Bownet – Identifying the Beneficial Owner of legal entities in the fight against money laundering – is a project carried out in 2012-2013 with the financial support from the Prevention of and Fight against Crime Programme of the European Union – European Commission, DG Home Affairs.
The project is a feasibility study aimed at assessing what is necessary to develop an intelligent system able to search and integrate information on the beneficial owner of legal entities anti-money laundering and other financial investigations.
The project benefits a wide range of stakeholders at EU and international levels: Financial Intelligence Units, Asset Recovery Offices, Law Enforcement Agencies specialized in the fight against financial crime but also credit institutions, legal professions and other intermediaries subject to Directive 2005/60/EC (Third AML Directive).
The project was developed by a consortium constituted by:
Transcrime – Project coordinator
www.transcrime.it
Transcrime is the Research Centre on Transnational Crime of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano.
EBR – European Business Register
www.ebr.org
The European Business Register (EBR) is a network of National Business Registers and Information Providers from currently 26 European countries. The EBR provides easy access to European company information online fresh from the source – each country’s official register.
Direction V (anti Financial crime), Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance
www.dt.tesoro.it
The Direction V– Prevention of the use of the financial system for illegal purposes – of the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) analyses the vulnerabilities of the Italian financial system to money laundering, terrorist financing, usury and other financial crimes.
FIU Denmark / SAOEK - State Prosecutor for serious Economic Crime
The FIU Denmark – as a unit under the State Prosecutor for Serious Economic Crime – was set up in 1993, where Denmark implemented the first EU Money Laundering Directive. The FIU Denmark receives reports of suspected laundering of proceeds of crime or financing of terrorism from the institutions and individuals subject to e.g. the Danish Act on Measures to Prevent Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism.
PricewaterhouseCoopers S.p.A.
www.pwc.com
PricewaterhouseCoopers S.p.A. provides industry-focused assurance, tax and advisory services to build public trust and enhance value for its clients and their stakeholders.
Project Bownet has finished on 21st November 2012. All the materials produced by the project can be found in the Materials section.

Co-funded by the Prevention of and Fight against Crime Programme of the European Union