Anti-Money Laundering Enforcement Update

Amplifying the likely effect of this legislation, these law enforcement tools will be handed to new DOJ leadership under the incoming Biden administration, which is expected to be more focused on white collar crime than the outgoing administration, and more willing to investigate mainstream U.S. companies, including depository and non-depository financial institutions.

Looking ahead, several likely enforcement trends are worth highlighting:

• Increased willingness to bring enforcement actions against mainstream U.S. companies for AML/CFT compliance lapses;
• Heightened focus on complicit professionals, such as bankers, accountants, and real estate professionals, whose conduct may also expose employers to vicarious liability;
• Enforcement related to the new corporate beneficial ownership registry created by the 2020 AMLA; and
• Iincreased focus on transnational illicit finance, including through cooperation with foreign counterparts.

Increased Enforcement Risk for AML/CFT Compliance Lapses

The Department of the Treasury, in its most recent National Illicit Finance Strategy, identified ongoing corporate compliance weaknesses as one of the U.S. financial system's key vulnerabilities to money laundering and other illicit finance. It is reasonable to expect that the incoming Biden administration, with its appetite to address perceived corporate misconduct, will channel law enforcement resources to this area. And when it does so, it will have new tools available to it under the 2020 AMLA that merit the attention of corporate counsel.