ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING (AML) AND KYC POLICY
Version number 1.0; date 2024-08-07; Author Guard Stone Capital LTD
Applicability
This policy (hereafter referred to as “Policy”) shall apply to.Guard Stone Capital Ltd(Registration No. 000041228), its users and all persons accessing any system or resource of the Company. The team member who shall be responsible for monitoring this policy shall hereinafter be referred to as “the Designated Officer”. Any breach or suspected breach of the contents of this Policy are to be immediately notified to the Designated Officer. The contact details of the Designated Officer are as follows: Name: Albright Onyegbule Mobile Number: +16302020054 Email Address: info@albrighto.com The Designated Officer may, in the fulfilment of their functions, delegate specific tasks or roles to any person or persons within the Company or within any third party contracted or sub-contracted via the Company. Within this policy, any reference to any function of the Designated Officer may therefore be fulfilled by any person to whom the Designated Officer has delegated such role or function, a record of which shall be kept with each and every appointment made, and any change thereof.
Introduction
• As a company, we are committed to carrying on business in accordance with the highest ethical standards. This includes complying with all applicable laws and regulations aimed at combating money laundering and terrorist financing. This Policy has been developed by the Company to reduce the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing associated with its business and its services. This Policy explains our individual responsibility in complying with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing laws (hereafter referred to as "AML Laws") around the world and ensuring that any third parties that we engage to act on our behalf, do the same. • The management of the Company is committed to complying with all AML Laws. Any employee who violates the rules in this Policy or who permits anyone to violate those rules may be subject to appropriate disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal, and may be subject to personal civil or criminal fines. • If you have any questions about this Policy you should contact us at support@lucky-wells.com The purpose of this Policy is for the Company to comply with the following AML Laws: • Directive (EU) 2015/849 on preventing the use of the financial system for money laundering or terrorist financing; • Directive (EU) 2018/843 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 amending Directive (EU) 2015/849 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing, and amending Directives 2009/138/EC and 2013/36/EU; • Regulation (EU) 2015/847 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2015 on information accompanying transfers of funds and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1781/2006; • Various regulations imposing sanctions or restrictive measures against persons and embargo on certain goods and technology, including all dual-use goods • National Ordinance Reporting Unusual Transactions or NORUT (Landsverordening Melding Ongebruikelijke Transacties or LvMOT) and the National Ordinance Identification when Rendering Services or NOIS (Landsverordening Identificatie bij Dienstverlening, LID), established by the Government of Curacao.
Policy Statement on AML
• It is our policy to comply with all applicable AML Laws in our operations worldwide in all times. To this end, we will only conduct business and offer our services to customers who are involved in legitimate business activity and/or whose funds are derived from legitimate sources. • This Policy is intended to help our employees, contractors, and other third parties acting on the Company’s behalf to understand where breaches of AML Laws might arise and to support them in making the right decisions in line with our corporate position as stated in this Policy.
Board Endorsement
No employee or contractor will suffer as a consequence of bringing to the attention of the Board or senior management, in good faith, a known or suspected breach of this Policy nor will any employee or contractors suffer any adverse employment or contract decision for abiding by this Policy.
Who is subject to this Policy?
This Policy applies to Company's operations globally, including all legal entities owned and/or controlled by the Company (including all group companies), and to all directors, officers, employees, contractors, and other third parties acting on behalf of the foregoing.
What's the risk?
• Violations of AML Laws may lead to severe civil and/or criminal penalties against the Company and its management and/or employees, including significant monetary fines, imprisonment, extradition, blacklisting, revocation of licenses, and disqualification of directors. • In addition, violations of AML Laws can lead to damaging practical consequences, including harm to reputation and commercial relationships, restrictions in the way we can do business, and extensive time and cost in conducting internal investigations and/or defending against government investigations and enforcement actions.
What do we mean by Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing?
• Money laundering is generally defined as any act or attempted act to conceal or disguise the identity of illegally obtained proceeds so that they appear to have originated from legitimate sources. It usually involves the following stages: • Placement – placement of illicit funds in the financial system, • Layering – the actions of distancing illegally obtained proceeds from their source via the creation of multiple and complex levels of financial transactions designed to disguise the audit trail and to provide anonymity. • Integration – re-entrance of the illicit funds in the financial system appearing to be legitimate proceeds. • The following types of activities are considered to be “money laundering” and are prohibited under this Policy: • the transfer of money, knowing or suspecting that such money is derived from criminal or certain specified unlawful activity ("criminal property"), for the purpose of concealing or disguising the illicit origin of the property or of assisting any person who is involved in the commission of such activity to evade the legal consequences of his action; • conducting a financial transaction which involves criminal property; • the concealment and/or disguise of the true nature, source, location, disposition, movement, rights with respect to, ownership or control of criminal property; • the acquisition, possession or use of criminal property; and • participation in, association to commit, attempts to commit and aiding, abetting, facilitating and counselling the commission of any of the actions mentioned in the foregoing points. • The broad approach to the definition of money laundering means that anybody (including any our employee) could be in violation of the law if he/she becomes aware of, or suspects, the existence of criminal property and/or violation of AML Laws within the business activity of the Company and becomes involved in or continues to be involved in a matter without reporting his/her concerns. • Terrorist financing may not involve the proceeds of criminal conduct, but rather an attempt to conceal the origin or intended use of the funds, which will later be used for criminal purposes.
