Financial Crime, Money Laundering, & Serious fraud

Money laundering is when criminal profits are put through the financial system and made to look like “clean” money that came from a legitimate business or legal source. 

Charges you will face could be failure to comply with the Money Laundering Regulations 2017, failure to report suspicious activity to the National Crime Agency (NCA), or criminal offences related to money laundering – which include concealing, converting, transferring, or removing money that was gained illegally. 

This means you can be charged even if you didn’t directly commit a financial crime, but knew about someone else doing it, didn’t report them, let them use your business or bank accounts, or helped them hide their activity

Sometimes people are pressured or forced into assisting money laundering – but this can be hard to prove. A skilled lawyer can work to show a judge that criminal actions were made against your will.  

“Serious fraud” usually means crimes like bribery, scams, or corrupt business practices.

Untangling these cases is complicated – it can take months or years. So it goes to specialists in the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) rather than the police.

If the SFO suspects you are involved in fraud, they’ll interview you under caution.  

They’ll already be gathering evidence against you at this point, as well as detailed statements from potential witnesses, whistleblowers, or alleged victims. They can also issue search warrants to search your home or business.  

If the SFO believes they have enough evidence, they’ll bring charges (officially accuse you of the crime).  

They may try to take any money you received through serious fraud (this is done through ‘confiscation proceedings’). They might also try to freeze or restrain your assets.  

In the worst case scenario, a conviction carries a potential sentence of 10 years in prison.