Whistleblower reporting; transmission of a whistleblowing alert in the event of breaches in the non-financial sector

If you have information about a violation of the Money Laundering Act in the non-financial sector, you can report this to the responsible government.

Money laundering is the process by which illegally obtained assets are smuggled into the legal economic cycle and removed from the reach of law enforcement authorities.

For this reason, the Money Laundering Act imposes specific obligations on representatives of certain professional groups to help prevent money laundering or the misuse of reputable companies for money laundering.

If you have information about possible or actual violations of the Money Laundering Act (for example: a company does not identify its contractual partners), you can report this to the competent supervisory authority either personally or anonymously.

Whistleblowers can make a valuable contribution to uncovering the misconduct of individuals or entire companies and to containing or correcting the negative consequences of this misconduct.

Whistleblowers are an important source of information for the supervisory authorities of the so-called non-financial sector (NFS). Such reports may contain confidential information that whistleblowers learn from their employment relationships or other contractual or confidential relationships and which they bring to the attention of the competent supervisory authority.

The competent supervisory authority investigates each tip-off and checks whether there has been a breach of supervisory regulations. The supervisory authority protects your identity by offering you the opportunity to submit your information anonymously via an electronic whistleblower system.

Responsible for receiving reports from

• Financial companies,
• insurance intermediaries,
• Service providers for companies and for trusts or trustees,
• real estate agents and
• goods dealers and
• art brokers

is

• in the administrative districts of Lower, Middle and Upper Franconia, Upper Palatinate and Swabia: the government of Middle Franconia
• in the administrative districts of Upper and Lower Bavaria: the government of Lower Bavaria

Information on violations in the context of money laundering supervision can be reported to the competent supervisory authority either personally or anonymously, regardless of a threshold value.

However, it should be noted that reporting via the anonymous whistleblower system is not the same as reporting a reportable suspected case to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), which is part of the customs authorities. If a suspicious case exists, it must always be reported to the FIU via the "goAML" portal (see "Related topics").

You can report violations of the Money Laundering Act to the responsible office(s) via the electronic whistleblower system online or in writing (while maintaining anonymity).

Written procedure:

• You prepare a written report on the potential or actual violation of the AMLA. If available, enclose evidence.
• Important: You can submit your report anonymously in any case.
• Submit the report to the competent supervisory authority (the government of Middle Franconia is responsible for the administrative districts of Lower, Middle and Upper Franconia, Upper Palatinate and Swabia and the government of Lower Bavaria is responsible for the administrative districts of Upper and Lower Bavaria). The competent supervisory authority is displayed in the BayernPortal after entering the location under "Responsible for you".
  The report can be submitted by post, by e-mail (via an e-mail address set up with subsequent deletion at short notice with immediate deletion) or via a lawyer.
  Upon receipt, the competent supervisory authority will check the reported information.
• If your contact details are available and the competent supervisory authority has any queries, your report may be discussed.
• In the case of an anonymous report, further processing will take place without contacting you.
• If the information indicates a suspected criminal offense, it will be forwarded to the local public prosecutor's office or police station and followed up there.