Accountant who worked with law firm in Panama Papers scandal faces ID theft, as well as money laundering charges

Tweet Accountant Richard Gaffey, who was charged with money laundering offences, among others, in connection with the Panama Papers scandal must face charges of identity theft at his trial in connection with working with the law firm Mossack Fonseca, a judge ruled last week in New York. Gaffey had applied to have the ID theft […]

Over 20% of lawyers in UK not complying with anti-money laundering law

Tweet According to this article in the Financial Times, 20% of lawyers in the UK are not complying with federal anti-money laundering laws. Unlike the US and Canada, in the UK, lawyers are reporting entities and must conduct bank-level AML to onboard and report suspicious and other threshold financial transactions externally. The findings come amid […]

8 questions you may have had about the movie “The Laundromat” and yes, there are British Columbia connections

Tweet Part 1 – Background Skip this Part 1 if you know about Mossack Fonseca and shell and shelf companies. The movie The Laundromat is about lawyers and big law firms and the system that fuels offshore money movements, often involving the proceeds of crime. The movie is about a big law firm called Mossack Fonseca that […]

Law firms flipping shelf and shell companies

Tweet Shell games US law enforcement agencies recently signalled that they were stepping up enforcement, inter alia, in two ways: (a) as against professional money launderers; and (b) as against shell and shelf companies that law firms flip to clients. Professional money launderers under scrutiny, the FBI explained recently, are accountants, hawalas, lawyers and individuals, […]

US lawyer who resold shell companies for an issuer, settles with SEC

Tweet SEC Settlement A New Jersey lawyer, Gregg Jaclin, entered into a settlement agreement (available from the SEC online here) with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC“) earlier this fall in respect of several allegations, including over the practice of the creation and resale of shell companies. The settlement states that two defendants ran […]