Anti-Money Laundering (AML) POLICY
17.11.2022
ARTICLE 1- COMPANY
GOCADA TEKNOLOJİ VE TİCARET LTD. ŞTİ is a company established under the laws of the Republic of Turkey and continues its commercial life in full compliance with the law.
ARTICLE 2- DEFINITIONS and ABBREVIATIONS
In this Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Policy;
Policy: This Policy on Prevention of Laundering Proceeds of Crime and Financing of Terrorism
Company/Gocada: GOCADA TEKNOLOJİ VE TİCARET LTD. ŞTİ
Cryptocurrency: Virtual currencies that are encrypted using special software algorithms and traded based on changing hands in a virtual environment. Cryptocurrencies do not have physical equivalents and are not under the supervision of any central registry institution, as is the case with official currencies under the supervision of central registry institutions in circulation. Cryptocurrencies are traded on digital databases called “Blockchain”. It is assumed by the Company that users know and understand the characteristics of cryptocurrencies.
FREITOKEN: A new token issued by the Company on the Ethereum blockchain with the ERC-20 token standard.
Platform: the crypto-asset trading system managed by Gocada, including all of its internet interfaces (APIs) and mobile applications
Site: the cryptocurrency trading system managed by the Company, including all web pages, web applications, application programming interfaces (APIs) and mobile applications offered through the websites
User: Within the scope of the Policy, to prevent any prejudice to the Company’s activities, the customers to whom this Policy is applied, the natural person who is a member of the Platform and benefits from the services offered on the Platform and accepts the matters in this Policy in return,
Cryptocurrency Wallets: Refers to virtual wallet addresses, each unique and non-repeating, that users can identify to their accounts,
KYC: Refers to Customer identification and verification
ARTICLE 3- PURPOSE
The purpose of this Policy on Prevention of Laundering Proceeds of Crime and Terrorist Financing is to reduce the risk by evaluating users, transactions and services within Gocada with a risk-based approach, to prevent the creation of an environment that will facilitate the laundering of proceeds of crime and the financing of terrorism, to raise awareness and information of employees in this direction, and in this context, to inform the User that the Company carries out its activities in accordance with the applicable legislation, especially the Law No. 5549 on the Prevention of Laundering Proceeds of Crime and the Law No. 6415 on the Prevention of Terrorist Financing. In this context, Gocada follows international and local policies and legal regulations which are elements of the global fight against Laundering Proceeds of Crime and Financing of Terrorism and carries out its activities in compliance with legal regulations.
At the same time, Gocada aims to,
Maintain the reputation and trust that its own brand carries, recognizing the customers with whom they establish a service relationship and being selective when establishing a service relationship, -Prevent the Site from turning into an environment that facilitates the laundering of criminal proceeds and the financing of terrorism by monitoring the transactions carried out by users, -Ensure that its employees are aware of and in compliance with legal regulations and internal policies and principles on the prevention of Laundering Proceeds of Crime and Financing of Terrorism, -Identify, rate, monitor and evaluate the risks to which it may be exposed and establish the necessary mechanisms to eliminate or manage the risks
ARTICLE 4- RISK ANALYSIS AND MONITORING
The purpose of Risk Analysis, Monitoring and Control activities is to protect, monitor and control the Company and the cryptocurrency trading platform against risks.
Gocada adopts a risk-based approach in monitoring the financial activities of its Clients and in order to prevent laundering proceeds of crime and financing of terrorism, Gocada may conduct risk analysis with the following methods and monitor the relevant Clients within the framework of the information obtained as a result of this analysis.
ARTICLE 5- CUSTOMER IDENTIFICATION and VERIFICATION (KYC)
The formal identification of Customers upon entry into commercial relationships is a vital element for both AML regulations and KYC policy.
Pursuant to Article 3 of Law No. 5549, obligors are obliged to determine the identities of those who make transactions and those on whose behalf or accounts transactions are made before the transactions are made in the transactions made before them and in the transactions they intermediate. In this context, the third section of the “Regulation on Measures to Prevent Laundering Proceeds of Crime and Financing of Terrorism” regulates “Principles regarding customer identification”.
In this context, Gocada,
-determines and confirms the valid identity and address information of potential customers/clients recognized by legal authorities before the establishment of the transaction and while maintaining a continuous business relationship. -determines the target of the user transactions (private or legal person who benefits as a result of the transaction) when necessary. -obtains information about the purpose and nature of the transaction that the user wants to perform. -monitors the status of the User’s use of the service and the transactions carried out by the User. -takes measures for the User or transactions that are deemed suspicious.
