Regulatory criticism and a series of recent judgments against U.K. law firms caught acting as financial intermediaries for criminals has fueled perceptions of widespread compliance vulnerabilities throughout the legal sector. In a 51-page report, the United Kingdom's National Crime Agency (NCA) said last month that the legal profession facilitates complex money-laundering activity by establishing corporate networks to shield the identities of their clients, acquiring assets on their behalf with illicit proceeds and ignoring suspicious activity. "The involvement of a legal professional in a transaction, and the presumption, therefore, that due diligence enquiries have been completed, may very likely lead to...
A planned overhaul of the U.K.'s database of suspicious activity reports won't be completed for another three years at the soonest, despite calls from British lawmakers to replace the system by December.
print