36 Politically exposed persons

(1) Where a reporting entity knows or has reasonable grounds to believe that a customer, or a beneficial owner of a customer, residing in or outside Seychelles is or becomes a politically exposed person, the reporting entity shall apply, enhanced customer due diligence measures and enhanced ongoing monitoring.
(2) A “politically exposed person” means—
(a) an individual who is or has been, during the preceding three years, entrusted with a prominent public function in—
(i) Seychelles; or
(ii) any other country; or

(iii) an international body or organisation;
(b) an immediate family member of a person referred to in paragraph
(a); or
(c) a close associate of a person referred to in paragraph (a).
(3) For the purposes of subsection (2)(a), prominent public function includes—
(a) heads of State, heads of government, ministers and other senior politicians;
(b) senior government or judicial officials;
(c) ambassadors and chargés d’affaires;
(d) persons appointed as honorary consuls;
(e) high-ranking officers in the armed forces;
(f) members of the Boards of Central Banks;
(g) members of the Boards of state-owned corporations; and
(h) influential political party officials.
(4) For the purposes of subsection (2)(b), immediate family member of a person specified in paragraph (a) includes—
(a) a spouse;
(b) a partner, that is an individual considered by his or her national law as equivalent to a spouse;
(c) children and their spouses or partners, as defined in paragraph (b);
(d) parents; and
(e) siblings.
(5) For the purposes of subsection (2)(c), close associates of a person includes—
(a) any person who is known to have joint beneficial ownership of a legal person, partnership, trust or any other close business relations with that legal person, partnership or trust; and
(b) any person who has sole beneficial ownership of a legal person, partnership or trust which is known to have been set up for the benefit of that legal person, partnership or trust.
(6) In determining whether a person is a close associate of a person specified in subsection (2)(a), a reporting entity shall have regard to public information or such information that the reporting entity has in its possession.
(7) For the purpose of subsection (1), the reporting entity shall, in addition to the measures provided in section 35 (1)—

(a) obtain the approval of the senior management before a business relationship is established with the customer;
(b) take adequate measures to establish the source of wealth and source of funds which are involved in the proposed business relationship or one-off transaction;
(c) where the business relationship is entered into, conduct enhanced ongoing monitoring of the relationship; or
(d) apply such other measures provided for in the guidelines issued by the FIU or respective supervisory authority to compensate for the higher risk of money laundering, terrorist financing activities or other criminal conduct.
(8) Notwithstanding subsection (7), a reporting entity shall take reasonable measures to determine, prior to the time of payout, whether the beneficiary of a life insurance policy or other investment related insurance policy or the beneficial owner of the beneficiary of such a policy is a politically exposed person and, in case of a higher risk, shall—
(a) inform the senior management before the payout of the policy proceeds; and
(b) conduct enhanced scrutiny on the whole business relationship with the policy holder and consider filing a suspicious activity report under section 48 of this Act.