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“Unless the law societies demand more of their members and start enforcing those rules, billions of dollars will continue to be washed through lawyers’ trusts accounts without any consequence,” he said in an interview. “So far, we’ve seen that self-policing doesn’t work.”

Lawyers must make annual reports of trust account activity to show they comply with B.C. Law Society rules, spokesman David Jordan said.

Trust accounts can be audited if the Society spots indicators of non-compliance in these reports, and trust accounts are also subject to random audits, he said. The society also has rules against large cash transactions, and has cited six lawyers since 2004 for handling cash transactions of over $7,500, according to Jordan.

Sources in Ottawa say the Finance Department is working on legal amendments that would bring Canadian lawyers into the national anti-money laundering system.

The department won’t disclose details. Changes would likely demand more from lawyers in the reporting of potentially suspicious transactions, but it is not clear how amendments could work around the issue of client confidentiality.

“There must be a solution where lawyers are held to higher standards of due diligence and anti-money laundering compliance without compromising attorney-client privilege,” Ross said.

Meanwhile, the B.C. Law Society is hearing what is believed to be the first case alleging that a member allowed a legal trust to be abused through suspicious transactions from offshore.