Lawyer’s ‘Money Laundering’ Charges Upheld by New Jersey Court

Shuffling client cash around firm accounts can be criminal money laundering, a New Jersey appeals court ruled Monday in a decision expanding penalties for crooked lawyers.

Steven H. Salami’s theft of client real estate closing funds, which he used in a Ponzi-like scheme to pay other clients and himself, qualified for indictment under New Jersey’s financial transaction crime statute the Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division ruled unanimously. Salami had convinced the trial court that his conduct didn’t fit the crime, but the appeals court reversed.

“Because it is clear to us the prosecutor presented ‘some ...