£3.2 million in money laundering penalties issued by HMRC

12 Jun 2023

HMRC recently fined hundreds of businesses a total of £3.2 million for breaching anti-money laundering rules.

240 UK businesses were fined between 1 July and 31 December 2022 for being in breach of the Money Laundering Regulations designed to prevent criminals from exploiting illicit cash.

Certain kinds of business must register for money laundering supervision with HMRC, including accountants and tax advisers, financial and credit businesses, independent legal professionals, estate agency firms and trust and company service providers.

HMRC said 179 additional companies received smaller fines totalling over £200,000 for breaching the Money Laundering Regulations.

Nick Sharp, Deputy Director of Economic Crime and the Fraud Investigation Service at HMRC, said: 'Money laundering is not a victimless crime. We are here to help businesses protect themselves from criminal attacks and will continue to tackle the minority of businesses which do not comply with the Money Laundering Regulations.

'Serious and organised crime costs the UK billions of pounds every year and our anti-money laundering supervision is a vital tool in combatting that.'