The membership of the persons is not approved, and their membership is terminated, when necessary, In the cases specified below by Gocada:
If the documents requested in the identity verification step are not uploaded to the Site by the user on time or at all, in case of an attempt to open a user account with a fake name or identity document
-Persons reported by local and international official organizations to be engaged in illegal activities, particularly under Laws No. 5549 and 6415 and related legislation -Persons whose identity information is not included in the list above, but whose Gocada records indicate that they have been involved in any financial crime, in particular money laundering or terrorist financing -User accounts found to be used in connection with betting and gambling and/or users found to be related to these accounts
The determinations that must be made by Gocada as a minimum within the scope of standard customer identification measures are listed below:
-Determination and confirmation of customer identity, address confirmation, real beneficiary, authorized representatives within the scope of legal legislation and Gocada Technology internal policies, -Screening clients for risks of being included on international sanctions lists (including country risk assessment), -Determining whether the client and parties related to the client are politically influential or connected to politically influential parties, -Investigating whether the client and client-related parties are associated with high-risk countries recognized under international sanctions and Gocada Internal Policies, -Determining whether someone else is acting on behalf of and/or on account of another person, -Monitoring customer transactions to detect unusual transactions, -Identification and confirmation of the source of income, -Receiving information about the reason for working with our company. Increased customer measures are also applied for customers deemed to be risky by Gocada at the time of customer acceptance or as a result of a subsequent risk assessment. Regardless of the result of the risk assessment, it may come to agenda to take increased measures and/or update monitoring activities within the framework of risky customer/transaction/sector assessments within the scope of national and international legislation and current company practices.
The determinations that should be made by Gocada as a minimum within the scope of enhanced customer measures are also included below:
-Identification of the customer, real beneficiary, authorized representative (including Gocada’s structure) and filtering against the risks of being included in international sanctions lists, -Approval of the customer relationship by the relevant business line management/senior management, -Identification and, where necessary, documentary confirmation of the client, the real beneficiary and his/her wealth, -Determining whether the client’s sources of funds and/or capital are easily and satisfactorily verified and, where necessary, documentary confirmation, -Examination of information and documents related to the justification for working with the company.
Even if private or legal persons who have the following features within the scope of the risk assessment are accepted as members of the Site, it is at the discretion of Gocada management whether to approve user accounts; only after the necessary examinations are made, membership is approved, or restricted access is provided:
-Non-govermental organizations, all associations, foundations, political parties and sports clubs, -MPs, political party representatives, regulatory authorities’ and bank employees, -Citizens or legal entities based in countries that restrict or completely ban the trading of cryptocurrencies.
Users whose account is under review or temporarily or permanently suspended due to any of the criteria in any of the foregoing items may be subject to a change of status at any time by Gocada, subject to change between each other, upon the necessity to be seen by Gocada.
ARTICLE 6- INTERNAL CONTROL ORGANIZATION
6.1. SUSPICIOUS TRANSACTION NOTIFICATION
A suspicious transaction is any information, suspicion or reason to suspect that the assets subject to the transaction made or attempted to be made in or through Gocada have been illegally obtained or used for illegal purposes, including for terrorist acts or used by terrorist organizations, terrorists or terrorist financiers, or related or connected to them.
The definition of suspicious transaction covers not only the illegal acquisition of the assets subject to the transaction, but also their use for illegal purposes, thus aiming to prevent the financing of terrorism (including its connection).
The Company does not provide any information to anyone, including the parties to the transaction, except for the information provided to the auditors assigned with liability audit and to the courts during the proceedings, that a suspicious transaction notification has been or will be made to national financial crime investigation bodies.
This obligation covers the persons, institutions and organizations reporting the suspicious transaction to national financial crime investigation bodies, or the members of these persons who actually carry out and manage the transaction, or their legal representatives and proxies, as well as other personnel who are aware of the notification of the suspicious transaction in any way.
6.2. RECORDING
Gocada manages the processes related to the obligation to provide information and documents within the scope of Articles 31, 32 and 33 of the “Regulation on Measures to Prevent Laundering Proceeds of Crime and Financing of Terrorism” and takes the necessary measures.
Gocada shall keep the documents related to its obligations (including training and internal audit) and transactions in all kinds of media for ten years from the date of issuance, books and records from the date of the last record; documents and records related to identification shall be kept for ten years from the date of the last transaction and shall be submitted to the authorities upon request.
6.3. TRAINING
Gocada provides training on laundering proceeds of crime and terrorist financing to all its personnel on the following topics:
-Definition and introduction of national financial crime investigation bodies, -Internal suspicious transaction reporting channels, -The concepts and legislation on laundering proceeds of crime and terrorist financing, -Determination of the stages and methods of laundering proceeds of crime and case studies on this subject, -What are the risk areas, -Principles related to customer verification
6.4. AUDIT
Gocada regularly generates reports on money laundering and terrorist financing activities through its internal audit mechanism.
ARTICLE 7- FINAL PROVISIONS
This Policy is an annex and integral part of the User Agreement currently in force between Gocada and the User. This policy text shall be subordinate to and valid together with the main agreement. No provision of the Policy may be interpreted separately or differently from the agreement, and in the event of a conflict between the two texts, the User Agreement shall prevail. Gocada may change the content of this Policy whenever it deems necessary. The updated Policy will enter into force on the date it is published on the Site. In case of any dispute, Gocada’s records alone shall prevail and shall be binding on the Users.