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And most of it would never happen without the help witting or unwitting of lawyers, accountants and incorporators, the people who actually create these Anonymous Shell Companies and help move the money. In fact, the u. S. Has become one of the most popular places in the world to do it. Tonight, with the e lp of hidden camera footage, were going to show you how easy it seems to have become to conceal questionable funds from Law Enforcement and the public. You need look no further for evidence than the changing skyline of new york city, where much of the priciest Residential Real Estate is being snapped up not by individuals but by Anonymous Shell Companies withth secret owners. Theres nothing illegal about it as long as the moneys legitimate, but theres no way to tell if you dont know who the real buyers are. It is one of the reasons Global Witness, a londonbased Non International corruption, came to new york city 19 months ago. It wanted to see how helpful u. S. Lawyers would be in concealing questionable funds. This hidden camera footage was shot in law firms across manhattan without the lawyers knowledge by the man in the gray coat with the german accent. Lawrence gabe so its ralph . Ralph kayser ralph kayser. Kroft ralph kayser is not his real name. Hes an investigator for Global Witness posing here as the representative of a Government Official from a poor west african country who wants to move millions of d dlars in suspicicus funds into the ununed states, and he needs the lawyers hp. Ross are you gonna tell me what country and what minister this is . Kayser i cant tell you. Its one of those mineral rich countries in west africa. There are not so many. Kroft attorney gerald ross and the other lawyers were told secrecy was essential, because the e rican minister had amassed his fortune collecting special payments from Foreign Companies mineral rights. Kayser so companies are eager to get hold of rare earth or other minerals. And so they pay some special money for it. I wouldnt name it bribe. I would say ffilitation money. Kroft kayser said it was all legal. He told attorney james silnat and the other lawyers that the minister was shopping for a townhouse, a jet and a yacht, but his name must not be connected to the purchases. Kayser if his name now would appear in connection with buying some real estate here and other items, it would look, at least, very, very embarrassing. James silkenat right. Because his. Presumably his salary in, wherever it is, would not cover the kinds of acquisitions were talking about. Kayser oh, for sure. Its the salary of a teacher here. And so how can we make surthat he ibeing able toto buy property here and to live a nice silkenat right. Any guesses as to how much money were talking about for the brownstone and the other items . Kayser i mean, the brownstone, talk about 10 million. For secondhand gulfstream, i could imagine 10, 20 million. A yacht would be at least 200, 300 million. Kroft the fictitious story of the african minister was cooked up in Global Witness london office, based on an actual Money Laundering case. The investigator phoned 50 new york law firms with experience in private Asset Protection and managed to get facetoface meetings with 16 different lawyers in 13 firms. Kayser im very frank. Its, i would say, gray money. I think somebody told me you name it black money. Kroft global w wness says the pitch was intentionally designed to raise red flags and to give the lawyers good reason to suspect that the ministers millions came from official corruption, and they all did. Kayser its only that the money is a bit, lets say. Gabe tainted. Gabe okay, thats a nice word. Okay. Kayser or, you gave another exexession . Koplik honest graft. Kayser honest graft okay, fine. So i have to be frank. Its honest graft. How would you name it . Ross some people call it bribes. Kayser nah, i wouldnt name it bribe. Ross never. Right, no, course not. Kayser because its a business deal. So, okay, bribe. Is actually bribe. Charmian gooch you know, the story of the fictititis african minister would probably have raised eyebrows for the average person on the street. Kroft Charmian Gooch is the cofounder of Global Witness, a public Advocacy Group that exposes corruption in the developing world. Previous undercover investigations exposed the global trade in african blood diamonds. This investigation, gooch says, exposes serious flaws in the u. S. Legal system that have made it a hub for international Money Laundering. Gooch what the lawyers laid out for us in some detail was all the different possibilities and ways in which it could be done. Kroft what youre saying is if you want to get dirty money into the United States, its not gooch what im sayininis thereris an open door and its pretty shocking and pretty concerning, because that money could be coming from anywhere. Kroft of the 16 lawyers that Global Witness recorded in these preliminary meetings, only attorney Jeffrey Herrmann flatly declined to participate and showed ralph kayser the door. Herrmann i have some real questions ababt that. Kayser yes . Herrmann under the foreign corrupt practices act. Kayser right. Herrmann and under the foreign corrupt practices act, bribing foreign officials is illegal. Kayser by americans. Herrmann by americans. Kayser but americans are not involved. So its money from other nation nationals, not american entities, not american nationals. Herrmann its not for me. Kayser pardon me . Herrmann its not for me. Kroft aside from that one firms, including 15 out of the 16 lawyers, not only heard ralph kayser out, they suggested ways that the suspicious funds could be moved into the u. S. Without compromising the ministers identity. Attorney James Silkenat was selected by Global Witness because at the time, he was president of the American Bar Association. Yet he and his colleague, hugh finnegan, provided what former prosecutors told us was a roadmap of how to conceal the source of the funds using layers of anonymous, interconnected Shell Companies in multiple jurisdictions. Finnegan presumably, we would set up a little bit of a series of ownersrso try and, again, protect privacy as much as anything else. Kayser yeah. Silkenat so company a is owned by company b, which owned jointly by company c and d, and your party owns all of or the majority of the shares of c and d. Kayser so we, we create several companies . Finnegan yes. K kser all in new yorkrkr different states . Finnegan well, like i said, quickly, youd go offshore. Kroft attorney john jankoff and his partner, lawrence gabe, recommended variations of the same strategy. Jankoff a lot of people in africa use the isle of man. Some of them use liechtenstein. Gabe so he wouldldust take his millions of dollars, put it in isle of man. Jankoff he can put it into a swiss bank account. The swiss will have it. And. And then. Gabe and then he comes to us. Jankoff and then he comes to us and says, i want to buy a townhouse. Kroft attorney marc koplik also suggested that the mimister could d ve his money out of west africa to europe, where it could be scrubbed in an anonymous corporate entity that his firm would be happy to set up. Koplik the money as it sits now, is it in his name . Kayser its in different names. Koplik okay. So it will come as those different names . Kayser i iluding his name, yes . Koplik so we have to scrub it at the beginning, if we can, or scrub it at the intermediary kayser so how to do this, intermediary . That means a bank in . Koplik well say luxembourg. Kayser luxembourg. Koplik we will set up an appropriate e tity call it clientoverseas. Com or whatever, and then that will send money into the United States. Kroft if that was a banker talking instead of a lawyer, he could be in serious trouble. Thats because under u. S. Law, bankers are required to report suspicious financial activity to the authorities. Lawyers are under no such legal obligation. Gooch banks in america are required to know their customer or required to be very cognizant of risk and to report on it if there. If there is an issue there around Money Laundering. And yet, absolutely bizarrely, american lawyers arent. This is clearly an issue. And i think our investigation has shown the potential for what could happen because of that lack of regulation. Kroft Global Witness says that anomaly is just one of the flaws in the u. S. Legal system laundering. And were going to call it here, anonymous, inc. Kroft another is the ease in which Anonymous Shell Companies can be set up here to conceal ownership of money and assets. Last year two million new corporations were set up in the United States, many with no offices, products or employees. Just an address and perhaps a bank account. Gooch in many states across america, you need less identification to set up and than you do to get a library card. Kroft gooch says Anonymous Shell Companies are like getaway cars for crooks, designed to put them as far way as possible from the scene of their crime. According to a world bank study, the u. S. Was the favorite place for corrupt officials to set up Anonymous Shell Companies. Gooch there was a verergood academic study and america came up as the easiest place to set up an anonymous company, after kenya, out of 180 countries. Kroft after kenya . Gooch after kenya. Kroft so did that study have decision to go ahead and do these undercover investigations . Gooch it inspired us. I mean, we almost thought, it cacat be this bad, can i i and, unfortunately, what wee found is it is. Kroft all of the attorneys expressed some concerns, like this one from gerald ross. Ross ive got to be very careful myself. I dont want to do something if it looks like im laundering money. And that would cost me my license andand i. Just dont do that. Kroft but later, he susuested that the queststnable money could be wired directly into his client escrow account, bypassing scrutiny from the banks. Ross when i get money from my other clients, it always comes here with some strange name on it. I dont even ask. Kayser and nobody ask . Ross it doesnt come from minister joe jones. It comes from the xyz account. Kroft john jankoff said they would need to get a legal opinion that the money was clean, then suggested