\n<\/p>\n
The UK will no longer be a haven for dirty money and dictators\u2019 laundered assets, David Lammy is to promise as he announces a new anti-corruption strategy also aimed at tackling bribery and other misconduct across government and public services.<\/p>\n
Setting out the plan in a speech in London on Monday, Lammy, the justice secretary and deputy prime minister, will announce a series of initiatives including extra funding for an elite anti-corruption police unit.<\/p>\n
While some elements of the strategy are still to be finalised, a global summit on countering illicit finance to be hosted by the UK, possibly next year, will focus on underhanded use of cryptocurrencies, gold and property, the Guardian understands.<\/p>\n
As part of the plan being launched by Lammy, the domestic corruption unit at the City of London police, which focuses on bribery and other misconduct in UK financial services and public bodies, will be expanded and given \u00a315m in new funding.<\/p>\n
Other promised measures include more action to tackle \u201cprofessional enablers\u201d who help foreign autocrats and others shift and conceal illicit wealth, including more coordination by the National Crime Agency and the possibility of new sanctions.<\/p>\n
Margaret Hodge, a former Labour MP who is a noted anti-corruption campaigner, will lead an official review of stolen or illegitimate assets in the UK so as to find ways to shut down vulnerabilities exploited by criminals.<\/p>\n
The aim is that this will expand the scope of existing registers from companies into more opaque ownership structures such as trusts.<\/p>\n
Some sections of the strategy take in initiatives already announced or in progress, for example giving the Financial Conduct Authority new powers to oversee all professional services firms such as accountants, as part of an overhaul to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing.<\/strong><\/p>\n Lammy will also pledge moves to improve transparency in political donations and in the awarding of contracts by councils.<\/p>\n \u201cThe National Crime Agency says that over \u00a3100bn could be laundered through or within the UK every single year, helped by an army of enablers\u2019, Lammy will say, according to extracts of the speech released in advance. \u201cAnd while most British professionals \u2013 our lawyers, our accountants \u2013 are honest, we must root out the minority who help corrupt actors hide their dirty money and polish their dirty reputations.\u201d<\/p>\n In his former role as foreign secretary, Lammy will say, he witnessed at first hand \u201ckleptocrats bleeding their countries dry, stealing from their own people, bankrolling authoritarianism [and] fuelling conflict\u201d, including Russia\u2019s aggression towards Ukraine.<\/p>\n He will say networks of dirty money \u201cspread across borders like a stain\u201d using shell companies, property and crypto assets. \u201cAnd too often the trail leads back here to London, to a financial system admired across the world, precisely because it is trusted,\u201d he will add. \u201cThat trust and our security are now under attack, exploited by those Kremlin-linked elites who enable Putin\u2019s aggression.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cWe must be clear: this city, this country, will no longer be their haven. We will stop them.\u201d<\/p>\n Lammy will use the complexity of such money laundering as a way to additionally justify separate plans to scrap jury trials in some cases, arguing that specialist judges are far better suited to dealing with such complex evidence.<\/p>\n \u201cJudge-only trials in the most complex frauds will get justice moving faster and send a clear message: if you loot, if you launder, if you defraud the British people, you will be caught, and tried by those who understand your tricks, and you will face the consequences,\u201d he will say.<\/p>\n Part of the wider crackdown will be focused on misdeeds not just in professions such as accountancy and law but also in public services, Lammy will say.<\/p>\n \u201cThe vast majority of our police, prison and border officers do extraordinary work but the minority who succumb to bribes, let more drugs and weapons on to our streets, leave more criminals on the loose, eat away at the public trust frontline services depend on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The UK will no longer be a haven for dirty money and dictators\u2019 laundered assets, David Lammy is to promise as he announces a new anti-corruption strategy also aimed at tackling bribery and other misconduct across government and public services. Setting out the plan in a speech in London on Monday, Lammy, the justice secretary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[3539,3095,999,11803,15919,8550,2062],"class_list":{"0":"post-36332","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-corruption","9":"tag-crackdown","10":"tag-david","11":"tag-dirty","12":"tag-haven","13":"tag-lammy","14":"tag-money"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}