TL;DR
- The UK will allocate £500 million and 500 new officers to combat money laundering through a new national strategy.
- The National Crime Agency estimates that more than £100 billion is laundered annually in the country, pointing to cryptocurrencies as a growing risk factor.
- The initiative builds on the results of Operation Destabilise, which has already led to 119 arrests and the seizure of more than £25 million in cash and cryptocurrencies.
The UK announced the creation of a new Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Strategy backed by £500 million (~$676 million) over a period of three years, along with the recruitment of 500 new officers distributed across police forces, the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Crown Prosecution Service.
The funds come from the economic crime levy imposed on regulated businesses, according to the Home Office.
The UK Home Office noted that the money laundering threat “has grown in recent years due to the rise of fintech, cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence”, and that the NCA estimates more than £100 billion is laundered annually through the country or through British corporate structures.
UK Defines Cryptocurrencies as a Priority in Crime Matters
The UK’s new strategy aims to build on the results of Operation Destabilise, the investigation that dismantled criminal networks dedicated to converting street cash into cryptocurrencies for organized crime groups. That operation has so far accumulated 119 alleged launderers detained and more than £25 million seized in cash and crypto assets in less than a year.
In its annual report published the week before the announcement, the NCA’s Economic Crime Centre warned that criminals are making “innovative use of crypto asset products” to evade controls and move illicit value at scale. The agency placed crypto assets in third place among its nine economic crime priorities, agreed upon with the Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority.
Sal Melki, NCA deputy director for economic crime, stated that combating financial crime “has become more complex as criminals adopt new technologies”, and that the investment will fund a next-generation financial intelligence service. The UK government estimated its results from the past year at nearly £350 million recovered from criminals, more than £1 billion blocked and nearly 4,000 convictions for money laundering.
