The UK has introduced the Criminal Finances Bill, which aims to significantly improve the government’s ability to tackle money laundering and corruption, recover the proceeds of crime and counter terrorist financing.

A pilot initiative driven by UK banks and law enforcement agencies, the Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce (JMLIT), has substantially shaped the bill.

Main features

There are three main parts of the bill. It contemplates enhanced powers of investigation and asset recovery in relation to the proceeds of crime and money laundering.

It also extends relevant money laundering and asset recovery powers to investigations under the Terrorism Act 2000 and creates new corporate offences for failure to prevent facilitation of tax evasion.

Operational priorities

The new bill proposes that the government, in partnership with private sector members of JMLIT, will seek to increase its scale and capabilities with the aim of tackling financial crime threats.

The taskforce currently has four key operational priorities, which are kept under continuing review.

These comprise gaining an understanding of and disrupting trade based money laundering and key terrorist financing methodologies. The other priorities are understanding and disrupting funding flows linked to bribery and corruption as well as those linked to organised immigration crime and human trafficking.

Legislation

JMLIT is co-chaired by the UK’s National Crime Agency and Lloyds Banking Group, with law enforcement agencies and around 25 banks represented.

It is anticipated that the bill will come into force as legislation in 2017.

Categories: Trade Based Financial crimes News