Outer Temple Chambers hosted Unexplained Wealth Order breakfast briefing

The National Crime Agency estimates that billions of pounds of illicit wealth is laundered through the UK each year, that asset recovery levels are low and there are insufficient resources for law enforcement.

In these circumstances, Transparency International has called for the introduction of Unexplained Wealth Orders to help the fight against corrupt money coming into the UK; the organisation held a breakfast briefing to address this on Tuesday, 27 September 2016, at Outer Temple Chambers.

The briefing was provided by Eva Anderson, TI-UK Senior Legal Adviser, Robert Barrington, TI-UK Executive Director, James Maton, Partner at Cooley LLP, and Michael Bowes QC, Head of Outer Temple Chambers and Trustee of TI-UK.

During the lively and informative session, the four panellists discussed how to best empower UK enforcement agencies to recover more corrupt assets.

Michael Bowes QC asserted that  “Unexplained Wealth Orders will be used to freeze assets and the next stage is to move to forfeiture proceedings.” He has also pointed out that “An UWO is a proportionate response to the social mischief of corruption.”

Likewise, Robert Barrington’s opinion is that “The UK has a responsibility to ensure that any stolen wealth flowing into the country is stopped, frozen, and ultimately returned to the people from whom it was stolen.”

Visit TI’s website to find out more. Press release is also available here.

News 19 Oct, 2016