Red Flags
• Where any suspicions arise that criminal conduct may have taken place involving a customer, contractor or a third party, a responsible person should consider whether there is a risk that money laundering or terrorist financing has occurred or may occur. • Some examples of red flags to be reported include: • A customer provides insufficient, false or suspicious KYC and/or financial information or is reluctant to provide complete information; • Methods and/or volumes of payment that are not consistent with the payment policy or that are not customarily used in the course of business, e.g., payments with multiple instruments and/or payments from unrelated third parties; • Withdrawals to third parties that have no legal connection with the customer and/or transaction; • Payment to or from countries considered high risk for money laundering or terrorist financing; • Payments to or from countries considered to be tax havens or offshore jurisdictions; • Overpayments followed by instructions to refund a payment, especially if requested to send the payment to a third party; • Any customer regarding whom we cannot determine the true identity; • The above is not intended to be an exhaustive list. Deviation from customer and accepted business practice should alert a responsible person to further investigate the activity in accordance with this Policy.
KYC, Client Identification and Due Diligence Procedures
• Before a Customer places a deposit and/or before any use of our services in a ‘real money’ game mode, but in any case, not later than we make a withdrawal of Customer’s funds, a Customer has to complete our registration form and create an account (“Account”). For AML purposes we allow our Customers to register only one Account with us. If we found that you have multiple accounts (using the same or similar names, address, telephone, e-mails, same or similar dynamic IP address, computers or other devices, same payment details) registered with us (including via representatives, relatives, associates, affiliates, related parties and/or third parties operating on your behalf), Customer’s Account shall be terminated immediately without notice. • When Customer creates an Account, he or she must provide us with true, current, accurate and complete KYC information. In particular, in our registration form Customer must provide its full legal name, email, home address, birth date and place of birth, nationality, number and issue date of an ID document, and any other information which we may request in the registration form in order to complete KYC and Due Diligence process.
Verification Documents and Procedure
• As a gaming provider, we have an obligation to identify our Customers identity, to carry out a risk-based anti-money laundering client assessment, including a source of funds verification. Therefore, we ask our Customers to provide us with: • a copy of a valid personal ID document or any equivalent (national ID card, passport and/or driver's license); • a copy of a utility bill (gas, electric, water, telephone – must not be older than 2 months) having Customer’s name and address; • any other document as it may be deemed necessary, including proof of ownership of the deposit method(s) Customer used to fund his or her Account (“KYC Documents”) • In the event Customer is not able to provide us with the KYC Documents within five (5) calendar days, we reserve the right to suspend his or her use of our services until the required information is received. In the event Customer is not able to provide us with the KYC Documents within thirty (30) calendar days, we terminate Customer’s Account, and refuse any and all current or future use of our services.
Customer’s Categories
Low-Risk Customers The category of low-risk Customers includes the following Customers: • Customers whose identities and payment method are efficiently determined. Normal-Risk Customers All Customers which do not fall in the low or high-risk categories are considered as normal risk Customers. The category of high-risk Customers includes the following Customers: • Customer Accounts’ in the name of a third person; • Customers that didn’t pass our email and/or phone number confirmation; • Customers that failed to provide required KYC Documents; • Customers with certain deviations in regular activity after first payments (bet size, bet number and gaming time); • Customers using proxy and/or VPN services, and • Any other Customers that pose a high level of risk for money laundering or terrorist financing
Compliance Controls
Senior management of the Company is responsible for ensuring that Company’s business has a culture of compliance and effective controls to comply with AML laws and regulations to prevent, detect and respond to money laundering and counter-terrorism financing and to communicate the serious consequences of non-compliance to its employees and/or contractors.
Responsibility of Employees and/or Contractors
• Employees (and contractors) of the Company have the obligation to read and follow this Policy, to understand and identify any red flags that may arise in Company’s activities and to escalate potential compliance concerns related to AML to Legal Department without notifying anyone involved in the transaction and should not take any actions prior to receiving advice and/or instructions. Education and Training • Our employees (and contractors) can be personally liable for failure to report information or suspicion, regarding money laundering or terrorist financing. • The employees (and contractors) cooperate and report, without delay anything that comes to their attention in relation to transactions for which there is a slight suspicion that are related to money laundering or terrorist financing. • The Legal Officer along with the Human Resource Manager are responsible for the employees’ (and contractor’s) education and training program, that all employees and contractors) are fully aware of their legal obligations per the AML Laws. • The training program aims at educating employees (and contractors) on the latest developments in the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing, including the practical methods and trends used for this purpose. • On-going training is given at regular intervals to ensure that employees (and contractors) are reminded of their duties and responsibilities, in the recognition and handling of transactions and activities which may be related to money laundering or terrorist financing and kept informed of any new developments. • Further, the Legal Officer provides advice and guidance to the employees (and contractors) of the Company on subjects related to money laundering and terrorist financing.
Due Diligence and Record Keeping
• It is our policy to carry out due diligence ("DD") of our customers and, if necessary, where any red flags arise subsequently on our suppliers, contractors, distributors, counterparties, agents and any person with whom we have an established business relationship that will involve the transfer to or receipt of funds ("Customers"), so we can be satisfied that they are who they say they are and so that we can ensure that there are no legal barriers to working with them before contracts are signed or transactions occur. Various factors will determine the appropriate forms and levels of screening. • Employees (and contractors) of the Company should escalate any instances where they have cause for suspicion as a result of carrying out DD and ongoing monitoring to the Legal Department, who will advise them regarding which tools and processes should be used to facilitate appropriate screening. • Responsible finance managers must regularly monitor and/or review Customers to identify any activities or governance that could indicate money laundering and/or terrorist financing is taking place.
Non-compliance
• Any Company’s employee and/or contractor, who violates this Policy may be subject to appropriate disciplinary action, independently from potential other penalties resulting from their behavior. • Internal Audit shall conduct regular checks to ensure compliance with AML Laws.