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#379372 - 06/30/05 04:13 PM Lawyers/Accountants "high risk"??
E.E.G.B Offline
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E.E.G.B
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 6,726
the sandy shore
Anyone else heard this? One of my clients was told that they should be considering attorneys and accountants as potentially high risk because the money they handle isn't or may not be their own. My client - which has a large credit card portfolio - is wondering how the heck they monitor for this. Obviously monitoring the account for normal business activity etc isn't difficult, but for things like cash advances, that's going to be trickier. How could you tell the person they have a cash advance limit of $5,000 but "oh, by the way, we want to know what you do with the money." That clearly isn't going to work.

Anyone else heard this or have any thoughts on the matter?
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#379373 - 06/30/05 04:15 PM Re: Lawyers/Accountants "high risk"??
Retired DQ Offline
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Posts: 40,766
Turnpike Exit 10
I have them on my watch list as high risk... Of course, we don't do credit cards, we are looking for cash activity and suspicious wires.
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#379374 - 06/30/05 04:40 PM Re: Lawyers/Accountants "high risk"??
Kathleen O. Blanchard Offline

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Kathleen O. Blanchard
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"Professionals" have been on the industry for some time, attorneys in particular. I haven't fully read the new guidance so don't know what that says yet! I know some banks that do a lot of law firm lending had to really do a lot of work to set a "normal" activity standard for each firm.
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#379375 - 06/30/05 05:30 PM Re: Lawyers/Accountants "high risk"??
David Dickinson Offline
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David Dickinson
Joined: Nov 2000
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Central City, NE
These professionals can not be exempted (under the current Phase II exemptions). The logic is "if they cannot be exempted, they must be a higher risk."
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#379376 - 07/05/05 12:41 PM Re: Lawyers/Accountants "high risk"??
MagicCity Offline

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MagicCity
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 3,003
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Lawyers and Accountants are considered high risk for AML purposes since they can create shell companies and fake documents.

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#379377 - 07/05/05 05:21 PM Re: Lawyers/Accountants "high risk"??
happyauditor Offline
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happyauditor
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 812
NY
see page 160 of the examination guidelines
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#379378 - 07/05/05 06:33 PM Re: Lawyers/Accountants "high risk"??
Anonymous
Unregistered

I've seen suspicous activity involving lawers. In each case, they were structuring cash deposits followed by wires to other countries.

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#379379 - 07/05/05 07:20 PM Re: Lawyers/Accountants "high risk"??
WildTurkey Offline
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WildTurkey
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 921
Down South, USA
Quote:

.... since they can create shell companies and fake documents.



That's strange synopsis of the reasons for classifying lawyers and accountants as high risk!
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