All posts by Martin Livingston

About Martin Livingston

Email: [email protected]
Tel: +1 345 814 5380
Martin oversees the firm's Regulatory & Financial Services group and is an industry recognised specialist in all aspects of regulatory, licensing, risk management, information disclosure and anti-money laundering matters. He regularly assists clients in their relationship with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, Tax Information Authority and other government agencies. Martin also advises on a range of regulatory aspects including licence applications and cross border conduct of business advice, financial services terms and conditions, mandatory reporting and information exchange (including FATCA, the Common Reporting Standard and other tax or regulatory information exchange mechanisms), duties of confidentiality, sanctions, anti-corruption and bribery, as well as anti-money laundering and combating of terrorist financing advice.

Cayman Islands – Business Crime 2015

1 General Criminal Law Enforcement

1.1 What authorities can prosecute business crimes, and are there different enforcement authorities at the national and regional levels?

There are no regional levels separate from the national level in the Cayman Islands.

In terms of actual criminal prosecution, the Director of Public Prosecutions (the “DPP“) is the Cayman Islands’ government’s principal legal adviser on criminal proceedings and is responsible for all criminal proceedings brought within the Cayman Islands.  The DPP can bring prosecutions in the Cayman Islands Summary Court, Grand Court and Court of Appeal.  The DPP is also responsible for international cooperation on mutual legal assistance and extradition matters.

The position of DPP was created by Section 57 of the Cayman Islands Constitution 2009, with the islands’ first DPP appointed by the Governor on 1 May 2011.  Criminal proceedings were undertaken by either the Solicitor General’s or the Attorney-General’s office prior to the creation of the position.

In terms of law enforcement authorities, the key authority is the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service (the “RCIPS“).  Business crimes are investigated by the Financial Crimes Unit (the “FCU“) of the RCIPS.

1.2  If there are more than one set of enforcement agencies, please describe how decisions on which body will investigate and prosecute a matter are made.

This is not applicable.

1.3  Is there any civil or administrative enforcement against business crimes? If so, what agencies enforce the laws civilly and which crimes do they combat?

The Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (the “CIMA“) is the sole financial services regulator and has a function of both prudential supervision and compliance by financial service providers with the anti-money laundering regime.  CIMA’s regulatory enforcement powers include the ability to suspend or remove directors, revoke licences or impose conditions on a licensee, impose fines, appoint controllers or auditors over a company and apply to the Court for orders necessary to carry out its regulatory/supervisory functions or to intervene in a liquidation.  Financial service providers will usually be licensed or registered by CIMA under a regulatory law, under which certain offences may be technically regarded as criminal offences, given the penalties they carry.  Any regulatory offence would be prosecuted by the DPP.

Any money laundering offence would also be prosecuted by the DPP, under the Proceeds of Crime Law, 2008 (the “PCL“).  Under the PCL, the DPP is permitted to bring civil actions for the restraint and seizure of assets involved in money laundering, in addition to the ability to bring charges and prosecute criminally.

To read the full article please click here.

This article appeared in the 2015 edition of The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Business Crime; published by Global Legal Group Ltd, London in October 2014. Click here to view the publication’s website.