On 14th May, Wilmer Hale published an article about one element of a speech by Mark Steward, Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight at the UK FCA. This concerned the FCA now conducting ‘dual-track’ AML investigations…that might give rise to either criminal or civil proceedings. It points out that the FCA has not brought a single criminal prosecution under the current regulations, and only a handful under the preceding regulations. This, it says, begs 2 further questions: is there any real utility to the FCA carrying out dual-track investigations, when the likelihood of a criminal prosecution seems so limited; and ought the FCA to be pursuing these cases criminally at all? The article looks further into these, and says that Steward’s tacit acknowledgement that the FCA’s criminal powers have been underused raises a further, interesting thought: ought the FCA to be pursuing systemic money laundering failings by way of a criminal action at all? It argues that Steward appears to be saying that money laundering offences are in some way morally incumbent upon the FCA to pursue them by way of a criminal, rather than a civil action.
https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/dual-track-money-laundering-51593/?
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