Britain’s elite criminal agency is planning a crackdown on money laundering in the City of London that is expected to lead to the arrest of lawyers linked to the movement and washing of billions of pounds of criminal proceeds.
Donald Toon, director of the economic crime command at the National Crime Agency (NCA), said the authorities would this week launch a coordinated assault on seemingly legitimate legal and banking operations that have been using London to systematically launder money for “large-scale” criminal organisations.
“We are talking here about the proceeds of major corruption and the proceeds of unjust enrichment by problem regimes,” he said, speaking at a conference hosted by the University of Cambridge.
“It is absolutely clear that there are companies and individuals who