The Executive Yuan will pass the draft amendment to the "Money Laundering Prevention Act" today, adding the crime of collecting accounts and account numbers without justified reasons, with a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison and a fine of up to 4 million yuan.

(Provided by the Executive Yuan)

[Reporter Zhong Lihua/Taipei Report] The Executive Yuan will pass the amendment draft of the "Money Laundering Prevention Act" today, adding the crime of collecting accounts and account numbers without justified reasons, with a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison and a fine of up to 4 million yuan; Anyone without justified reasons shall not deliver or provide the account or account number to others for use. Violators who commit the crime again within 5 years after being warned shall be subject to criminal punishment.

Premier Chen Jianren stated that due to modern capital, advanced communication technology and financial convenience, criminal groups will collect a large number of public financial institution accounts, virtual currency accounts or third-party payment accounts, and collect these accounts and account numbers as money laundering and defraud the public. tool of property.

In order to block and prevent this kind of illegal collection of public financial institution accounts, virtual currency accounts and third-party payment accounts; at the same time, it is regulated that no one should deliver or provide financial institution accounts, virtual currency accounts and third-party payment accounts without justifiable reasons. It is necessary to amend the law if it is used by others and becomes the head account of a criminal group.

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The Ministry of Justice pointed out that since fraudulent groups often use the acquisition of head financial accounts as a criminal tool to receive fraudulent funds, it is difficult to trace the actual criminal proceeds and the behind-the-scenes groups. Account holders have a subjective dilemma of whether they have (helped) criminal intent.

Therefore, the Ministry of Justice has proposed to amend the "Money Laundering Prevention Law" to block the source of illegal cash flows of fraudulent groups from the head account, so that fraud and money laundering crimes cannot succeed.

Huang Mouxin, Director of Inspection of the Ministry of Justice, pointed out that the scope of the crime of collecting accounts includes posing as a civil servant to collect, three or more accomplices, collecting from the public on the Internet, using deep counterfeiting technology to collect, collecting with consideration, collecting by fraudulent means, monitoring, etc. The heaviest penalty is imprisonment for not more than 5 years.

The draft amendment also stipulates that no one may hand over or provide accounts to others without justified reasons. Huang Mouxin explained that in order to balance the severity of the punishment and avoid excessive punishment of the legal network, the administration of the head account provider shall be adopted first and then the judiciary. According to the legislative model, violators will first be punished by the police and admonished, and those who commit crimes again within 5 years after the admonition will be sentenced to criminal punishment.

Those who "sell" accounts or account numbers with a high degree of viciousness or deliver more than 3 accounts or account numbers in one act will be directly subject to criminal punishment.

In addition, the amendment also adds fines for legal persons and the extraterritorial effect of the crime of collecting accounts. It is hoped that the cash flow of fraudulent groups can be blocked from the source.

The Ministry of Justice stated that it will fully cooperate with the subsequent review of the bill and other procedures, hoping to make the amendment pass smoothly, provide law enforcement officers with a weapon to fight fraud, and actively protect people's property and safety.