True crime, real consequences – the ethical role of lawyers in preventing money laundering

True crime, real consequences

The ethical role of lawyers in preventing money laundering

People don’t often think about it, but at the centre of most crime is a simple reality: it generates money. For that money to be useful, it has to move, and it often does so through the legitimate legal system. In this session, we step back from checklists and controls to examine AML through an ethical lens.

Using real Australian “true crime” cases, we explore how criminal activity relies on ordinary legal work, complex structures and professional judgement to operate, and where lawyers can find themselves closer to harm than expected. We’ll look at the moments that matter: how laundering schemes exploit plausibility rather than intent, how small decisions accumulate, why proportionate AML controls are as much about ethics as regulation and how to deal with the ethical tension of acting for clients when something doesn’t feel right.

The focus is not on fear or enforcement, but on professional responsibility and the role lawyers play in protecting clients, firms and the integrity of the legal system.