Beneficial ownership and the legal profession: exploring issues and challenges faced by solicitors under the UK anti-money laundering framework with respect to the identification of beneficial ownership.

Abstract

A growing consensus connects opaque beneficial ownership structures and arrangements with financial crime, corruption and other serious and organized crime. This has driven calls from national and international policy-makers, anti-corruption NGOs and academics to improve beneficial ownership transparency of corporations, trusts and property as a means of reducing opportunities for criminals to hide or launder the proceeds of their crimes and of exposing bad actors and dodgy deals.

Solicitors are professionals whose legal expertise means that they may be involved in constructing complex (or otherwise) beneficial ownership structures and arrangements for clients; and they offer services which clients may require in order to carry out transactions such as the purchase or disposal or assets or other property, whether via beneficial ownership structure or otherwise. In this respect, they are “gatekeepers” to the financial system. As such, solicitors face obligations under the UK’s anti money laundering regime intended to prevent and forestall money laundering (the UK AML Framework).

As a former practicing solicitor and current academic teaching and researching in the fields of business, finance, financial crime and anti-money laundering, it is the role of solicitors within the UK AML Framework which I have chosen to explore in this professional doctorate. Using my professional knowledge and experience of the legal sector and my understanding of the UK AML Framework, the place of solicitors within it, and the particular focus in recent years on beneficial ownership transparency, this professional doctorate aims to contribute to the understanding of the operation of the UK AML Framework with respect to beneficial ownership.

My research is based on a qualitative analysis of nine semi-structured interviews with individuals involved in AML compliance within SRA-regulated firms to explore the role of solicitors within the UK AML Framework and the issues and challenges they face with respect to the identification of beneficial ownership, considering what they do, what they know, and the information and support available to them to fulfil their compliance obligations. The aim is to enhance the knowledge underpinning policy decision-making in relation to the AML Framework in the UK and lead to practical suggestions relating to: training, support and guidance for solicitors; amendment or clarification of the UK AML Framework; and accessibility, availability or nature of beneficial ownership information and registers.

Date of Award	25 Jan 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Northumbria University
Supervisor	Ana Speed (Supervisor) & Jacqueline Harvey (Supervisor)