News

The efforts of McAfee & Taft aviation attorney Scott D. McCreary to thwart a money laundering scheme by a family member of an African dictator in 2006 were highlighted in an article in the ABA Journal that examined the role that lawyers and nonfinancial gatekeepers can and should play in preventing illegal money laundering. The article lauded McCreary and the firm for cancelling a proposed aircraft purchase transaction due to their concerns about the origins of the buyer’s money.

According to the article, “… McAfee’s handling of the matter, despite the lack of any mandatory requirements governing his actions, was hailed as model behavior four years later during a U.S. Senate hearing focusing on how actions—or inactions—by lawyers and other professionals can facilitate illegal money-laundering efforts by international criminals and terrorists. Indeed, the aborted jet deal was exactly the kind of big-dollar transaction by high-risk foreign nationals that the Justice Department, and Congress, want lawyers to do more to prevent in the future.”

You can read the entire article here.