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One of the five missing Hong Kong booksellers held a press conference this week, to discuss what happened during his detention in Mainland China, where the authorities are clearly seeking to interdict the distribution of books that detail corruption in the Peoples' Republic. officially-sanctioned kidnappings, choreographed television appearances, and lies in official press releases, detail what must have been a nightmare for the booksellers, who only offense was spreading the truth about corrupt Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs).
These actions, on the part of China, may reduce the availability of information about corruption among china's leaders, and their extended families, which will further impede research, by Western compliance officers, and enhanced due diligence of Chinese nationals who wish to become clients of EU and North American financial institutions. While that is obviously not the primary objective of China's ruling elite, who do not want their corruption known in the West, it will have a definite effect upon our compliance results.
When compliance officers cannot ascertain whether a potential client is, or is not, engaged in suspicious activity, for lack of access to relevant information, On-boarding new clients becomes a dangerous game.
