Rosfinmonitoring's secret manual: which companies will be included in the list of suspicious

Novye Izvestia managed to get acquainted with a closed document, which will identify suspicious monetary transactions and financial structures.

Irina Mishina

The manual was drawn up by Rosfinmonitoring, which is used by auditors and bankers to identify suspicious transactions and companies. It is recommended to pay close attention to structures that work in construction, retail trade or public catering, as well as provide consulting services, are engaged in tourism or charity.

Why did these areas of activity come to the attention of Rosfinmonitoring? “The reason is that the companies involved in these areas, according to statistics, most often fall into the “shadow economy” sector. One gets the impression that the manual names those segments of the economy where illegal activities are traditionally registered bypassing tax authorities", - Igor Nikolayev, Director of the Strategic Analysis Department of the FBK auditing and consulting company, commented to Novye Izvestia.

What transactions will be considered suspicious? Previously, they will include transactions in transactions in which one of the parties is registered at a mass registration address, has repeatedly changed its organizational and legal form, has a number of employees and a structure that does not correspond to the size and nature of the activity. In addition, the amount of payments is important. The bank will be alerted if the company transferred payments totaling more than 1 million rubles during the day. Second, the basis for payments. Payments related to the trade of food and non-food products, as well as cars and tobacco products are under special control. Third, bankers track the relationship between credits and debits from an account. They will have doubts if money comes to the company's account for building materials, equipment, services, and is debited for products, tobacco products, cars, etc. The company may be at risk because of counterparties - if the credit the organization will calculate the "one-day" company among the partners. The bank will follow along the chain to whom the transit operations are going. In this case, the structure will be offered not to work with a dubious counterparty, in the worst case, they will refuse to carry out operations and turn off the Client-Bank system.

“What can alert auditors and supervisors? First of all, the legal address. If it is doubtful, this is a reason to check. There is another parameter that is often suspicious. For example, the authorized capital of a company is 10 thousand rubles, and it receives contracts for millions. That is, the activity is disproportionate to the size of the company. Also, auditors and bankers, according to experience, are usually suspicious of the frequent change of "sign": for example, for a short time the company changed its registration from a small enterprise to an individual entrepreneur, then it became an LLC, then it was registered as a self-employed, and so on. These are all working criteria, they have been in effect for a long time. Apparently, control will be tightened now”, - said Igor Nikolayev, director of the strategic analysis department of the audit and consulting company FBK.

On what basis has a new methodology been developed to identify dubious signs of cashing? What was the reason for this or was the reason? With this question, we turned to Rosfinmonitoring.

"The criteria for identifying and signs of unusual transactions that are subject to use by organizations carrying out operations with monetary funds or other property that are subject to the requirements of 115-FZ "On Combating the Legalization (Laundering) of Criminally Obtained Incomes and Financing of Terrorism" are determined by the order of Rosfinmonitoring from 05/08/2009 No. 103. For credit institutions - Bank of Russia Regulation No. 375-P “On Requirements for the Internal Control Rules of a Credit Institution in order to counter the legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime and the financing of terrorism, ” Rosfinmonitoring said in an official response to our editorial staff.

Rosfinmonitoring also reported that when identifying suspicious financial transactions and companies, organizations use "the recommendations of the authorized and supervisory authorities".

Nothing new, it would seem? However, the reasons for creating a manual by Rosfinmonitoring with new signs of dubious cashing operations can be understood from another official response. We asked the question: what measures are awaiting companies that are suspected of dubious transactions?

“Rosfinmonitoring, in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation, forms only lists of persons against whom targeted financial sanctions should be applied, namely the List of organizations and individuals in relation to which there is information about their involvement in extremist activities or terrorism and the List of organizations and individuals, in respect of which there is information about their involvement in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The inclusion of an individual or legal entity in the above lists entails the application of measures to freeze (block) his money or other property in relation to such a person in accordance with Federal Law No. 115-FZ. The application of such measures ceases upon removal of a person from the list. Rosfinmonitoring does not maintain other “black lists””, - the department informed us.

The mention of the involvement of companies in extremist activities and “proliferation of weapons of mass destruction” suggests that the reasons for Rosfinmonitoring's adoption of new methods of control may also have a political context. However, the department did not comment on this.

Rosfinmonitoring also considered it necessary to give several recommendations to companies in order to avoid problems.

“It is necessary to fill in payment documents in detail and provide the credit institution with the requested information in due time, revealing the economic meaning of certain operations; promptly inform the Federal Tax Service of Russia and the servicing credit institution about changes in the organization's constituent documents; avoid splitting the business".

However, you can check your company or counterparty yourself on the profile resource. The more suspicious signs you find, the higher the risk that you will be included in the list of unreliable.