A former managing director of a Jersey trust company has been banned from working in the finance industry after regulators found he exposed both his business and the Island to “significant financial crime risks”.
David George Jenner was a long-standing principal person of Lutea Holdings Limited and Lutea Trustees Limited, where he served as Managing Director from 1993 to 2019 and Group Chair until 2022.
An on-site examination of Lutea Holdings Limited was undertaken in 2019 by the Jersey Financial Services Commission following concerns over the company’s compliance with financial regulations.
When this examination identified “serious deficiencies”, Lutea was placed under full investigation in 2020.
Among the investigation’s findings were that Lutea had “inadequate” procedures for identifying individuals at greater risk of involvement in bribery and corruption – and rated one risky client as “low risk” for more than a decade.
It was also found to lack a clear policy for identifying politically exposed people, leaving it “vulnerable” to money laundering and terrorism financing risks.
At the time, the JFSC said the firm’s board was “ineffective, lacked awareness of regulatory requirements and engendered an organisational culture without due regard for compliance”.
The JFSC confirmed in 2023 that it had settled with the business, but did not provide details of the settlement.
Now, they have handed down a judgment banning Mr Jenner from taking on any positions within a regulated business.
According to the JFSC’s decision, he “failed to prioritise compliance matters, demonstrated a lack of awareness of regulatory requirements, and engendered an organisational culture without due regard for compliance”.
The regulator concluded that his failings caused and contributed to “significant and material contraventions” of Jersey’s regulatory framework between 2018 and 2021, and that his conduct “exposed Lutea and Jersey to significant financial crime risks”.
The work ban will remain until Mr Jenner successfully applies to have the ban lifted. If any person or firm within the finance sector employs him before the ban lifts, they will be committing an offence, the JFSC said.