Comsure’s moan – This story shows why the money laundering laws are not used to their fullest effect.  1 Although the proceeds of crime order against the duo as part of the civil process to recover the illegal benefit of their crime was used a. WHY were they not indicted under the proceeds of crime […]

The daughters of Azerbaijan’s president agreed to buy a £60m London property using a secret offshore company, in a case potentially carrying “a significant risk of money laundering”, a tribunal has heard. Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva sought to purchase two luxury Knightsbridge flats for £59.5m, including £3m to convert them into a single home. The deal in […]

  Arnold Bengis is a 79-year-old South African-born businessman making the most of his twilight years. He’s a benefactor and a philanthropist, giving generously to Jewish causes in Israel. He is a doting grandfather and after two failed marriages has found romance while living in London. He is active on Facebook. In getting here, Bengis […]

Advisers who “facilitate or encourage” tax evasion by companies or individuals should be prosecuted, a senior UK Treasury official has said. In an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander proposed a new criminal offence of “corporate failure to prevent economic crime”, aimed particularly at banks and accountancy […]

London is a global haven for criminal financial activity – with billions of pounds laundered through British banks each day, according to the head of the UK’s National Crime Agency. “Many hundreds of billions of pounds of criminal money is almost certainly laundered through UK banks and their subsidiaries each year,” Keith Bristow the head […]

British MP Patrick Mercer  offered a journalist, who was posing as a lobbyist, a parliamentary pass for £2,000. It has been reported that Mercer also appeared to agree to take money in order to produce a parliamentary report. In total Mercer received over £4000, half of which he failed to declare according to the parliamentary rules. […]

The European Union’s sanctions against the Syrian regime has been extended until 1 June 2014. The Sanctions impose EU wide asset freezes and travel bans on 179 persons and 54 entities. Measures supplement existing export and import bans, an oil embargo and restrictions on investments, financial activity and the transport sector. At the same time, the […]

The UK and France have joined the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) which requires countries to fully disclose taxes, royalties and other fees they receive from oil and mining income. Approximately 40 countries have now implemented this voluntary scheme. The EITI aims to tackle corruption and help improve the transparency of revenues from oil, gas and […]