UK will not be haven for dirty money, Lammy to say in corruption crackdown | David Lammy

The UK will no longer be a haven for dirty money and laundered assets of dictators, David Lammy will vow as he unveils a new anti-corruption strategy that also aims to tackle bribery and other abuses in government and public services.

Unveiling the plan in a speech in London on Monday, Justice Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Lammy will unveil a range of initiatives, including extra funding for an elite anti-corruption police unit.

The global summit on tackling illicit finance, likely to be held in the UK next year, will focus on the clandestine use of cryptocurrencies, gold and property, although some elements of the strategy are still to be finalised, the Guardian understands.

As part of the plan launched by Lammy, the City of London police’s local corruption unit, which focuses on bribery and other abuses in UK financial services and public institutions, will be expanded and provided with £15 million in new funding.

Other measures promised include greater coordination by the National Crime Agency and more action to tackle “professional enablers” who help foreign autocrats and others shift and hide illicit wealth, including the possibility of new enforcement.

Former Labor MP Margaret Hodge, a well-known anti-corruption campaigner, will lead a formal review of stolen or illegitimate assets in the UK to find ways to close vulnerabilities exploited by criminals.

The intention is that this will extend the scope of companies’ existing registrations to more opaque ownership structures such as trusts.

Parts of the strategy include already announced or ongoing initiatives, such as giving the Financial Conduct Authority new powers to supervise all professional services firms such as accountants, as part of an overhaul to combat money laundering and terrorist financing..

Lammy will also pledge to take steps to increase transparency in political donations and the awarding of contracts by councils.

“The National Crime Agency says over £100bn of money can be laundered in or out of the UK every year, with the help of an army of enablers,” says Lammy, according to excerpts from the previously released speech. “And while most British professionals – our lawyers, our accountants – are honest, we must root out the minority who help corrupt actors hide their dirty money and burnish their dirty reputations.”

Lammy will say that in his former role as foreign secretary, he witnessed first-hand “kleptocrats draining their countries, stealing from their own people, financing authoritarianism.” [and] It fuels conflict, including Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.”

He will say that dirty money networks, using front companies, properties and crypto assets, are “spreading like a stain across borders”. “And often the trail leads back to London, to a financial system that is admired around the world because it is fully trusted,” he adds. “This trust and our security is now under attack and exploited by the Kremlin-connected elites who enable Putin’s aggression.

“We must be clear: This city, this country will no longer be their refuge. We will stop them.”

Lammy will use the complexity of this type of money laundering as a way to justify separate plans to scrap jury trials in some cases, arguing that expert judges are much better suited to dealing with such complex evidence.

“Judge-only hearings in the most complex frauds will ensure faster justice and send a clear message: if you loot, launder money, defraud the British public, you will be caught and prosecuted by those who see through your tricks, and you will face the consequences,” he said.

Lammy says some of the wider crackdown will focus on bad behavior not just in professions such as accounting and law, but also in public services.

“The vast majority of our police, prison and border officers are doing outstanding work, but it is the minority who are succumbing to bribes, putting more drugs and guns on our streets, leaving more criminals unattended and eating away at the public trust on which frontline services depend.