Isle of Man Financial Services Authority imposes GBP 2,376 civil penalty on Edwin A Fryer Accountant for AML CFT Code breaches

The Isle of Man Financial Services Authority published a public statement confirming it has imposed a civil penalty on Edwin A Fryer Accountant, a sole practitioner registered as an external accountant, tax adviser and payroll agent, after an on-site inspection and subsequent investigation identified multiple contraventions of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Code 2019. The Authority applied the higher Level 2 penalty bracket and set a penalty of GBP 2,640, discounted by 10% to GBP 2,376. The June 2024 inspection and investigation found systemic and longstanding weaknesses dating back to the firm’s initial registration in 2019, including failures to establish and operate core AML/CFT procedures and controls covering business, customer and technology risk assessments, customer screening and ongoing monitoring. Other findings included inadequate customer due diligence and source of funds checks, insufficient identification of beneficial owners for non-natural person customers, lack of procedures for identifying politically exposed persons and sanctions exposure, missing registers for disclosures, failure to conduct annual AML/CFT compliance monitoring and reporting, insufficient AML/CFT training, and weaknesses in record keeping and retention. The Authority noted that the penalty level reflected cooperation and early settlement, and included learning points for the accountancy sector on maintaining recorded, risk-based AML/CFT frameworks.