The UK has multiple bodies responsible for investigating and enforcing breaches of the UK’s anti-corruption and money laundering laws. These include agencies for investigating and/or prosecuting overseas corruption offences, such as the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the National Crime Agency (NCA). And multiple agencies for investigating and/or prosecuting money laundering including the NCA, HM Revenue & Customs, the Financial Conduct Authority and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
We monitor how effective the different enforcement agencies are and developments in the enforcement landscape to see how they impact upon implementation of anti-corruption laws. We assess whether resourcing is adequate, whether enforcement agencies are able to attract and retain suitably qualified staff and whether the enforcement agencies have sufficient independence from political interference and corporate interests.
Account Freezing Orders (AFO) were introduced in the UK in the 2017 Criminal Finances Act, alongside Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWOs), as a new measure designed to tackle illicit finance. While receiving far less attention than their glitzy sister order, AFOs are emerging as the preferred tool for law enforcement to freeze and recover corrupt assets in a relatively straightforward and cost-effective way.
On 17th February 2021, a UK employment tribunal found that Tom Martin – a former case controller at the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) – had been unfairly and wrongfully dismissed....
An overview of all the UK litigation related to the Mozambican Tuna Bond scandal, with relevant court documents. This is an example of just one of the many case overviews...
The release of the FinCEN files exposes the role of big banks in facilitating money laundering as well as demonstrating how UK banks are beyond the reaches of the law....
In a much-needed win for the UK’s Serious Fraud Office, two out of three of those it was prosecuting for corruption in the Unaoil case were found guilty.
Spotlight on Corruption is today releasing a major new report on the role of UK Export Finance (UKEF) in fighting corruption in the UK’s post-Brexit and post-coronavirus trade drive. UKEF...
On 17 June 2020, Lady Justice Carr unequivocally refused the National Crime Agency’s (“NCA”) application for permission to appeal.
The ruling to discharge the UK's second Unexplained Wealth Order against Kazakh political figures in early April raises some key issues for the regime discussed in this blog.