that the minister use front men to open up overseas Bank Accounts. Name, then he needs what is known as a straw man. Practically spspking if the money leaves the country his name should not be attached to the wire. It should be other peoples names. Poncy and we know this happens. We know this happens. This is how Money Laundering occurs all over the world. But that does not mitigate the power of seeing it up close. Kroft we shohod the tapes to chip poncy, a former top official at the Treasury Department whose job was to stop financial crime, terrorist financing and Money Laundering. He says theres nothing wrong with lawyers setting up Anonymous Shell Companies to protect a clients privacy, but if its done to conceal criminal activity, thats when it becomes a problem. Poncy theres a clear pitch consistently presented in every one of these tapes of what amounts to an incredible number of red flags that scream corruption. Kroft dirty money . Poncy dirty money. Kroft bad actors . They have a need. Theyve got to move their money from a point where theyve received corrupt proceeds in this case to a point where ty can enjoy those proceeds. And to get em from. To get this money from point a to point b, they need help in laundering it, effectively. Kroft poncy says he was dismayed with the ease and the comfort with which attorneys seemed to be willing to turn a blind eye and discuss a matter that was likely to be illegal. Poncy whats essential to recognize is that this is after its been revealed that the potential client is representing an african minister with hundreds of millions of dollars of funds received through, effectively, bribes. Kroft this is more than legal advice . Poncy this is legal advice on how to evade controls, or at a minimum, very clear Global Standards on financial transparency to allow our countries to go after proceeds of crime. Kroft attorney marc koplik told the Global Witness investigator that he preferred using Money Managers and investment firms to move funds. Than using banks. Koplik and i would suggest three or four to you. Some are bigger. Some are smaller. The smaller ones are often more flexible and understanding and less concerned about their reputation. Because thth fly, to a greater extent, below the radar screen. Kroft sometimes the advice took the form of suggesting banks and countries that might be less vigilant about Money Laundering. Silkenat we would have to look into how far specific banks looked into, you know, the, you know, the know your customer laws and how fararhey would dig. Finnegan in manynyays, youd probably be better off with a smaller bank because. Kayser that would be a possibility. Finnegan because the bigger banks are much more serious about looking into that stuff. Kayser their reputation. Finnegan right. Silkenat and there may be other Banking Systems that are less rigorous on this than the u. S. Would be. Kayser what would it be . Silkenat the usual banking havens, i think, would be ones you would want to consider. We could provide you with a list of countries where the Banking Systems require less detail on ownership or source of funds. Kroft while James Silkenat, the former president of the American Bar Association, and his partner, hugh finnegan, listened to the pitch and suggested ways in which they might be able to help, they were also the most suspicious of ralph kayser and hisisfrican ministererbeginning just five minutes into the meeting. Silkenat we need to talk about the risks or just concerns about where he got the money and how to explain that. Kayser thats it. Silkenat there is. There are issues there. Woululbe involved here wouount be part of facilitating payments, but if thats really where the money came from and if there were, you know, crimes committed someplace else, that that starts to be an issue. Kroft they were alal the most cautious about moving forwd. Towards the end of the meeting, hugh finnegan, who is off camera here, said the firm would feel obligated to report anything it believed to be illegal. Finnegan bearing in mind of what you said, no american law was violated, no local law was violated, but, you know, if were aware that a crime is being committed, we e ve an obligation to report that. Kroft mr. Silkenat says, we need to talk about the risks or just concerns about where he got the money and how to explain that. Poncy that, that, and thats, thats a welcome. Kroft hes already been told how, where the money came from and how he got the money. Poncy correct. So itits a healthy recognition kroft if you could ask him anything about this meeting, what would it be . Poncy whats going through your head . Why are you continuing this conversation . Why not just say no . Is the business that important . Kroft neither silkenat nor finnegan would agree to an on camera interview. But they sent us a statement saying they only discussed generic information that could be found on the internet and that their conduct was entirely appropriate. Had the camera followed us after the meeting, they wrote, it would have shown us agreeing that kayser was disreputable and that we would not deal with him again. None of th