📅 Ahead of the UK’s Illicit Finance Summit in June, join us on April 14 at the National Liberal Club to discuss combatting dirty money.
Great to see UKACC member organisations represented by @suehawley.bsky.social and @duncanhames.bsky.social.
🎟️ Tickets here:
members.nlc.org.uk/web/pages/ev...
💥 NEW: We welcome the government’s ‘complete ban’ on political crypto donations which hit the headlines last week, but there has since been speculation over just how comprehensive it will actually be.
Here's our assessment of what needs to happen next ⬇️
www.spotlightcorruption.org/making-the-u...
Polly Toynbee is right to say Labour’s move on crypto donations and foreign money is an important step forward but can’t be where reform stops. As our new report, Credible Deterrence, points out, it’s not just about rules, it’s about enforcement of those rules. Our research shows that no one has ever spent a day in prison for breaking political finance laws, and the highest criminal fine ever imposed is just £6,000 – a derisory sum given modern campaign spending and donor wealth. The Electoral Commission needs much stronger powers and a bigger budget to be able to play its crucial role as a regulator, and we need a new stronger criminal offence, policed by a specialist police unit. It doesn’t matter how good your rules are if no one is properly empowered and resourced to enforce them. Susan Hawley, Executive director, Spotlight on Corruption
📝 Great to see a letter from our director @suehawley.bsky.social published in @theguardian.com today, which highlights the findings of our new ‘Credible Deterrence’ report and the extent to which the enforcement of political finance laws in the UK has plummeted 📉
bit.ly/41E5Hsz
🎯 The UK government has committed to revamping AML supervision of professional services & consulting on expanding the regulated sector for money laundering. Cases like this show these reforms cannot come soon enough. A good start would be including AML supervisory reform in the next King's Speech.
💭Many of the firms involved in the property transactions said they have complied with anti-money laundering due diligence, raising the Q whether more proactive enforcement is needed for better deterrence along with wider rules to require all actors (like property developers) to do #AML checks
⚠️According to media investigations, Mr. Jiangbo stands accused of allegedly running illegal casinos in China. This prompts the question about how he was able to splash this cash, which included £11.5m on 7 properties in 1 day, without any AML red warning flags appearing for these transactions ‼️
🔊The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has brought its first ever #McMafia Order vs 85 luxury London properties worth over £81m. It’s great to see the CPS using #UnexplainedWealthOrders which require Su Jiangbo- the owner of the properties according to the media - to explain the origin of his wealth.
⚠️ Here's our Defending Democracy policy lead, @kamilakingstone.bsky.social, on why the government's plans to raise the bar when including consultation responses in legislation risks stifling public voices when it comes to policymaking ⬇️
www.spotlightcorruption.org/the-governme...
Because without enforcement, the rules don’t mean anything.
Read the Credible Deterrence report at www.spotlightcorruption.org/report/credi...
So if the Bill is going to have real teeth, enforcement has to catch up.
That means:
• Properly funding & empowering the Electoral Commission
• Introducing a real criminal offence for illegal donations, with serious consequences
• Giving police the resources & expertise to investigate
• No one has ever spent a single day in prison for breaking donation laws
• The highest criminal fine ever issued? Just £6,000
• Dozens of referrals to the Met since 2023 - but no criminal investigations opened since 2010
But here’s the problem: rules that aren’t enforced don’t mean much. Our new Credible Deterrence report lays it out:
👏 New rules on political donations are coming in the government’s Elections Bill - a lot of them are things campaigners like us have been pushing for.
And the Rycroft Review this week - and some of the things that the government has already adopted - are important first steps....
⚖️ NEW: Here's our analysis with a scorecard weighing up where the Rycroft Review:
✅ hit the nail on the head with its recommendations
💪 should have been stronger
...and crucially what needs to happen next to protect our democracy ⬇️
www.spotlightcorruption.org/revving-up-a...
Via Politico Influence: The campaign group Spotlight on Corruption says enforcement of political finance rules has reached “rock bottom” in recent years.
"Its analysis found not a single person has spent a day in jail for breaching political finance laws"
🙌 It has been really positive to see the Rycroft Review take our findings into real consideration, informing its recommendations.
And John Johnston has put together a deep dive analysis of this today in Politico ⬇️
www.politico.eu/newsletter/p...
📣 We're now calling for a:
✅ formal review of the Commission’s funding
✅ stronger fining powers linked to campaign spending for the Electoral Commission
✅ a more robust criminal offence which carries a 10 year maximum sentence for making illegal donations
⚠️ This is against a backdrop of the Electoral Commission being asked to regulate a rapidly expanding political finance system with fewer resources and weaker powers than comparable regulators.
Other headlines from the report reveal:
🪙 The highest criminal fine ever imposed for electoral finance offences is a paltry £6k
📉There has been a steep fall - of 89% - in investigations concluded by the Electoral Commission, and the value of fines imposed has plummeted by 92%
Our new report reveals that the enforcement of political donations rules has NOSEDIVED:
🤯 No one has spent even a day in prison for breaching political finance laws
0️⃣ criminal investigations have been carried out by the Met Police for major political finance offences since 2010
💥NEW REPORT 'Credible Deterrence: beefing up enforcement of the UK's political finance rules'
Now that the Rycroft Review is out and already making a real impact, we have decided to publish some of the research we submitted to inform the review. 🧵⬇️
www.spotlightcorruption.org/report/credi...
📻 Our director @suehawley.bsky.social spoke to LBC News yesterday to welcome the Rycroft Review and:
💷 the UK's first ever cap on political donations
🚫 the immediate ban on crypto donations
But she urged the government to waste no time in implementing Rycroft's wider recommendations ⏰ ⬇️
👀 As our ‘Targeting the Untouchables’ report explored, #UWO cases aimed at suspected dirty money raise key Qs about the effectiveness of the UK’s #asset recovery toolkit. Without full transparency, the role of the press & public in scrutinising the proceedings & any future recovery will be impeded
❓ Judgment explaining the judge’s decision will land in due course. If anonymisation is overturned, the identity of the woman’s father and uncle, who are implicated in a major money laundering investigation in Singapore from illegal online gambling and online scam frauds, would also be revealed…
🔍 In a welcome development in this major #McMafia order case, the High Court is hearing an #OpenJustice challenge today to the anonymisation of the woman subject to the National Crime Agency’s latest #UnexplainedWealthOrder - worth £5.8 million – as well as the law firms & property agents involved
👏 We're very pleased to see the Rycroft Review make some vital recommendations.
As our director, @suehawley.bsky.social has said it is "a line in the sand" for UK politics, but the government must go even further to tighten our political finance rules ⬇️
www.spotlightcorruption.org/rycroft-revi...
🚨 Cases like the one heard today bring home how important it is to ensure #AML supervision of law firms is effective during the transition to #FCA supervision, and holds key lessons for what is needed to ensure these major reforms result in better accountability of big firms for #AML compliance.
🗣️ This comes at a time when the effectiveness of the supervision and enforcement of law firms’ compliance with #AML regulations is under close scrutiny, with govt plans to make the #FCA a new AML super-regulator for the professional services including lawyers
🧑⚖️ On appeal, the High Court rejected the Tribunal’s approach that a breach of #AML rules had to be ‘serious, culpable and reprehensible’ to amount to misconduct. The world’s largest global law firm is now trying to overturn this decision
www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWH...
