Professional Enablers
Definition:
A Professional Enabler, is an individual or entity that assists or facilitates unethical or unlawful actions for financial gain. This role can involve a variety of functions, such as providing advice on circumventing legal regulations, creating complex financial transactions designed to hide the origins of illicit funds, or offering connections to corrupt officials who can turn a blind eye to wrongdoing.
These enablers often exploit their industry knowledge to develop schemes that make illegal activities appear legitimate, effectively acting as intermediaries between criminals and the systems of authority. Their involvement can perpetuate a cycle of corruption, undermining trust in institutions and contributing to the broader consequences of illicit financial activities. By enabling wrongdoing, they not only contribute to criminal enterprises but also pose significant risks to legal and ethical business practices.
Professional Enablers - So what to Jersey?
As an International Finance Centre (IFC), Jersey should be concerned about professional enablers for several reasons:
- Regulatory Compliance: Working with enablers can lead to violations of laws, resulting in serious legal consequences for individuals and institutions.
- Corruption Vulnerability: They exploit connections to assist corrupt practices, compromising ethical standards within the industry.
- Increased Scrutiny: Should organisations or indviduals from Jersey's regulated sectors be found to have not acted to deal with professional enablers, they, their organisations or indeed the Island may face enhanced scrutiny from international bodies, resulting in sanctions or stricter oversight to address the issue.
- Personal Accountability: As stated above, individuals or professionals from Jersey's regulated sectors must be vigilant against enablers and implement proper due diligence to avoid complicity in illegal activities.
- Client Trust: Maintaining trust is crucial; a perception that unethical practices are tolerated could harm relationships with clients and wider stakeholders.
Types of criminal activities linked to illicit finance
As part of the FIU's mission to assist Jersey's regulated sectors, we have created below some criminology examples which explain what they are, and more importantly, the 'So what to Jersey' connection.
Understanding the 'So what to Jersey' connection
As an International Finance Centre (IFC), the Island's products, services or industries could be used by criminals for illicit financial activity. Whilst the criminal activity may not have occurred in Jersey, the funds or derived funds from such criminality might be placed within a Jersey product or structure, or pass through the island's financial system. It is therefore important to understand the 'So what to Jersey' principle in relation to each of the criminology types below.
To help understand the various criminologies better, we have produced fictional typologies (within our knowledge base section), which provide an examples on how they work, and importantly, illustrate the 'So what to Jersey' connection.
