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Feb.09, 2010, 22:39:26 GMT+0800

Bank accounts held by lawyers for clients may be subject to more government scrutiny after a federal report detailed how African politicians and their families used attorneys and other intermediaries to evade U.S. money laundering laws.

The U.S. Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found that attorney-client accounts represent a major loophole in anti-money laundering provisions through which corrupt foreign individuals can move millions of dollars. Its 325-page report, released last week, revealed that Chicago-based Sidley Austin transferred about $21 million for a government official in Equatorial Guinea who long had been suspected of misappropriating the country's oil and timber wealth for personal again.

The report recommends that lawyers certify that their attorney-client accounts do not accept suspect funds involving politically exposed persons, known as PEPs, who have been flagged for dubious activities. The additional regulatory oversight could be problematic for large, multinational law firms, such as Sidley, that are more likely to have foreign clients, experts said.

"Larger law firms are certainly more likely to come into contact with suspicious transactions where money laundering could be facilitated," said Jeffrey Cramer, a former federal prosecutor who heads the Chicago office of Kroll, a risk-consulting company.

The report also highlights some of the ambiguity faced by lawyers in complying with money laundering laws. Sidley sought clearance from the Department of Justice to make sure the $21 million wire transfer did not violate the law, the report says.

"It's pretty clear from the report that we did what we were supposed to do," said Janet Zagorin, a spokeswoman for the firm.

Lawyers are not the only gatekeepers of financial transactions who could face more disclosure. Gaps in the Patriot Act allow real estate and escrow agents to handle money without verifying the source of funds.

The exemptions allowed Teodor Obiang, son of the president of Equatorial Guinea, to move more than $110 million into the United States from 2004 through 2008, the report said.

Obiang hired Sidley in February 2005 to help him buy a Gulfstream jet. He sent about $21 million to an escrow account associated with Gulfstream, but the deal was not concluded. Sidley agreed to accept the funds from Gulfstream after obtaining permission from the Justice Department.

The law firm kept the money for four months, said the report, which did not identify the Sidley lawyers who represented Obiang. The firm then transferred more than $1 million in two separate transactions to two different escrow accounts. It also withdrew about $266,000 to cover legal fees Obiang owed the firm. The remaining $19.5 million eventually went back to a bank in Equatorial Guinea.

Obiang also used two California lawyers who helped him funnel money into the U.S. by setting up accounts for shell companies with names like Beautiful Vision, Unlimited Horizon and Sweet Pink.

Regulating lawyers and other intermediaries may sound like a good idea but in practice could be very difficult to enforce considering there are a lot more lawyers than bankers, said Robert Axelrod, a director with Deloitte Financial Advisory Services.

Briefly: Michael Sheehan joined Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker as a partner in its employment practice. He previously had been with a boutique firm he co-founded that merged with Drinker Biddle & Reath in 2008.