This section tracks prosecutions and convictions for key offences that may be used to tackle the laundering of corrupt funds.
Money Laundering – Principal Offences
The UK, as a major financial centre, and its Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies, have long been attractive destinations for laundering dirty money, including money stolen by corrupt elites in countries around the world. While there is no official figure for how much money is laundered through the UK, the National Crime Agency estimates that over £100 billion pounds is laundered every year through the UK or through UK corporate structures.
UK authorities can prosecute money laundering under several provisions of the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) 2002 and the Money Laundering Regulations. This chart presents prosecutions and convictions where money laundering was the principal offence—meaning cases where money laundering was the most serious charge brought against a defendant. Breaking down enforcement by specific POCA sections and regulatory breaches provides insight into which aspects of the anti-money laundering framework are most actively enforced and into differences between how these laws are applied to individuals versus corporate entities.
Money Laundering – All Prosecuted Offences
This visualisation provides a broader perspective on money laundering enforcement by including both principal and non-principal offence data. Unlike the chart above, these figures include cases where money laundering was not necessarily the most serious offence for which a defendant was prosecuted. While the principal offence data reflects the number of defendants prosecuted for certain offences, the all-offence data does not reflect the number of defendants prosecuted, as multiple offences can be associated with a single defendant. Highlighting both these datasets helps illustrate the full spectrum of how money laundering offences are prosecuted within the UK criminal justice system.
Explore the rest of the data:
- Anti-Corruption Enforcement Tracker home page →
- Fraud Tracker →
- Bribery Tracker →
- Asset Recovery Tracker →
For more information, please see the methodology section.
