Syed Rahman considers how the new government may tackle financial crime

The approach that the newly-elected Labour administration may take to financial crime was outlined by Syed Rahman.

In a piece published by Law360, he assesses some of the issues that the new government faces and how it may address them.

Syed says that the Labour Party’s 2024 manifesto was “detail-light on the government's direction of travel on financial crime’’, although it did acknowledge the scale of the fraud problem.

He believes that challenging the National Crime Agency, the Serious Fraud Office, the Crown Prosecution Service and HM Revenue & Customs to raise revenue and recover the proceeds of crime is likely to be a priority, as are combating transnational kleptocracy and its enablers, ensuring greater transparency from UK corporate entities, initiatives to tackle “dirty money’’, and creation of a COVID-19 fraud commissioner.

Further rounds of sanctions and an emphasis on enforcement can be expected, according to Syed. Maximising the enforcement of outstanding tax revenue in order to reduce the £36 billion tax gap is also likely, with consideration of whether DPA's could be extended to cover individuals' tax evasion offences.

Publishing guidelines about what will constitute the "reasonable procedures" defence to the failure to prevent fraud offence introduced by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 and overseeing the passing into law of the Criminal Justice Bill (which would widen the scope of corporate liability) are also options for the new government.

The full article can be read here (subscription required).

Featured at: Law360