Not only was the film watchable and user friendly, he explains, but the scenarios and messages resonated with his team, so much so that one team member made a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) soon after viewing the drama.

“It definitely helped that it was all so fresh in his mind,” says Seitler. “He’d watched this film and then a week later this matter came up. So it worked in that respect. It obviously hit a nerve. Of course, he may well have picked it up anyway with his existing knowledge of AML, but I think the film brought it to the forefront of his mind.”

“You can read about certain things or situations,” he adds. “But you don’t really think: ‘Well hang on, this can actually happen’. Whereas when you’ve got professional actors acting out a situation, it hits a lot harder and really drives the point home.”

Seitler found the scenarios in the film resonated with his team on several levels. “It was very relevant to us; we do payrolls and there were issues in the film around people being paid on the payroll. These are exactly the sort of areas we work with, and we also deal with restaurants.” 

Out of hand

“The film showed how quickly things can get out of hand to the point where you’ve got the police knocking at the door,” he adds. “It highlighted that there’s more to AML than just checking people’s passports.”

“Getting ID is great, and we all do that, but the example of bringing in a new capital investor, Mika, really hit home the need to always check any money that’s being introduced and what we’re being told about it.” 

“Another point the film brought home,” he says, “was that everyone was relying on everyone else having done their checks, yet the checks hadn’t been done. It’s not necessarily about picking up every single case of criminal activity – it’s in the nature of criminals that they hide it very well – but it’s whether we, as accountants, can show we’ve done our bit by doing our checks and considering the risks.”

A polished product 

All the staff at M Seitler & Co watched the film. “I think it was relevant to every team member because it’s pitched at a level that anybody could understand; you don’t need accountancy training,” Seitler explains. “So I passed it on to administrative and support staff too, including my PA. It’s relevant to her as well because she could come across something.”

Seitler would recommend the film to colleagues and other firms as a good way of ensuring staff are up to date with AML issues. “The film is very user friendly, with good quality acting – a polished product,” he says. “I think our staff found it helpful and I got a very good response from them. It’s much more powerful than a webinar and definitely better than reading through pages of text.”

He also believes the film will be useful for refresher training in future. “We’d be very happy to watch it again,” he says. “And I’d welcome more material like this; it was so easy to watch and on a subject that is a very important part of our work now.”