Law 129/2019 on anti-money laundering and for prevention of terrorism financing – adopted

Law 31"), foundations, trusts or other legal persons or entities managing and distributing funds has the obligation to declare the ultimate beneficial owner( "UBO"), in accordance with the provision of Law 129/2019 on anti-money laundering and for prevention of terrorism financing (“Law 129”), which entered into force on 21 July, 2019, transposing the Directives (EU) 2015/849 and 2006/70/EC.

The participation criteria refers to one / more natural persons who eventually own / control a legal person (that is not a legal person registered with the trade register whose shares are traded on a regulated market and which is subject to advertising requirements according to national / European law) by, directly or indirectly, exercising the right of ownership on a number of shares / voting rights sufficiently large to ensure their control, by participating in the equity of the legal person or by exercising control by other means (25% of the shares plus one share or if the participation in the equity of the legal person exceeds 25%).  In case that no natural person is identified by using the participation criteria, as well as if there is any doubt that the identified person is the UBO, the effective management criteria is applicable, meaning that the UBO is one / more natural persons ensuring the management of the legal person.

Nevertheless important, failure to comply with the obligation to have accurate and up-to-date information on the UBO, as well as to make this information available to the supervisory authorities or failure to submit the declaration regarding the identification data of the UBO can be sanctioned with a fine or with the dissolution of the company.