Feb 28, 2022 Economic Crime Bill to be fast-tracked this week: transparency reform, UWO changes and new sanctions legislation By Lorna Emson Francis Bond Joe Gaffney Prompted by the crisis in Ukraine, the UK Government has announced that it will bring forward the Economic Crime Bill. It has also...
Feb 24, 2022 UWOs: Remember those? By Neill Blundell Max Hobbs Joe Gaffney A House of Commons briefing paper, published on 22 February 2022, has criticised the use of Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWOs). The paper...
Feb 14, 2022 Fighting economic crime in the UK: an overview By Neill Blundell Max Hobbs Joe Gaffney On Thursday 10 February, the House of Commons Library published a briefing paper on economic crime in the UK, which summarises recent...
Feb 10, 2022 The Economic Crime Bill: reform is coming By Neill Blundell Max Hobbs Joe Gaffney We recently commented on a fortnight of fast-paced developments in the economic crime space. As we observed, it appears that (despite...
Feb 08, 2022 New register of home ownership? Sadiq Khan calls for a register of foreign-owned UK property to aid Russia sanctions By Lorna Emson Max Hobbs Francis Bond Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, has issued a call for a new register of foreign-owned properties in the UK, citing the fact that the...
Feb 02, 2022 Economic crime in the UK: What is going on? By Neill Blundell Max Hobbs Francis Bond There have been so many developments in the realm of “economic crime” in the last two weeks that it has been hard to keep up.To summarise...
Jul 20, 2021 The verdict’s in: the SFO publishes its 2020–2021 Annual Report By Neill Blundell The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has published its Annual Report and Accounts for 2020–2021 (the Report). The Report provides an overview...
Jul 06, 2021 A new FCA Technical Note for cannabis-related businesses listing in the UK By Neill Blundell Max Hobbs The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published a Primary Market Technical Note to give further guidance for cannabis-related...
May 18, 2021 The first buds of spring: new cannabis company float shows take up of FCA listing rules By Neill Blundell Max Hobbs Those who work in the nascent legal cannabis industry in the UK, including investors and advisors, will be interested to note that a new...
May 12, 2021 Not so wise: the FCA imposes a new fine for anti-money laundering failings By Lorna Emson Max Hobbs The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has imposed a £178,000 fine (reduced from £236,740 to avoid serious financial hardship) on Sapien...
Apr 01, 2021 CPS announces landmark economic crime strategy, including new dedicated court By Neill Blundell Adam Fieldgate The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has launched its first ever comprehensive strategy to combat economic crime. This announcement is...
Mar 26, 2021 Hot streak: more enforcement action from the UK Gambling Commission for AML failures By Lorna Emson The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has announced a £6m fine against another gambling company as a result of social responsibility and...
Mar 18, 2021 House edge: UK Gambling Commission issues another fine over money laundering failures By Lorna Emson Adam Fieldgate The UK Gambling Commission has announced a £3.4m fine levied against In Touch Games Limited (In Touch) after uncovering a series of...
Dec 18, 2020 Anti-money laundering teams take note: the UK publishes its national risk assessment for money laundering By Neill Blundell Max Hobbs The UK Government has published its third National Risk Assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing (NRA).This should be of...
Dec 10, 2020 United States to pass historic anti-money laundering legislation, including first register of corporate beneficial ownership By Neill Blundell Francis Bond The United States Congress is expected to pass the country’s most significant anti-money laundering legislation in decades this week,...
Aug 19, 2020 Another brick in the wall: HMRC fines estate agency for AML failures By Neill Blundell Max Hobbs An online estate agent has been fined £266,793 by HMRC for its failure to comply with the anti-money laundering legislation.Estate agents...