Duty to identify

Since 2 February 2004, when performing certain activities on behalf of their clients, lawyers have been subject to the preventive section of the money laundering legislation (Act of 11 January 1993 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for money laundering and terrorist financing). This legislation aims to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing and, to that end, imposes a number of mandatory obligations on lawyers, non-compliance with which may result in disciplinary sanctions and administrative fines.

Firstly, our lawyers are required to identify our clients and to request and retain a number of documents attesting to that identity. Throughout the client relationship, lawyers are also subject to a duty of vigilance which may result in additional information being required. We have this duty of information and vigilance not only with regard to our clients – natural and legal persons – themselves, but also with regard to their agents, such as company directors.

When, in the course of carrying out the activities envisaged by the law, lawyers discover facts which they know or suspect to be related to money laundering or terrorist financing, they must immediately report this to their President of the Bar, except when their activities are aimed at determining the legal position of their client or defending or representing their client in (connection with) a lawsuit. It is the President of the Bar who will make the decision whether or not to forward the information received to the Financial Information Processing Unit.

These obligations obviously do not affect the professional secrecy that continues to characterise the relationship between the client and his lawyer.

A new name, an ancient symbol

‘Obolos’ profiles itself as a high quality law firm within a niche of corporate law.

The firm was founded in 2005 under the name “Derycke & Vandenberghe lawyers.

A good 20 years later, there was a growing realization that, despite the firm’s name recognition and reputation, a new name would help the growth of younger talent and raise the profile of younger partners and associates.

Thus began a collective search for a suitable name. A name with meaning, anchored in a past and universally recognizable, with symbolic power as well as meaning within our fields of work.

Obolos ultimately had our preference.

What is an obolos?

‘Obolos’ is an ancient Greek currency whose Dutch name sounds familiar to all: obool.

Originally, the obool is a measure by which weights were expressed. No one knows when its name and use originated, but it is reasonably assumed that its historical origins are at least three thousand years old. It is also a coin with an extremely long history: the last obool was minted around 1700.

In classical Greece, the coin was commonly used throughout the sphere of influence of Greek civilization. Its best-known version is the Athenian: a silver coin with the image of patron goddess Athena on the obverse and an owl on the reverse, often in the company of an olive branch.

As a result, the coin has become the bearer of a rich symbolism. Athena is the goddess of wisdom and, armed if necessary, protects civilization. The owl is to this day the symbol par excellence of wisdom and insight, and the ancients also saw the owl as a messenger of prosperity and destiny (“fortuna”). Even the olive branch, after thousands of years, has lost nothing of its power as a symbol of peace and prosperity….

Wisdom, prosperity, protection … all are the values for which the “new” Obolos wants to stand. Your interests, your prosperity must be protected by our commitment. A commitment in decisiveness and wisdom.

So universal was the obool that it was even considered a mythological currency. In ancient Greece, the obool was given to allow the deceased to reach Hades, the afterlife. Hades now could only be reached by crossing the subterranean river Styx by ferry, a ferry operated by Charon the gloomy ferryman.

An unpaid Charon meant no crossing and therefore no peace of soul.

The connection to our field of work

As a consulting firm, Obolos has profiled itself as a supporting partner within processes of transformation: business transfers, complex reorganizations, structured wealth planning, …

Our lawyers realize that these processes have much in common with a journey: they require effort, time and … a goal. The obool is therefore the symbol of the contribution our office intends to make to the realization of your trajectory. Obolos wants to be your experienced guide, protect your well-being, reach your goal with you. Your passport and your pass currency.

Transactions, transformations, succession: no process can be properly managed without fiscal support. The words of American statesman Benjamin Franklin have lost nothing of their accuracy: “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

Not surprisingly does the obool also symbolizes the tax/burden that each of these events undergoes. But the right burden is only that which is inescapable. The ferryman must be paid but paid correctly. Obolos also provides tax advice for your proposed transactions and assists you with tax analyses and optimizations.

Obolos as guide and counselor: practical legal wisdom.