The Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK), affiliated to the Ministry of Treasury and Finance, has published a suspicious transaction reporting guide for crypto asset service providers.
MASAK, responsible for the prevention of money laundering, published on April 18, in the directory shared information on the processes of crypto-asset service providers to report suspicious transactions within the scope of the Law No. 5549 on the Prevention of Laundering Proceeds of Crime, and how the forms will be arranged.
With the change in the regulation published in the Official Gazette on April 30, 2021, the Regulation on the Prevention of Laundering of Proceeds of Crime and the Financing of Terrorism, which includes crypto asset service providers, states that “anything that indicates that the property subject to the transactions is illegally obtained or used for illegal purposes. in case of knowledge, suspicion or a matter that requires suspicion”, it obliges to notify MASAK of these transactions within ten days at the latest.
MASAK is trying to improve the quality of suspicious transaction reports with forms that can be submitted both electronically and in paper form:
“The quality of suspicious transaction reports (STR), which constitutes the most important input of activities carried out within the scope of combating laundering proceeds of crime and financing of terrorism, directly affects the success of these processes. For this reason, the suspicious transaction notifications sent by the obliged parties should be prepared in accordance with the principles and procedures determined by the Presidency and in a way to include all the information held by the obligor. . . It will increase its contribution to the struggle processes.”
According to the directive on how to fill in the STR forms, the urgency of the notification, information of suspicious natural or legal persons, the status of suspicious transactions with monetary value, date, name and amount of the asset subject to the transaction, transaction type, transaction channel and transaction code in order to determine the risk score of the notification to the form. information, account information associated with suspicious transactions, and categorization of the suspected crime.