The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has imposed a composition penalty of S$1.9m on Atrium Asia Investment Management Pte. Ltd. (AAIM) for breaches of MAS’ anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) requirements.
In a statement today (29 October), the MAS said it had also issued a reprimand to AAIM’s chief executive officer, Mr Mintarja Oei, for failing to ensure AAIM’s compliance with MAS’ AML/CFT requirements.
MAS’ inspection of AAIM found that the company’s internal policy and procedures at the material time were inadequate. This led to multiple breaches of MAS’ AML/CFT requirements from June 2015 to October 2020, putting the firm at risk of being misused for financial crime. The breaches included AAIM’s failure to:
(a) Implement adequate processes to detect and report suspicious and unusually large customer transactions with third parties. As a result, AAIM processed several such transactions without taking adequate steps to verify the purported relationships between its customers and the third parties;
(b) Implement appropriate internal procedures to determine if business relations with customers presented a higher risk of ML/TF. Consequently, AAIM did not properly assess the ML/TF risks posed by its customers or take the appropriate risk mitigation measures to address tax-related ML risk;
(c) Implement appropriate internal risk management systems and procedures to determine if customers and related persons were politically exposed persons (PEPs) or close associates of PEPs. As a result, AAIM did not identify several customers to be PEPs and failed to perform enhanced customer due diligence measures; and
(d) Implement adequate internal procedures to keep records of documents and information that AAIM was required to obtain from customers to meet AML/CFT requirements. As a result, AAIM did not record the identities of several customers’ beneficial owners (BOs) and failed to keep up-to-date documents to verify BOs’ identities
MAS found that AAIM’s key breaches are attributable to Mr Oei, as CEO of AAIM, failing to ensure that AAIM’s compliance with MAS’ AML/CFT requirements. MAS has therefore issued a reprimand to Mr Oei.
MAS further noted that AAIM has since taken remedial actions to address the deficiencies that have been identified.
