(0.5 Ethics California MCLE)

When criminals use shell companies, offshore bank accounts, and real estate as money laundering vehicles, lawyers, whether knowingly or unknowingly, assist these transactions. Professor William Simon explains how an unwitting lawyer could be complicit in the money laundering enterprise, the basics of money laundering laws and the risk factors, and suggests best practices for lawyers. Simon reviews transcripts from anti-corruption organization Global Witness from their 2016 sting operation where they secretly interviewed a number of New York lawyers seeking advice to launder fictional funds.

William H. Simon is the Arthur Levitt Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. Simon has also been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. From 1981 to 2003, Simon was on the faculty of Stanford Law School, and he is the emeritus holder of the Gertrude and William Saunders Chair there.