The Risks Posed to Chartered Accountants by the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002

INTRODUCTION

The role of Chartered Accountants has increased exponentially in the modern-day business environment. Gone are the days when the question of whether a Chartered Accountant conducting an audit was expected to be a watchdog or a bloodhound. The enlarged scope of audit/ compliance and the multifaceted advisory services rendered in today’s complex business environment by Chartered Accountants have opened them up to numerous regulatory and compliance-related challenges. We can see that Chartered Accountants are being called in for questioning by investigating agencies when a client’s affairs are the subject matter of investigation. Much unlike a Lawyer, the communication between a client and a Chartered Accountant does not get covered within the ambit of ‘legal privilege/privileged communication’ even though modern-day Chartered Accountants render a raft of quasi-legal services. With mushrooming of various tribunals before which Chartered Accountants has the right to represent, the risks they are exposed to in dispensing quasi-legal services need to be looked into given the numerous statutory laws that can cause an individual or professional firm to land in hot waters.

The last decade has witnessed sea changes in the regulation of economic activities. A number of legislations have now granted mandates to specialized agencies to detect and