ACRA revokes registrations of LW Business Consultancy and its director

The firm reportedly committed anti-money laundering breaches.

The Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) has cancelled the registration of LW Business Consultancy (LWBC) and its director, Wang Junjie.

The cancellation follows the firm’s breaches of the anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) controls under the ACRA (Filing Agents and Qualified Individuals) Regulations 2015.

The breaches include: 

• Failing to perform additional customer due diligence measures when a customer is not physically present during onboarding; 
• Not inquiring if there exists any beneficial owner 1 in relation to some of its customers; and
• Failing to perform risk assessments in relation to some of its customers.

ACRA added that Wang also did not supervise his employees in carrying out their duties, which resulted in the breaches, making him unfit as a registered qualified individual (RQI).

Penalties for such breaches include fines of up to $10,000 or $25,000 per breach or registration suspension or cancellation.

ACRA's investigations into LWBC and Wang are part of the agency's ongoing investigations into the role played by registered filing agents (RFA) and RQIs involved in one of Singapore’s largest AML operations

RFAs such as LWBC and RQIs provide corporate secretarial services for business entities and are required to perform customer due diligence measures coinciding with ACRA Regulations to be registered or to remain registered.