The Law Society has issued a warning to its members regarding two areas of litigation that have become the targets of money launderers. The two favourite targets are debt recovery and matrimonial litigation.

According to the Law Society Gazette, guidance to help firms avoid being the victim of fraudsters has been reissued by Chancery Lane.

There is, according to the article, a perception that solicitors engaging in litigation may not be sufficiently vigilant on client due diligence that has lead both money launderers and fraudsters to target law firms.

In the case of debt recovery, the bogus client poses as the director or manager of a company and askes an SME law firm to help recover a debt.

"Before the firm has even written the first letter of demand, they will be contacted by the debtor," goes the story. "The debtor will say they received a letter from the client company advising that they had now put the matter in the hands of the lawyer and provided your details to them. The debtor sends a cheque to settle the bill in full. The solicitor pays the sum, less their fees to the client's account."

There are two issues, according to the Law Society: a possible breach of the accounts rules by providing a banking facility and a risk that the firm has moved the proceeds of a crime.

The scam regarding matrimonial litigation runs thus:

"Individuals, who are usually presenting themselves as foreign nationals, are contacting solicitors by email and asking them to help enforce a collaborative law agreement arising out of their divorce some years ago. They say that they believe that the other party is in your jurisdiction, provide a generic email address but no postal address for the other party, and a copy of the agreement."

The agreement does not, however, give any indication of the court or even the jurisdiction in which it was made. There is mention made of the lawyers who allegedly acted for each party but no other information. The contents of the agreement offer nothing of substance. In one case, according to the guidance, a completely different person to the prospective client was named as a party to the agreement.

The attraction of the methodology for criminals is that 'reasonable' sums of money can be moved through a lawyer's account. They also gain access to signatures and other account details for use in a later fraud.

The Law Society suggests that the subject be of use as anti-money laundering updates for staff.

Picture courtesy of www.freeimages.co.uk

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