Pressure is mounting on companies that fail to meet their transparency obligations. The ‘Ecofin Action Days’ operations, launched on the initiative and under the direction of the public prosecutors’ offices in Luxembourg and Diekirch to verify compliance with legislation relating to the Register of Beneficial Owners (RBE), have now been completed.
In total, 73 organisations were inspected and fined in the two judicial districts. The inspections revealed 100 breaches. The most common breach was the failure to publish annual accounts within the statutory deadline, which was recorded on 55 occasions.
The authorities also identified 23 cases of inaccurate, incomplete or out-of-date information in the RBE and 22 cases of failure to obtain a licence to operate. As a single entity may be involved in several breaches, the number of infringements exceeds the number of organisations fined.
146 individual interventions
The operation involved significant resources. It comprised 146 individual interventions. In addition to members of the Ecofin Training, Support and Methodology Section of the Criminal Investigation Department, around 50 officers from police stations across the four police regions, as well as magistrates from the two public prosecutors’ offices, were deployed.
The investigations also drew on information provided by several government departments. The Luxembourg Business Register, the Registration, Domains and VAT Administration, the Anti-Fraud Service and the Business Licensing Service of the Ministry of the Economy provided details and evidence relating to potential offences.
Following the operation, the public prosecutors’ offices are reminding participants in the financial sector and the directors of organisations that failure to comply with these obligations may result in criminal sanctions. This includes, in particular, the timely filing of annual accounts, the accuracy and up-to-date nature of information relating to beneficial owners, and the holding of a valid authorisation to operate where required.
