New ‘failure to prevent’ money laundering offence backed by Lords

The House of Lords have voted in favour of amending the proposed failure to prevent fraud offence to widen the scope of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill. The amendments include expanding the offence to include the failure to prevent money laundering.

Andrew Sackey partner at Pinsent Masons said: ‘The amendment to include money laundering is potentially very significant. The government had sought to argue that the money laundering regulations adequately covered this. However Lord Garnier who brought the amendment disagreed stating firstly that any extension of the criminal law should be by primary not secondary legislation and secondly that the regulations do not cover the situations envisaged by his amendment.’

Lord Garnier barrister and former Conservative MP said the new offence is designed to tackle ‘failure to prevent those POCA offences being committed by associates of those companies’. He...