Unibet hit with Danish reprimand over five AML violations

Kindred Group’s Unibet brand has been slapped with several reprimands by the Danish Gambling Authority (DGA) over multiple violations of the Danish Money Laundering Act (MLA). The DGA noted five breaches of the MLA, in areas including customer due diligence and the treatment of so-called politically exposed persons (PEP’s). Dereliction of investigation duties, business procedural breaches and the duty to notify Danish authorities are also the subjects of this latest reprimand for the Swedish operator. Following an investigation of 20 high-roller players at Unibet, the DGA has said there were insufficient customer due diligence procedures in five cases. Of these, Unibet was found to have failed to investigate suspicious transactions on three accounts. In one of the five accounts singled out, the firm was also found to have neglected to notify the DGA and Danish Money Laundering Secretariat within the timetables set out under the MLA. The most damning of these instances involves the deposit of more than DKK1m (£112,154) into a “young” player’s account over a 12-month period without Unibet possessing sufficient source of wealth (SOW) information. The funds were deposited via six different deposit cards, of which at least one card did not belong to the player. According to the DGA, Unibet only tried to investigate the origin of the funds after the player was no longer active with Unibet and only after the DGA had asked Unibet to send money laundering notes on the player. Unibet received a second censure on notification grounds after it was found to have only notified the DGA six months after the operator had established a suspicion of money laundering and only after the DGA had notified Unibet of its investigation. In respect of rules on business procedures, Kindred was found to have not “adequately” risk-assessed its customer and offered game types, a lack of assessments, which the DGA has suggested could have seen Unibet targeted by individuals seeking to exploit the brand for money laundering purposes. Kindred was also found to not have sufficient written business procedures for ongoing monitoring of existing customer relationships. “Until the same date [25 January, when the reprimand was issued], Unibet did not have sufficient operational business procedures to obtain and assess documentation in connection with suspected money laundering and to mitigate existing risks through certain payment methods,” the DGA wrote. In respect of PEP’s, Unibet was found to have had “deficient business practices” for dealing with sensitive individuals and their close business partners until 22 April 2021. “The DGA has also found violations of the Money Laundering Act’s rules on customer knowledge procedures, duty of investigation and duty of notification in connection with an inspection carried out by the authority of Unibet in continuation of a citizen inquiry about major games,” the DGA concluded. The Danish regulator has given Unibet and Kindred a deadline of two months to deal with its risk assessment violations, a deadline which could see the firm censured again in April should it be found not to have addressed concerns. In a statement provided to EGR, a spokesperson for Kindred Group acknowledged the “past failings” which led to the DGA’S reprimand. “Since then, Unibet has in collaboration with the Danish Gambling Authority updated its AML framework accordingly and will provide the DGA with an updated risk assessment. “Kindred Group have the ambition to demonstrate the highest quality and standards in the industry and we are pleased to see that the DGA have now acknowledged that the breaches no longer exists.” The spokesperson continued: “Kindred has corresponded with the DGA in the matter in an open, transparent and productive manner throughout the process. “We will continue with the collaboration and do everything necessary to further strengthen our control procedures maintaining our ambitions on offering high consumer safety and AML security.” The reprimand is Kindred’s second in the space of a week following revelations that its Norwegian subsidiary Trannel International could face a potential NOK437m (£36.2m) total coercive fine by the Norwegian Gambling Authority (NGA) over its failure to leave the market.