500 agents and £500 million: London aims to track dirty money everywhere

Five hundred agents to track criminal money. The British government announces an investment of £500 million over three years to strengthen the fight against money laundering and recover assets derived from offenses. The Home Office cites fintechs, cryptocurrencies, and artificial intelligence among the developments complicating investigators' work.

Key Points

• The UK plans to recruit 500 agents within the police, the National Crime Agency, and the Crown Prosecution Service.
• The program will be funded by a tax levied on certain businesses subject to anti-money laundering rules.
• Operation Destabilise has led to 119 arrests and the seizure of over £25 million in cash and cryptocurrencies.

The UK strengthens its financial investigations

The new recruits will be distributed among police forces, the National Crime Agency (NCA), and the Crown Prosecution Service, which is responsible for criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. Their mission will include tracking financial flows, identifying money laundering networks, and seizing their assets.

Funding comes from the Economic Crime Levy, a tax paid by businesses subject to anti-money laundering regulations when their UK revenues exceed £10.2 million. It will support the new national strategy against money laundering and the recovery of criminal assets.

According to the NCA, over £100 billion is laundered each year through the UK or British corporate structures. The government states that in the past year, nearly £350 million has been taken from criminals and £26 million returned to victims. It also reports nearly 4,000 convictions for money laundering. The equivalent of the British Home Office announces a plan to combat money laundering -- Source: X Account

From cash to cryptocurrencies: The Destabilise precedent

The government aims to extend the work carried out under Operation Destabilise. This NCA investigation uncovered two Russian-speaking networks, Smart and TGR, which facilitated the conversion of cash into cryptocurrencies for criminal groups. Investigators observed cash deliveries in the UK followed by transfers of an equivalent value in cryptoassets.

According to the Home Office, the operation resulted in the arrest of 119 individuals suspected of money laundering and the seizure of over £25 million, in cash and cryptocurrencies, in less than twelve months. The NCA plans further actions against financial networks linked, among others, to ransomware and drug trafficking.

Cooperation with the crypto sector is already part of this response. During Operation Atlantic, conducted with American and Canadian partners, investigators and private companies identified over 20,000 potential victims of cryptocurrency fraud and froze over $12 million in suspicious funds.

The announced recruitment expands the resources dedicated to financial investigations. Cryptocurrencies are among the areas of work identified by the NCA and its partners, alongside other money laundering circuits. The challenge for the new agents is to link these flows to criminal networks and their beneficiaries.

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