The Treasury (Isle of Man) issued a sanctions update noting that thirteen entries have been added to the UK Sanctions List under the Global Irregular Migration and Trafficking in Persons sanctions regime and are now subject to an asset freeze in the Isle of Man. The regime imposes financial sanctions against persons involved in people smuggling, human trafficking, or the instrumentalisation of migration for destabilisation, and also provides for immigration sanctions. The notice reminds firms to freeze funds and economic resources immediately where they suspect a match, to check customer information against the UK Sanctions List to avoid false positives, and not to deal with or make assets available to a designated person unless a legal exemption applies or a licence is held. Frozen assets must be reported to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), and suspected breaches or blocked attempted transactions should also be reported; where an institution has already reported relevant frozen accounts or assets for the designated person, it does not need to report them again. Screening should also consider whether an entity is owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by a person on the UK Sanctions List, and non-compliance or circumvention is flagged as a criminal offence.

Original source View in tracker