Bond broker and senior manager fined for money laundering breaches

Ram Melwani, managing director of Investment Services UK Ltd (ISUK) is the first approved person to be fined, in this case £30,000, for anti-money laundering failures. ISUK was penalised £175,000 for breaches of Principles 2 (skill, care and diligence) and 3 (management and control). The firm, a bond broker with six staff, provides advice and arranges purchases of emerging market debt securities. It serves 23 clients, all of which are corporate entities based offshore, mainly in jurisdictions whose money laundering regimes are not deemed equivalent to the UK standard. The underlying beneficial owners of the companies are non-resident, high net worth individuals and some of the companies have issued bearer shares.