Anti-Money Laundering
Regulations governing cross-border transactions have become increasingly stringent in recent years in order to protect against the possibility of money laundering, terrorist financing, and other financial crimes. Failure to comply with these rules can result in burdensome fines and other penalties that can severely damage any business enterprise.
Maintaining scrupulous anti-money laundering and compliance programs lowers the risk of government scrutiny and offers a meaningful defense to regulatory investigations. Lowenstein Sandler’s Anti-Money Laundering team works very closely with our clients and their counterparties to address all aspects of their AML and other compliance requirements.
Our clients include leading private equity funds, venture capital funds, hedge funds, and a wide variety of other pooled investment vehicles, as well as other financial industry participants, investors, family offices, foundations, operating companies and many other enterprises. We work closely with our clients to develop operating procedures, regulatory protocols, and standardized applications to maintain comprehensive compliance with all anti-money laundering (AML), Know Your Customer (KYC), Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), Common Reporting Standard (CRS), Office of Foreign Asset Controls (OFAC) sanctions and other regulatory regimes, including with respect to the onboarding of investment funds and other entities at financial institutions across North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
Our services include:
- Assessments of AML and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) systems and controls
- Development and review of policies and procedures, certifications and registrations, beneficial ownership and other due diligence disclosures
- Reviewing all AML aspects of corporate and investment transactions, including policies and representations
- Negotiating regulatory registrations in connection with the onboarding of client entities in foreign jurisdictions
- Consulting and advising on AML reporting-related obligations
Lowenstein Sandler’s AML team serves as a trusted partner to legal and compliance officers, and others for whom these compliance obligations are required, providing forward-thinking legal and practical advice tailored to their specific business needs.
In novel areas of finance where the legal rules are still evolving, such as FinTech and cryptocurrency, we help our clients set the standard — with best practices that not only comply with current regulations, but with how those regulations are likely to evolve in the future.
We also fully collaborate with lawyers throughout our firm in our global trade, litigation, government investigations, white collar defense, tax, and financial regulatory practices to provide comprehensive counsel on a variety of related matters, including, for example:
- USA PATRIOT Act
- Common Reporting Standard (CRS)
- Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)
- The Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), as amended by the AML Act of 2020
- The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA)
- Office of Foreign Asset Controls (OFAC) sanctions and equivalent laws in other countries
- The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)
