AML/CTF legislation country profile

ECBA Questionnaire filled in for Slovenia

a) Legislation

1. Definition of money laundering in the local legal system.

According to Article 2 of the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Act (Official Gazette, No. 60/2007, hereinafter “Prevention of Money Laundering Act”) money laundering shall mean any conduct for the purpose of disguising the origin of money or other property obtained by an offence and shall include:
- conversion or any transfer of money or other property derived from criminal activity;
- concealment or disguise of the true nature, origin, location, movement, disposition, ownership or rights with respect to money or other property derived from criminal activity.

2. Sanctions for money laundering offence.

Article 245 of the new Criminal Code (Official Gazette of Republic of Slovenia, No. 55/2008 as amended), which entered into force on November 1, 2008 stipulates:

Whoever accepts, exchanges, stores, disposes of, uses in an economic activity or in any other manner determined by the law conceals or attempts to conceal by money laundering the true origin of money or property that was, to his knowledge, acquired through a criminal offence, shall be sentenced to imprisonment for no more than five years. Whoever should and could have known that the money or property had been acquired through criminal offence, but commits any of the above mentioned acts, shall be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than two years. If the money or property obtained thereby is of considerable value, the perpetrator shall be sentenced to imprisonment for no more than eight years and punished by a fine. If such offence was committed within a criminal association for the commission of such criminal offences, the perpetrator shall be given a prison sentence of between one and ten years, as well as a fine.

According to Article 4 of the Criminal Liability of Legal Entities Act (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 95/2004) a legal person can also be held liable fora  criminal offence if the perpetrator acted on behalf of, for the account of or for the benefit of a legal person and:
-  the committed offence means execution of an unlawful decision, order or approval of the management or supervisory body; or
- a management or supervisory body influenced the perpetrator or enabled him to commit  the criminal offence; or
-  the legal entity disposes of the illegally acquired financial gain or uses the objects created through the criminal offence; or
- the management or supervisory body failed to duly supervise the legality of conduct of subordinate employees.

Sanctions for legal entities are stipulated in Article 26 of the Criminal Liability of Legal Entities Act and depend on the prescribed prison sentence for the individual perpetrator according to the Criminal Code. According to the prescribed prison sentences for money laundering, sanctions for legal entities for committing money laundering are:
- penal sanction of minimum EUR 50,000 and maximum two hundred times the damage suffered and/or
- forfeiture.
The court may also impose liquidation of the respective legal entity together with forfeiture if special conditions from the Criminal Liability of Legal Entities Act are met.

The Prevention of Money Laundering Act also envisages fines for legal entities, lawyers and law firms, notaries, audit companies and independent auditors and legal or natural person performing accountancy services or tax advisory services for infringements of the Act in a range from EUR 3,000 to 120,000 (depending on the gravity of the infringement).

3. (Legal) professions especially affected by local AML/CTF legislation.

Professions affected by the Prevention of Money Laundering Act under Article 4 are:

1. banks, branches of banks from third countries and Member State banks which establish branches in the Republic of Slovenia or which are authorised to directly perform banking services in the Republic of Slovenia;
2. savings banks;
3. organisations performing payment transactions;
4. post offices;
5. management companies of investment funds, branches of management companies of investment funds from third countries, management companies of investment funds from Member States which establish branches in the Republic of Slovenia or are authorized to provide services of investment fund management in the Republic of Slovenia, and other persons who may provide particular services or activities of managing investment funds pursuant to the Act governing investment fund management;
6. founders and managers of mutual pension funds and pension companies;
7. brokerage companies, branches of brokerage companies from third countries, brokerage companies from Member States which establish branches in the Republic of Slovenia or are authorized to provide services relating to securities directly in the Republic of Slovenia, and other persons who may provide particular services relating to securities pursuant to the Act governing the securities market or the Act governing the financial instruments market
8. insurance companies authorized to pursue life insurance business and insurance companies from Member States which establish branches in the Republic of Slovenia or which are authorized to pursue life insurance business directly in the Republic of Slovenia
9. electronic money undertakings, branches of electronic money undertakings from third countries, and electronic money undertakings from Member States which establish branches in the Republic of Slovenia or which are authorized to provide electronic money services directly in the Republic of Slovenia;
10. exchange offices,
11. auditing firms and independent auditors;
12. gaming houses and other concessionaires for special gaming;
13. pawnbroker offices;
14. legal and natural persons performing the following activities: 

- granting credits or loans including consumer credits, mortgage credits, factoring and financing of commercial transactions, including forfeiting;
- leasing,
- issuing and performing operations with debit and credit cards,
- issuing guarantees and other warranties
- managing the property of third persons
safekeeping,
- offering loans and brokering in the negotiation of loan deals,
- insurance agency services for the purpose of concluding life insurance contracts;
- insurance intermediaries in concluding life insurance contracts
- accounting services
- tax advisory services
- trust and company services
- bullion trading and trading in precious stones and products made from these materials
- organization and execution of auctions,
- trading with works of art
- real estate services.

