When they were introduced in 2017, Unexplained Wealth Orders ("UWOs") were hailed as an important new law enforcement tool, which would allow more robust and effective investigation of the suspected proceeds of crime....more
Hosted by the Canadian Institute, the 23rd Annual Canadian Forum on Anti-Money Laundering and Financial Crime returns for another exciting year. The event features carefully curated programming providing practical guidance...more
AML compliance for reporting entities has never been of greater critical importance than it is today. With the growing sophistication of criminals and the methods and technologies that they employed, combined with the...more
In the early hours of 15 March 2022, the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act (the “Act”) came into force. The rapid passage of the Act through the UK Parliament, after years of delays, came in response to...more
New legislation introduces further sanctions powers and aims to tackle financial crime by revealing identities of overseas beneficial owners of UK property. Following the UK government’s successive sanctions packages,...more
On March 1, 2022, the UK Government put forward the Economic Crime (Enforcement and Transparency) Bill. The stated aim of the legislation is to “crack down on dirty money in the UK and corrupt elites”, and it is designed to...more
In January 2018, UK law enforcement agencies were granted new powers to pursue the forfeiture of assets. Unexplained wealth orders ("UWOs") initially grabbed the media's attention, but the relative ease with which UK law...more
In a landmark case last month, a businessman linked to notorious criminals surrendered £10 million in property, land, cash and other assets at the conclusion of an unexplained wealth order (UWO). This was the first successful...more
On 12 March 2020, the UK Gambling Commission announced that it will fine online gambling business Betway Limited (“Betway”) £11.6 million for failures in respect of its anti-money laundering controls and handling of seven of...more
On December 7 and 10, 2018, the Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”) released two reports evaluating the United Kingdom’s (“UK”) and Israel’s anti-money laundering (“AML”) and counter-terror financing (“CTF”) programs and...more
This issue of Skadden’s semiannual Cross-Border Investigations Update takes a close look at recent cases, regulatory activity and other key developments, including DOJ guidance on the use of corporate monitors in criminal...more
The Situation: High-profile money laundering incidents have caught the attention of lawmakers and enforcement authorities in the United Kingdom. The Result: A new director at the Serious Fraud Office ("SFO"), the formation...more
On 30 September 2017, Part 3 of the UK Criminal Finances Act 2017 (the “CF Act”) came into force creating new corporate offences for failing to prevent the facilitation of UK or overseas tax evasion. Similar to the standard...more