Law & order
Britain targets
financial fraud with anti-corruption police unit
Source: Reuters -
Thu, 18 Dec 2014 14:58 GMT
Author: Reuters
Sample polymer five and ten GB pound
banknotes are seen on display at the Bank of England in London September 10,
2013. REUTERS/Chris Ratcliffe/pool
By
William James
LONDON,
Dec 18 (Reuters) - Britain is to set up a specialist police unit focused on
corruption and bribery, aiming to bolster its defences against white-collar
crime in the financial sector as part of a wider plan to stamp out fraudulent
business practices.
Banks
and other financial players account for about a tenth of the UK economy's
output but the sector has been damaged by a succession of scandals, making it
important for the government to show it is clamping down on wrongdoing.
The
new unit will sit within the National Crime Agency (NCA), Britain's equivalent
to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and will pull together
experts from within the NCA and specialists from other government agencies.
"As
host to one of the world's largest financial centres, the UK has a moral duty
and global responsibility to ensure that corrupt officials and organised
criminals do not abuse our systems," said Business Minister Matt Hancock.
The
new unit, due to be established by April 2015, is intended to boost capacity to
handle corruption cases.
The
government said it would work in cooperation with the existing Serious Fraud
Office (SFO), which has led the investigation and prosecution of serious or
complex fraud and corruption, but did not say how this would happen in practice
or how the responsibilities of the two bodies would be defined.
Earlier
this month the SFO secured the conviction of three men in a 23 million pound
($36 million) biofuel investment scam. The organisation is also investigating a
number of high-profile cases, such as the manipulation of interbank interest
rates and bribery allegations linked to aero-engine maker Rolls-Royce Holdings
Plc.
($1
= 0.6403 pounds) (Editing by David Holmes)
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