Accountants’ Obligation to Inform Suspicious Transactions Related to Money-Laundering or Financing of Terrorism

The Professional Council of Economic Sciences of Tierra del Fuego, an Argentine province, filed an injunction against Resolution No. 65/2011 (the “Resolution”) issued by the Financial Information Unit (the “UIF”) in the “Consejo Profesional de Ciencias Económicas de Tierra del Fuego c. PEN – MJDH – Unidad de Información Financiera s. Acción de Inconstitucionalidad – Resolución N° 65/2011 – Medida Cautelar de No Innovar” case.
The Resolution rules on the obligations of professionals of economic sciences, as obliged subjects towards the UIF. Pursuant to the Resolution, registered independent professionals, whose activities are regulated by the Professional Council of Economic Sciences, under Law No. 20,488, are obliged to report, regardless of whether they act individually or under a Professional Association pursuant to section 5 and 6 of Law No. 20,488, only when they audit financial statements or act as syndics and when those activities are done for the following entities : a) those individualized in section 20 of the Anti-Money-Laundering and Financing of Terrorism Law No. 25,246, as amended, such as financial institutions, insurance companies, cash transport companies, and notaries, among others, or; b) those not included in a) but who, according to their audited balanced sheets, have assets higher than AR$ 10,000,000 (approximately US$ 1,200,000 at the current exchange rate) or who have duplicated their assets or their sales in the last year.
The Professional Council of Economic Sciences of Tierra del Fuego filed the injunction in order to suspend the enforcement of the Resolution; hence, the obligation to report suspicious transactions of money-laundering and terrorism funding.  The Federal Court of Appeal sitting at Comodoro Rivadavia (the “Court of Appeals”) awarded the injunction filed by the Professional Council of Economic Sciences of Tierra del Fuego as it met all the requirements to be granted.
In addition, the Court of Appeals concluded that “notwithstanding the work of the State against money-laundering, this does not imply that we must admit, without question, the transfer of undelegated functions of the State, reaffirming that the professionals of economic sciences were not educated for investigation tasks nor for evaluating whether a transaction is suspicious or not”. 
The defendant appealed the Court of Appeals decision. However, the Court of Appeals rejected the appeal as the decision was not final.
The defendant filed an appeal of right before the Argentine Supreme Court of Justice, which dismissed the complaint for the same reasons than the Court of Appeals. The decision that awarded the injunction is now final.
In consequence, the enforcement of the Resolution is currently suspended for registered professionals of the Professional Council of Economic Sciences of Tierra del Fuego and, therefore, they are exempt from the obligations set in the Resolution and do not have to report suspicious transactions related to money-laundering and terrorism financing. The suspension will be in force until a decision in regard to the merits of the case is rendered.