The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action has also consulted on this proposal for a directive. The WPK has taken this as a reason to speak out against more stringent liability for public/chartered accountants and additional penalties under the EU Money Laundering directive.

No More Stringent Liability for Public/Chartered Accountants

According to Art. 3 para. 3 of the proposal for a directive, in future acts committed with gross negligence are also to be punished as criminal offences. In addition, according to Art. 8 b), it shall be considered an aggravating circumstance if a criminal offence was committed by a professional service provider who was violating his professional duties. Moreover, the sentence to be applied to the profession in the event of a violation is to be greatly increased.

This would mean increasing the liability for public/chartered accountants. For the purposes of illustration, the example of violating the ban on providing tax advice, accounting or auditing services to Russian companies shall be taken. Under German law, this is a criminal offence in the case of intent, but an administrative offence in the case of negligence (Article 18 para. 1 sentence 1 No. 2 b), Article 19 para. 1 No. 1 Foreign Trade and Payments Act).

In its statement, the WPK has questioned the sense of such a greatly increased liability for public/chartered accountants.

No Additional Punishment under the Money Laundering Directive

Art. 17 of the proposal for a directive aims to extend the intended catalogue of predicate offences with violations of restrictive Union measures. The WPK has also spoken out against this, especially since a violation of a ban on services is not automatically associated with a violation of money laundering regulations.