Letter on Economic Crime

In November 2020, the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition wrote to John Glen MP, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, outlining the importance of reforms to tackle economic crime in light of the FinCEN Files leak.

We recommend that:

• The UK takes a global leadership role on tackling illicit finance particularly when it takes over the presidency of the G7;

• Proper resourcing for the fight against corruption and economic crime in the UK, including through ongoing and additional public resource on top of the economic crime levy and other revenue raising options for anti-corruption work both in government and law enforcement;

• Real effectiveness in the new sanctions regime by the introduction of corruption as a ground for designation, in order to protect the UK’s financial integrity, and by ensuring the OFSI has the appropriate resources and teeth to enforce sanctions breaches;

• Improvement to the weaknesses identified in the FATF review of the UK anti-money laundering (AML) regime, including at Companies House, in AML supervision, in the SARs regime, and in the prosecution of high-end money laundering; and

• An effective corporate liability regime to ensure that large economic and financial actors are incentivised to have good corporate governance in place and are deterred from playing any role in economic crime.