High-value UK money laundering cases are on the up
Our Head of Investigations Tony McClements says that an increase in money laundering cases indicates that the UK is finally getting to grips with money laundering as an indictment.
Read his latest analysis in GRIP.
Tony writes
At a time when many of my fellow professionals are bemoaning the growing problem of fraud, the recent KPMG mid-year Fraud Barometer indicates that UK money laundering cases being put before the courts are on the increase. This is, perversely, good news.
Charging money laundering as an adjoining indictment
Why? Because (hopefully) it is an indication that the UK is at last trying to get to grips with its huge fraud problem and charging money laundering as an adjoining indictment. For too long, fraud has been undercharged by virtue of it not being investigated. Not only that, but money laundering rarely hits the indictment sheet for many reasons, not least of which is that it is simply not understood by the police. This issue is compounded by a CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) which appears to have an aversion to laying the charge before the courts
The exception to the rule appears to be the sort of cases picked up by the KPMG research, where money laundering is being charged alongside high-value frauds. Indeed, the report (which captures fraud cases valued at £100k ($133k) or more brought before the Crown Court) indicates that “the overall value of fraud cases involving money laundering heard at crown courts has risen nearly fourfold in the first half of 2024.”
The UK is at last trying to get to grips with its huge fraud problem and charging money laundering as an adjoining indictment.
Those of us who specialize in the investigation of fraud and money laundering will be all too aware of why law enforcement shies away from investigating what is now one of the most prevalent offences globally. The issue is time and resources.
As Roy Waligora, head of KPMG’s UK investigations stated in the Fraud Barometer report, “…it can take years to bring a complex money laundering case to conclusion.” If we add the fact that most high-value cases of this type will inevitably involve moving assets across jurisdictions, the complexity of the evidential jigsaw is obvious.