funds generated or suspected to be generated from offenses or criminal proceeds into the State's territory, or their passage, transit, or exit, for the purpose of investigating the offense and identifying its author. Undercover operation: investigative and intelligence procedure carried out by a judicial police officer who penetrates under a false identity into a criminal organization to collect evidence regarding the crime.

Title II: Offenses Article 2: Any person who knows or ought to know that the assets originate from an underlying offense and deliberately commits any of the following is guilty of money laundering:

1. converting or transferring assets, or performing any operation on said assets, with the aim of concealing or disguising their illicit origin, or helping any person involved in the underlying offense from which said assets arose to escape the consequences of its commission;
2. acquiring, holding, or using said assets;
3. concealing or disguising the true nature, origin, movement, ownership, location, or disposal of assets or related rights;
4. initiating the commission of any of these acts provided for in paragraphs 1, 2, and 3 of this article, or participating in such acts by associating with their commission, assisting or inciting someone to commit them, advising, directing, conspiring in this regard, or facilitating the execution of such an act. The sanction of the author of the underlying offense does not prevent their conviction for other money laundering offenses. Evidence of knowledge and intent may be inferred from objective factual circumstances.

Article 3: The money laundering offense is independent of the underlying offense; it does not require the conviction of the individual for the underlying offense to be convicted of money laundering, nor that the assets be products of an offense committed inside or outside the country.

Article 4: A legal person is considered the author of a money laundering offense when any of the acts provided for in Article 2 of this Law is committed in its name or on its behalf, without prejudice to the criminal liability of its presidents, board members, owners, agents, auditors, or any other natural person acting in its name and on its behalf.

Article 5: Any person who commits or initiates, by any means, directly or indirectly, the provision or collection of funds in any form, intended to be used or known to be used wholly or partly to commit terrorist acts or for the benefit of a terrorist organization or terrorist, including financing and organizing the travel of a foreign terrorist fighter, their training for planning, preparation, or participation in terrorist acts, or providing advice to that end, whether actually used or not for terrorist purposes, is considered the author of the crime of terrorist financing, regardless of whether the accused person is located in a State different from that where the terrorist organization is located or where the terrorist act occurred. Evidence of knowledge or intent for the terrorist financing offense may be inferred from objective factual circumstances.

Title III: Preventive Measures Article 6: Financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions must:

1. Identify, assess, document, and continuously update money laundering and terrorist financing risks, taking into account the results of the national risk assessment and its various aspects, including factors related to clients, countries, other geographic areas, products, services, transactions, and distribution channels, taking into account risks related to new products, work practices, and modern techniques before their use, and retain studies relating to risk identification and assessment and related information, preparing necessary reports on this subject and submitting them to the supervisory authority upon request;
2. Apply required due diligence measures to their clients according to the risk level associated with their business relationships, as well as other elements, taking enhanced due diligence measures when money laundering and terrorist financing risks are high;
3. Develop internal policies, principles, and procedures approved by senior management, enabling them to manage and limit identified risks, while continuously reviewing and updating them for all branches and subsidiaries, and implementing them effectively. Implementing regulations determine the content of policies, principles, and procedures;
4. Execute all other obligations related to the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing, in accordance with this Law and its implementing regulations.

Article 7: Financial institutions are prohibited from opening or maintaining accounts under anonymous or fictitious names.

Article 8: Financial institutions must refrain from establishing or maintaining correspondent relationships with a shell bank or with a foreign financial institution, allowing their accounts to be used by a shell bank. Before establishing correspondent relationships with foreign financial institutions, financial institutions must comply with appropriate measures to reduce the potential risks of such a relationship and ensure that these institutions do not allow the use of their accounts by shell banks.

Article 9: Financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions must use appropriate tools to determine if the client or beneficial owner holds or has held high public office in the State or a foreign State, or occupies executive positions in an international organization; where applicable, they must apply additional measures.

Article 10: Financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions must:

1. Monitor and examine transactions and related documents and data continuously to ensure they align with information concerning the client, their activities, the risks they represent, and the sources of their funds, where applicable;
2. Examine all complex, large, and unusual transactions, as well as any transaction without legitimate or obvious economic purpose;
3. Strengthen mandatory due diligence procedures, the degree and nature of business relationship monitoring in cases where money laundering or terrorist financing risks are high, to determine if a transaction appears unusual or suspicious.

Article 11: Financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions must apply enhanced due diligence measures, adapted to risks arising from business relationships with a person in a country identified by financial institutions, DNFBPs, or the Unit as high-risk. They must also apply measures defined by the Unit for high-risk countries.

Article 12: Financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions must:

1. Retain all account files, transaction records, correspondence, registers, documents, and data for all transactions, whether financial, commercial, cash-based, or other, local or international, as well as all related data and results of any analysis performed for at least ten years from the date of the end of the business relationship or occasional transaction;
2. Take necessary measures to enable them to analyze data, track all types of operations, and reconstruct individual transactions; account files, transaction records, correspondence, registers, documents, and retained records must be sufficient to allow analysis and tracking of financial transactions and be made available to competent authorities upon request in a timely manner, and able to serve as evidence in case of prosecution;
3. Retain all files, documents, and data, including photocopies of personal identity documents obtained through required and enhanced due diligence, accounting files, transaction records, correspondence, and any analysis performed for at least ten years from the date the transaction or business relationship ended or the account was closed;
4. The public prosecutor may request financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions to extend the retention period for archives, documents, declarations, accounts, transactions, and correspondence, as necessary for investigations or criminal prosecutions;
5. Exchange information with other financial institutions when necessary for correspondent banking relationships, in case of recourse to third parties, to control subsidiaries and branches abroad, as well as for other matters determined and regulated by implementing regulations.

Article 13: Financial institutions performing electronic transfers must obtain information on the transfer order and the beneficiary, and retain them with the transfer orders or corresponding messages throughout the payment chain; otherwise, they cannot execute the electronic transfer. Financial institutions must record all information related to the transfer order and the beneficial owner, and maintain registers of documents and data in accordance with Article 12 of this Law. Financial institutions must also take any additional measures regarding electronic transfers provided for in implementing regulations.

Article 14: Financial institutions, designated non-financial businesses and professions, and non-profit organizations must immediately apply decisions rendered by the competent authority or court regarding freezing, whether conservatory measures or lifting of freezing, for the purpose of applying targeted financial sanctions, including preventing and repressing terrorism and its financing, as well as preventing, repressing, and halting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction financing.

Article 15: Financial institutions, designated non-financial businesses and professions, and non-profit organizations, when they suspect or have reasonable grounds to suspect that all or part of the funds represent proceeds from an offense, money laundering, or terrorist financing, have a relationship with money laundering or terrorist financing, or will be used in money laundering or terrorist financing, or the attempt thereof, must immediately inform the Unit of these operations and provide a detailed report containing all available data and information on said operations and concerned parties. They are also required to provide the Unit with additional data or information requested concerning such operations or any other report or data required by the Unit without invoking confidentiality provisions, in accordance with implementing regulations.

Article 16: Financial institutions, designated non-financial businesses and professions, non-profit organizations, and members of their boards of directors, executives, or employees are prohibited from disclosing or alerting the client or any other person regarding any action related to suspicious transactions that have been or will be submitted to the Unit, as well as all acts [Article 16].