Part 3 – Register of Overseas Entities Offences Section 171: False statement offences in connection with information notices
This section substitutes section 15 of the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 (the Act) and adds section 15A and section 15B. New section 15 creates an offence related to section 12 and section 13 of the Act, in circumstances where a person fails to respond to a notice sent to them by an overseas entity without reasonable excuse. New section 15A provides that an offence is also committed if a person responds to a notice given by an overseas entity under section 12 or section 13 of the Act, but makes a statement that is false in a material particular.
	Section 15 as drafted within the Act currently restricts the false statement offence to being committed when a person knowingly or recklessly makes a false statement in responds to a notice. The new section 15A and section 15B amend this offence to change the threshold to be met for commission of the offence, by splitting it into two separate offences.
	Section 15A introduces the first new offence, called the "basic offence" which is committed when a person, without reasonable excuse, a person makes a statement that they know to be false, misleading or deceptive in a material particular. Subsection (2) states that if the offence is committed by a legal entity, the offence is also committed by every officer of the entity who is in default. A person found guilty of this offence will be subject to a fine (subsection (3)).
	Section 15B introduces an "aggravated offence" of knowingly making a statement that is false, misleading or deceptive in a material particular in response to a notice sent by an overseas entity under section 12 or section 13 of the Act. If the offence is committed by a legal entity, it is also committed by every officer of the entity who is in default (subsection (2)). Subsection (3) outlines the penalty for a person guilty of the offence; this can be a prison sentence and/or a fine.
	The effect of the new sections is that:
the "basic offence" requires a person charged with it to provide evidence of any "reasonable excuse" they may have for committing the offence (for example, they may have relied on information that they did not, at the time, have cause to believe was false, misleading or deceptive);
the "aggravated offence" carries a more severe sentence when the person has deliberately made a statement that is false, misleading or deceptive; and
the offence is consistent with that at section 32 of the Act ("General false statement offence").