rate in the country of tax residence of the client"? This certainly is making it easier, but still the tax 
laws of the countries of tax residence of all clients have to be constantly monitored, staff trained and 
this training updated regularly. 
Finally, a somewhat un-easing finding when thinking about offshore tax crime to be included as on- 
shore predicate offence. The large variety of ranges of sentences for ML with tax crime as predicate 
offence in the countries above, let alone those countries where direct taxes are unknown like the Gulf 
countries, leads to unequal treatment among the client relationship managers in financial institutions 
and designated non-financial businesses and professions (the so called DNFBPs) in the financial cen- 
tres. Who wants to run the risk of being punished as money launderer when his or her client has lied 
over and over again and abused a business relationship to launder proceeds of a tax crime while the 
colleague next door doesn't even have to bother? The additional risk that client relationship managers 
run on markets with tax crimes as predicate offences to ML may even lead to unwanted consequences 
that weaken the AML/CFT-system of a country. How? Those client relationship managers who are 
sensitive to risk may choose to work on markets without tax crimes as predicate offences to ML (or 
even switch to non-client-facing jobs at all, which can be observed today), leaving the hunters with a 
big risk appetite among the client relationship managers on the markets with tax crime as predicate 
offence to ML. Is this what the FATF wants? Every financial institution, DNFBP and country wishes 
for the contrary: that the most risk averse client relationship managers work with clients from those 
markets with the biggest risks. 
3.4 Criminal law and financial market law 
From a client's point of view, financial market law doesn't matter in tax crime situations. A client of a 
financial intermediary who wants to avoid tax illegally is not bothered by the risks financial market 
law wants to mitigate, e.g. counterparty risk, liquidity risk, market risk, systemic risk, etc. 
Criminal law as part of the regulation of financial markets seems to be not very relevant for the stabil- 
ity of the financial market; it is a mere tool to enforce the measures set in force to mitigate the above 
risks. Hence the question arises whether the financial market's stability depends upon the definition of 
tax crimes as predicate offences to ML. The answer based on the impact of the tax crimes being predi- 
cate offences to ML on the risks mentioned above tends to be a No, but for the reputation of the finan- 
cial market it may well be important. Every scandal of a politically exposed person being involved in a 
tax fraud is weakening the general public's faith in the good governance of financial institutions and 
  
1? The FINMA AML-Ordinance (Geldwüschereiverordnung-FINMA) can be found (in German only) at 
https://www.admin.ch/opc/de/classified-compilation/20143112/index.html, accessed on April 3, 2016. 
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