The Londoner

Tens of billions of dollars every year move through opaque law-firm bank accounts that create a gap in U.S. money-laundering defences , according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. These accounts were used by suspects in a multibillion-dollar scandal involving a Malaysian state investment fund known as 1MDB , according to a Justice Department description of events. They also played a part in  a Florida Ponzi scheme , in a case related to an  official of Equatorial Guinea  and in a dozen other U.S. money-laundering cases over the past decade, case records show. Law firms lump together client money they are holding for short periods, such as while real-estate sales are pending, into pooled bank accounts , and the law firms face no requirement to disclose whose cash is in the accounts. Banks say they generally see only a law firm’s name. Money often stays in the accounts for only a few days or weeks. At the request of law firms’ clients, funds can be se...