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Art Industry’s Vulnerability to Financial Crimes Under Increased Scrutiny in US

By Valentina Pasquali

New U.S. guidance that outlines the flow of embezzled proceeds and other illicit funds through galleries, auction houses and firms that trade paintings, sculptures and other valuable works of art amplifies longstanding calls to bolster oversight of the largely unregulated industry. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, published an advisory Friday that highlights how the art sector's keenness on confidentiality and reliance on shell companies and other intermediaries to conduct transactions enables U.S.-blacklisted parties to launder their criminal gains below the radar of governments and financial institutions alike. "The mobility, concealability and subjective value of artwork...

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