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Money Laundering Case Puts Spotlight On Law Firms' Use of Trust Accounts
A $3.5 billion asset forfeiture case that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) brought in July grabbed the public's attention for the alleged purchases involved: a luxury jet, a Beverly Hills mansion, Las Vegas casino junkets and a stake in the Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Wolf of Wall Street. See, “Big Law Firms Play Cameos in 'Wolf of Wall Street' Forfeiture Case,” Law.com.
But for experts in how law firms handle client funds, another detail in the case may merit special scrutiny. Prosecutors claim that prominent law firms used lawyer trust accounts to hold huge sums allegedly pilfered from the government of Malaysia and laundered through U.S. institutions.
According to the government, which did not charge the law firms with illegal or improper conduct, both Shearman & Sterling and DLA Piper used so-called interest on lawyer trust accounts (IOLTA, or IOLA in New York State) to hold more than half a billion dollars that was allegedly part of a massive money laundering scheme.
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