Anti-Money Laundering & Compliance

Money laundering is dirty business. One that the U.S. Government has been trying to clean up since 1970. Laundering is used to hide criminal and terrorist activities by inserting “dirty” money into the legitimate financial system, “washing” it around financial institutions through transfers, until it comes out looking “clean”. The Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) was established in 1970 and enforced by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a branch of the U.S. Treasury.

The USA PATRIOT Act was signed into law on October 26, 2001. Taken as a whole, Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act provides the Secretary with a range of options that can be adapted to target specific money laundering and terrorist financing risks most effectively. These options provide the Treasury Department with a powerful and flexible regulatory tool to take actions to protect the U.S. financial system from specific threats.

The AML program was designed by banks and financial institutions, as they are liable for compliance issues.  The precious metals industry adapted their program for our industry.  You must have an AML program if you purchase or sell greater than $50,000 in precious metals/stone where greater than 50% of the value is derived from precious metals.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on U.S. foreign policy and national security goals against targeted foreign countries and regimes, terrorists, international narcotics traffickers, those engaged in activities related to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and other threats to the national security, foreign policy or the economy of the United​ States. Metallix uses this program for our searches.

Metallix adheres to AML compliance regulations and are prepared for a government or bank audit of our program.  We have partnered with an AML compliance consultant for over a decade to establish and maintain our compliance.  The needed steps are:

1. The designation of a compliance officer to develop and respond to money laundering issues.
2. Assessing risk (know our customers).
3. The development of written policies and procedures for encountering and dealing with money laundering and the internal controls for such policies.
4. An annual ongoing employee training program.
5. An independent audit function to test the program.

Metallix takes AML compliance seriously and are consistently monitoring our procedures and taking steps to know our Suppliers before conducting any precious metal transaction.

Please contact us for more information or download our AML Compliance letter.