News

UK SAR Volumes Triple During Ukraine Invasion

By Koos Couvée

The total volume of suspicious activity reports filed by banks and other businesses regulated for anti-money laundering purposes in Britain has gone "through the roof" since Russia commenced a full-scale war against Ukraine in late February, a U.K. official said Thursday. Days after the invasion began, the National Crime Agency formed a "combating kleptocracy cell" to investigate sanctions evasion and money laundering by "corrupt elites" and "key enablers," and share intelligence on blacklisted parties with domestic and international partners amid unprecedented Western sanctions against Moscow. The NCA, which hosts the U.K. Financial Intelligence Unit, instructed financial institutions the following month...

TO READ THE FULL STORY