The measures for detecting and preventing money laundering stipulated by the Prevention of Money Laundering Act also apply to lawyers, law firms and notaries.

4. Specific regulations imposed upon attorneys at law.

According to Article 47 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act a lawyer, law firm or notary has the obligation to comply with this act when assisting in the planning or performance of the following transactions for the client:
1. by assisting in the planning or execution of transactions for their client concerning the
(i)  buying and selling of real property or business entities;
(ii)  managing of client money, securities or other assets;
(iii)  opening or management of bank, savings or securities accounts;
(iv)  collection of funds necessary for the creation, operation or management of companies;
(v)  creation, operation or management of trusts, funds, companies or similar structures;
2.  or acting on behalf of and for the account of the client in any financial or real estate transaction.

If a lawyer, law firm, notary, discovers during the performance of his work that there exist reasons for suspicion of money laundering in connection with a transaction or a particular person, the said have to notify the Office for Money Laundering Prevention of the Republic of Slovenia before the transaction is completed and state the period during which the transaction is expected to be executed (Article 49 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act).

Obligations described in the preceding paragraph do not apply to a lawyer, law firm or notary with regard to the data obtained from or about the client in the course of establishing the client's legal position or when acting as the client's legal representative in a judicial proceedings, including advice on instituting or avoiding such proceeding, irrespective of whether such data is obtained before, during or after such proceedings. Under the same conditions a lawyer, law firm or notary is also not obliged to forward the data, information and documentation which are needed for money laundering detection to the Office for Money Laundering Prevention of the Republic of Slovenia (Article 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act).

Besides applying measures for detecting and preventing money laundering stipulated by the Prevention of Money Laundering Act a lawyer, law firm, notary also has to ensure the professional training of all his staff performing duties provided by this Act, draw up a list of indicators for the prevention of suspicious transaction, determine and verify the identity of the client or his/her statutory representative or authorized person and if a client is legal entity determine the beneficial owner of a client.

b) Bar Association

1. Directives – formulated by the Bar Association – guiding the interpretation of the legislation and the force of these directives (binding, guideline,…).

The Slovenian Bar Association has not issued any directives regarding the interpretation of the above mentioned obligation to comply with the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and/or to notify the Office for Money Laundering Prevention of the Republic of Slovenia if during the performance of his work he discovers that there exists a reason for suspicion of money laundering in connection with a transaction or a particular person.

2. Causes for discussion at the implementation stage of the European Directive in local legislation especially in relation to a possible conflict between this legislation and your professional code of ethics?

To the best of our knowledge there were no discussions relating to possible conflict between the currently valid Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Act which implemented the Directive 2005/60/EC and the Code of Professional Conduct of the Bar Association of Slovenia. However, the previously valid Money Laundering Prevention Act (Official Gazette of Republic of Slovenia, No. 79/2001, as amended) which was abrogated by the above mentioned act caused such discussion.

3. Any action taken by the local Bar Association against the way in which the European directive was implemented in local legislation?

No.

4. Other bodies that have undertaken any form of action to safeguard the rights of their members in this respect.

To the best of our knowledge no formal form of action regarding the implementation of the Directive 2005/60/EC into Slovenian legal order was undertaken by any other bodies (Chamber of Notaries, Bank Association of Slovenia,…).

c) Legal practice

1. Particularities that foreign attorneys at law in contact with the local legal system should be aware of / recommendations to be taken into consideration?

There are no particularities that foreign attorneys at law should be aware of when in contact with the Slovene legal system, nevertheless we would advise to contact a Slovenian attorney at law in such case.

DISCLAIMER
The ECBA maintains this website to provide and disseminate information on criminal procedure in the EU with regard to national money laundering legislation as it applies to attorneys at law. The content of the website relies on contacts in each jurisdiction and although our aim is to keep this information accurate, the ECBA does not warrant or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the content. This information does not constitute legal advice. If errors are brought to our attention, we will try to correct them. Some of the documents on this website may contain links to information created and maintained by other organizations. Please note that the ECBA does not control and cannot guarantee the accuracy of these materials.

Last Updated (Thursday, 20 January 2011)