London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Sunday, Jul 06, 2025

FinCEN Files sparks fresh UK inquiry into laundering of dirty billions

FinCEN Files sparks fresh UK inquiry into laundering of dirty billions

Prompted by the FinCEN Files, a powerful U.K. parliamentary committee has launched a fresh anti-money laundering inquiry 19-months after it outlined findings that the nation’s response to billions of pounds in money-laundering was “fragmented.”

In light of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ recent investigation, the U.K. Treasury Committee says it will examine the effectiveness of both anti-money laundering systems and sanctions.

The Treasury Committee says the precise scale of the problem is uncertain, with estimates ranging from tens of billions of pounds to hundreds of billions of pounds.

The committee listed specific concerns as:

* The work of the Office for Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervision, or OPBAS

* The impact of the “FinCEN papers”

* Corporate liability for economic crime

* The work of Companies House, the U.K.’s registrar of companies

Based on thousands of secret documents obtained by BuzzFeed News, the FinCEN Files investigation revealed how giants of Western banking enriched themselves while facilitating the movement of money for oligarchs, terrorists, drug traffickers and fraudsters.

The documents, secretly sent by banks to a unit of the United States Treasury Department called the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, detail suspect money flows of more than $2 trillion between 1999 and 2017.

The global investigation spotlighted the behavior of some of Britain’s leading banks, including Standard Chartered, HSBC and Barclays. It also identified thousands of U.K. shell companies linked to suspicious transactions.

Reacting to the revelations in their immediate aftermath, the head of the U.K. Treasury Committee, Tory Member of Parliament Mel Stride, said he was “deeply troubled” by the revelations and had raised them with Britain’s tax collection agency known as HMRC, the Financial Conduct Authority and the Home Office.

“The Treasury Committee wants to know whether Ministers, HMRC and the FCA are on top of this,” said Stride, who served in the Theresa May government as the financial secretary to the treasury.

Stride said the new inquiry would “review what progress has been made in combating economic crime” since a previous inquiry held during the term of the last U.K. Parliament.

“The current Committee will now examine what progress supervisors, law enforcement and the Government has made in these areas,” Stride said in a statement.

“It’s important that the relevant bodies are held to account and scrutinised effectively to ensure that the UK is a clean place to do business and that consumers are protected from economic crime.”

The previous Treasury Committee inquiry’s report, published in March 2019, outlined the scale of the threat posed by money laundering and criticized the “fragmented approach” to it.

The report said, “Looking first at published documents, the National Strategic Assessment of Serious and Organised Crime 2018 suggested that the scale of money laundering impacting the UK annually could be in the hundreds of billions of pounds, whereas in its Serious and Organised Crime Strategy, the Government put it in the tens of billions of pounds.”

The Treasury Committee said the U.K.’s system to prevent money laundering was “highly fragmented”, with 25 separate organizations supervising the checks, many of them trade groups for accountants and solicitors.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
London Stock Exchange Faces Historic Low in Initial Public Offerings
A new online platform has emerged in the United Kingdom, specifically targeting Muslim men seeking virgin brides
Trump Celebrates Independence Day with B-2 Flyover and Signs Controversial Legislation
Boris Johnson Urges Conservatives to Ignore Farage
SNP Ordered to Update Single-Sex Space Guidance Within Days
Starmer Set to Reject Calls for Wealth Taxes
Stolen Century-Old Rolls-Royce Recovered After Hotel Theft
Macron Presses Starmer to Recognise Palestinian State
Labour Delayed Palestine Action Ban Over Riot Concerns
Swinney’s Tax Comments ‘Offensive to Scots’, Say Tories
High Street Retailers to Enforce Bans on Serial Shoplifters
Music Banned by Henry VIII to Be Performed After 500 Years
Steve Coogan Says Working Class Is Being ‘Ethnically Cleansed’
Home Office Admits Uncertainty Over Visa Overstayer Numbers
JD Vance Questions Mandelson Over Reform Party’s Rising Popularity
Macron to Receive Windsor Carriage Ride in Royal Gesture
Labour Accused of ‘Hammering’ Scots During First Year in Power
BBC Head of Music Stood Down Amid Bob Vylan Controversy
Corbyn Eyes Hard-Left Challenge to Starmer’s Leadership
London Tube Trains Suspended After Major Fire Erupts Nearby
Richard Kemp: I Felt Safer in Israel Under Attack Than in the UK
Cyclist Says Police Cited Human Rights Act for Riding No-Handed
China’s Central Bank Consults European Peers on Low-Rate Strategies
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Musk Battles to Protect Tesla Amid Trump Policy Threats
Air France-KLM Acquires Majority Stake in Scandinavian Airlines
UK Educators Sound Alarm on Declining Child Literacy
Shein Fined €40 Million in France Over Misleading Discounts
Brazil’s Lula Visits Kirchner During Argentina House Arrest
Trump Scores Legislative Win as House Passes Tax Reform Bill
Keir Starmer Faces Criticism After Rocky First Year in Power
DJI Launches Heavy-Duty Coaxial Quadcopter with 80 kg Lift Capacity
U.S. Senate Approves Major Legislation Dubbed the 'Big Beautiful Bill'
Largest Healthcare Fraud Takedown in U.S. History Announced by DOJ
Poland Implements Border Checks Amid Growing Migration Tensions
Political Dispute Escalates Between Trump and Musk
Emirates Airline Expands Market Share with New $20 Million Campaign
Amazon Reaches Milestone with Deployment of One Millionth Robot
US Senate Votes to Remove AI Regulation Moratorium from Domestic Policy Bill
Yulia Putintseva Calls for Spectator Ejection at Wimbledon Over Safety Concerns
Jury Deliberations in Diddy Trial Yield Partial Verdict in Serious Criminal Charges
House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Former Jill Biden Aide Amid Investigation into Alleged Concealment of President Biden's Cognitive Health
King Charles Plans Significant Role for Prince Harry in Coronation
Two Chinese Nationals Arrested for Espionage Activities Against U.S. Navy
Amazon Reaches Major Automation Milestone with Over One Million Robots
Extreme Heat Wave Sweeps Across Europe, Hitting Record Temperatures
Meta Announces Formation of Ambitious AI Unit, Meta Superintelligence Labs
Robots Compete in Football Tournament in China Amid Injuries
×