Article 4 Freezing of funds on suspicion

Where the Treasury have reasonable grounds for suspecting that any funds held by any person are or may be—

the Treasury may by notice direct that those funds are not to be made available to that government or that person, except under the authority of a licence granted by the Treasury under article 5.

A notice given under paragraph (1) shall specify the period for which it is to have effect, which shall be not longer than 5 working days.

In paragraph (2), “working day” means any day other than Saturday, a Sunday, Christmas Day, Good Friday or a day which is a bank holiday under the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971^f1 in any part of the United Kingdom.

The Treasury may by notice revoke a direction under paragraph (1) at any time.

The expiry or revocation of a direction shall not affect the application of article 3 in respect of the funds in question.

A notice under paragraph (1) or (4) shall be given in writing to the person holding the funds in question (“the recipient”), and shall require the recipient to send a copy of the notice without delay to the person whose funds they are, or on whose behalf they are held (“the owner”).

A recipient shall be treated as complying with that requirement if, without delay, he sends a copy of the notice to the owner at his last-known address or, if he does not have an address for the owner, he makes arrangements for a copy of the notice to be supplied to the owner at the first available opportunity.

Any person who contravenes a direction under paragraph (1) is guilty of an offence.

A recipient who fails to comply with such a requirement as is mentioned in paragraph (6) is guilty of an offence.