The practical applicability of the concept of the beneficial owner in non-profit legal entities

Abstract

This research is focussed on evaluating the practical applicability of the concept of the beneficial owner in a special type of legal persons—non-profit entities. Specifically, such legal persons as cooperative societies, political parties and alliances thereof, associations and foundations, as well as religious organisations and their institutions are examined. The aim of this research is to analyse the norms that prescribe the legal definition of the beneficial owner and methods of control exercised thereof with respect to non-profit entities and substantiate the necessity to improve these norms to have a larger public credibility of information registered in the public register. In order to achieve this aim, such research methods as doctrinal analysis of the relevant legal norms on beneficial owners of non-profit entities, as well as case studies to illustrate the current practice of registration of the beneficial owners are applied. The principal conclusion of this research is that non-profit entities are underregulated in the anti-money laundering (AML) field, and legal framework on their beneficial owners needs serious amendments to achieve accuracy, consistency and public credibility of the information that non-profit entities submit to the Register of Enterprises as regards their beneficial owners. Keywords: beneficial owners, non-profit entities, public register, Register of Enterprises, technical beneficial owner.