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IRAN – THREAT TO THE WORLD!!
FROM A
DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW by Monte Friesner ~
Financial Crime Consultant for WANTED SA ~
Wednesday October 20, 2010
< WANTED SA Launches Best Practice Iran Sanctions Solution - Two New Products to Help Clients Identify Iran Regulatory and Reputational Risk
Market leader dedicates its unparalleled resources to help its clients meet their new requirements
Toronto, Canada - October 20, 2010 – WANTED SA today announced the launch of its “Iran Economic Interest (IEI) Solution” following a raft of new international legislation including the U.S. Government Comprehensive Iran Sanctions; Accountability and Divestment Act (CISADA) of July 2010, U.N. Security Council Resolution 1929 (UNSCR 1929), and new Iran sanctions laws passed by the European Union (EU), Canada, Australia, Japan and many more.
The first new product, WANTED SA IEI Database empowers businesses to automatically screen every client, relationship and transaction for individuals and entities believed to have a relationship with Iran. WANTED SA second product, the IEI IntegraScreen Report, empowers businesses to quickly and cost-effectively commission a bespoke enhanced due diligence report on any entity or relationship with heightened Iran-related exposure.
This is a most important factor in order to assist the USA and many other countries to act swiftly in order to deter business with Iran according to the sanctions. Doing business with Iran is more than greed as it is a gateway to assisting Iran achieve its threat to the world for Nuclear domination for the Middle East and other countries.
The international sanctions expand the scope of earlier sanctions to include not only the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which WANTED SA has monitored for the last few weeks, but also considerable new restrictions on Iran energy, financial, insurance, trade and transportation sectors, which WANTED SA IEI solution now covers comprehensively.
Furthermore, the extra-territorial reach of CISADA and other sanctions means that organizations that continue to engage in prohibited Iran-related activity may be subject to civil and financial penalties, even if they have no local presence.
Under Secretary of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Stuart Levey, has said, “Treasury will continue to target any bank, wherever located, that supports Iran's nuclear or missile programs." The U.S. Treasury Department has specifically stated: “CISADA forces a stark choice: if you conduct certain business with Iran, you can't do business with the United States.” CISADA also requires Treasury to prohibit or impose strict conditions on access to the U.S. financial system by any foreign financial institution that facilitates a significant transaction or provides significant financial services for blacklisted banks.
The global Iran sanctions regimes mandate businesses to institute robust and wide ranging „Know Your Customer‟ processes so that they can understand their Iran-related exposure and manage them accordingly. The „knowingly‟ definition specifically introduced in CISADA raises the risk for potential criminal and civil liability by expanding the definition from “actual knowledge” to include what “should have been known.” Once significant and/or relevant information is freely available in the public domain, there is an expectation that such information is knowable.
To help clients meet the knowingly test, WANTED SA collects and analyses public domain information in more than 58 languages, including Farsi, across 5 continents with over 50 private researchers, to identify tens of thousands of organizations believed to have business interests with Iran.
Iran is a global danger that cannot be ignored and the USA cannot combat this evil regime without assistance from the world leaders, banks and individuals. Ignoring the sanctions can place an average individual in breach of sanctions and possible legal ramifications.
WANTED SA has recently uncovered a plot with a remittance firm in London, UK who uses the disguise of a software company that clears money for citizens and residents of Iran. This firm apparently is also operating in many countries under various names and uses VISA, MasterCard and other credit cards as a means of secreting millions of dollars for Iran.
Existing WANTED SA customers can have the new IEI dataset added to their current information so that they can immediately begin screening new and existing relationships and transactions against this updated-daily list. Similarly, WANTED SA unrivalled research operation can turn around a custom due diligence report targeting Iran exposure on any entity at a set price in just a few days.
Fred Kohx of Australia - CEO of WANTED SA added, “This legislation has teeth and it will have a serious bite. The expanded scope of the new international legislation means that checking dusty, old sanction lists or doing Internet searches for anything mentioning Iran is not going to cut it. Businesses need real intelligence. They need solutions that are manageable, cost-effective and, more importantly, solutions that actually work”.
Based on client trials, WANTED SA is very confident that it will help clients find hidden Iran risk. We have many years track record of building intelligence databases and helping clients unearth real risk hiding within their organizations.”
Continuing he said, “While many companies in Europe and Asia have already imposed a complete ban on business with Iran; honoring these sanctions will not be simple. Businesses could be unwittingly engaging in transactions which expose them indirectly to sanctioned entities, agents, or prohibited business activities. The Iran sanctions are a timely reminder for companies across all sectors that “knowing your customer‟ mitigates regulatory, legal and reputational risk.”
The facts and opinions stated in this article are those of the author and not those of WANTED SA. WANTED SA does not warrant the accuracy of any facts and opinions stated in this article; does not endorse them, and accepts no responsibility for them.
