Penalties totalling $400,000 has been imposed on Crown Global Life Insurance Ltd, and Crown Global Life Insurance (Bermuda) Ltd, by the Bermuda Monetary Authority.

The civil penalties are pursuant to the provisions of section 20 of the Proceeds of Crime (Anti-Money Laundering & Terrorist Financing Supervision & Enforcement) Act 2008.

The BMA said it found no evidence that the companies were involved or complicit in any money laundering or terrorist financing activities. The companies are now in compliance with the Proceeds of Crime (Anti-Money Laundering & Anti-Terrorist Financing) Regulations 2008.

The Authority said the penalties were imposed for the companies’ failure to adequately comply with the following requirements of the Regulations:

• The application of customer due diligence measures

• Ongoing monitoring of business relationships

• The timing of verification

• The application of enhanced due diligence

• Outsourcing

• Record-keeping

• Anti-Money Laundering/Anti-Terrorist Financing (AML/ATF) policies and procedures

• Independent audit functions

• Compliance officer

In a statement, the BMA said: “The breaches came to light during an on-site review of the companies’ activities conducted by the AML/ATF unit of the Authority in November 2018. The Authority required the companies to remediate these failings by 31 July 2019.

“The remediation was not completed to the satisfaction of the Authority within the time frame. The Authority views these breaches as serious because of their extent and duration, and because they demonstrated a weakness of the companies’ internal AML/ATF controls.”

According to the Registrar of Companies, the directors of Crown Life Insurance Ltd and Crown Global Life insurance (Bermuda) Ltd are Christopher Calise of Miami Beach, Florida, Perry Lerner of Philadelophia, Terria Godwin of the Cayman Islands and Carol Feathers of Bermuda.

The companies have their registered offices in Victoria Place.