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Private Equity Firms May Escape AML Oversight
By Matt Squire
printIn the rush to better regulate the anti-crime controls of financial firms, international authorities may be ignoring a rarely abused but highly lucrative financial instrument: private equity funds. The funds, which have been included in Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) oversight proposals floated by the U.S. Treasury Department, accounted for $721 billion in financial transactions in 2007, and earned investors $1.12 trillion in net profits in 2008, according to the Washington D.C.-based industry group, The Private Equity Council. While U.S. proposals to regulate the funds for money laundering risks have yet to gain traction, the funds were left out altogether in...
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