A Vancouver-based accounting firm was sanctioned for alleged compliance violations by federal anti-money laundering (AML) agency, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC).
FINTRAC ordered an administrative monetary penalty of $72,750 against the firm, DMCL Chartered Professional Accountants, for breaching the AML rules — including failing to assess the risk of a money laundering offence, failing to develop adequate compliance policies and failing to test its compliance program every two years.
The three violations, which were discovered in a FINTRAC review, were all deemed “serious” by the agency.
Among other things, the review found that in assessing its vulnerability to money laundering the firm didn’t consider all of the required factors — which includes products, services, delivery channels, geography, clientele and new technologies — and “it only identified some of the risks associated with the products and services that DMCL offers to its clients.”
Additionally, the review found that the firm’s compliance policies didn’t meet the requirements when it came to “politically exposed persons” and the heads of international organizations, and that it didn’t test its policies every two years, as required. There were four years between those reviews, from 2019 to 2023, and the latest review didn’t have adequate detail, according to FINTRAC.
The firm paid the penalty, which was imposed on July 25, and the case has been closed, FINTRAC said.