The United Kingdom has long been known as a hotspot for hiding dirty money, and London has even been dubbed the money laundering capital of the world. A new report issued last week has now detailed how legal loopholes allow for money from foreign sources to fund British politics and influence elections.

A ‘significantly high number’ of cryptocurrency firms have failed to comply with the U.K.’s trading standards and are struggling to meet anti-money laundering rules, Britain’s financial regulator said last week. 

The U.K. government agreed with Nigeria on Tuesday to return £4.2 million (US$5.83 million) laundered by James Ibori, the former Governor of the southern oil producing Delta State, which government officials say will be used to finance key Nigerian infrastructure projects.

An investigation by the Guardian claimed on Sunday that the Queen of the United Kingdom misused her position as formal head of state to pressure the country’s government into enabling her to conceal her private wealth from the public eye.

In the tumult of recent weeks, a major legislative milestone in the American fight against kleptocracy has sneaked by almost unnoticed. It demands our attention, especially because its work is only half done.

(Credit: Scott Graham/Unsplash)

Following the final implementation of Brexit, and thus the U.K.’s Complete exit from the European Union, the country has last week rejected EU trade regulations designed to clamp down the illegal antiquities trade. 

The United Kingdom has convicted a further four people of involvement in a human smuggling operation that resulted in the deaths of dozens of Vietnamese migrants last year, theCrown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced on Monday.

The United Kingdom’s highest court has dismissed an application by the wife of a jailed Azerbaijani banker against a legal order requiring her to disclose how she acquired two high-value properties in the country.

Results from an internal investigation launched in 2017 into an alleged cover-up of a £1 billion (US$1.32 bn) fraud scandal dating back over a decade have been delayed again, and likely won’t be revealed until next year, the lead investigator wrote in a statement on Friday. 

A group representing nearly one million Facebook users in England and Wales who were affected by the Cambridge Analytica scandal launched legal action against the social media giant on Thursday, according to a press release.

The British government will be returning a 4,000-year-old Sumerian plaque believed to have been looted during the US invasion of Iraq that began in 2003, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Khadimi said in a Tweet Friday.

Authorities in the U.K. have confiscated properties worth an estimated 17 million pounds (US$22.4 million) in what marks the end of an eight-year investigation into one of the country’s most prolific drug trafficking groups.

Citizens collecting pensions in the United Kingdom have lost at least 31 million pounds (US$40.75 million) to scammers since 2017, and this figure likely only scratches the surface given that it includes only reported cases, the country’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and The Pensions Regulator said in a press release on Tuesday. 

Drug dealers in Scotland are using the homes of disabled, mentally ill and otherwise vulnerable people as ‘nests’ from which to sell their product, according to a recent study.

The UK’s primary opposition party has called for urgent action on illicit financial flows in the wake of damning revelations that the country’s government has failed to properly scrutinise and investigate the activities of wealthy Russian oligarchs with ties to the Kremlin.

The UK government has designated several high-profile Russian and Saudi officials as part of its first sanctions action since the country’s historic decision to leave the European Union.

UK authorities have arrested 746 suspects in the largest ever enforcement action in the country’s history, following the takedown of an encrypted communication service used “exclusively” by organised criminal groups.

A UK airline has admitted that the personal information of more than nine million customers was compromised in a recent cyberattack.

Ukraine has in recent years blacklisted hundreds of UK companies, with more than a third registered in Scotland, according to a recent investigation published over the weekend byopenDemocracy.

Authorities in the UK have jailed four members of a gang that smuggled hundreds of kilograms of cocaine into the country concealed in frozen chickens.