Billion-dollar money laundering case: 4 law firms linked to seized properties named, 2 more identified and reprimanded

ENFORCEMENT ACTION TAKEN

All law practices and lawyers are subject to anti-money laundering obligations under the Legal Profession Act 1966. These include performing an adequate analysis of the risks of money laundering in relation to each client and performing customer due diligence measures that are in line with a client’s risk profile. Lawyers and law firms also have to file a suspicious transaction report with the police if they have reasonable grounds to suspect that a client might be engaged in money laundering.

Expanding on the enforcement action taken, the ministry said Anthony Law Corporation had acted for nine clients to convey 25 properties valued at around S$135 million in total. According to MinLaw, its breaches included inadequate scrutiny of the transactions, which was not commensurate with the clients’ and transactions’ money laundering risks. “Anthony Law Corporation did not corroborate or verify the clients’ explanations for why the transactions were being funded by seemingly unrelated third parties, even though these were red flags,” it said. The firm also failed to comply with documentation requirements. If a law practice or lawyer decides to continue to act for the client despite suspicions of money laundering, they must substantiate and document the reasons for this and adopt commensurate risk…