The UK’s National Crime Agency obtained a recovery order on 11 July over funds totalling £1,079,000 from bank accounts argued to have been used as part of an international money laundering network.
In a statement on 15 July, the NCA said this was the final element of a civil recovery investigation which focussed on assets of Gregory Candy-Wallace, which it argued were being used by an organised crime group diverting Pay as You Earn (PAYE) and National Insurance Contribution (NIC) payments away from HMRC.
In December 2020 the NCA submitted to the court how the organised crime group had diverted more than £50m of PAYE/NIC payments away from HMRC by offering outsourcing services to third party companies, but then failing to pay the appropriate sums to HMRC.
These funds were initially moved through a complex network of UK accounts with the majority of the funds then moved to accounts held in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The case was due to go to trial at the High Court this month but on 19 June 2024 a settlement was reached with Mr Candy-Wallace and companies he controlled. The NCA recovered a residential property near Eastbourne valued at approximately £1.7million which was held in the name of an offshore company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, and the balances of five further UK company bank accounts totalling approximately £1.2m.
Two further settlements had previously been reached with companies whose bank accounts had been used as part of the money laundering network; Foxton Wren Ltd and Moneo Solutions Ltd. A combined sum of approximately £1.7m was recovered from these companies bringing the total value of assets recovered as a result of this investigation to approximately £5.8m.
Adrian Searle of the National Economic Crime Centre at the NCA said: “The abuse of UK and offshore company accounts to facilitate money laundering represents a significant threat to the UK economy, adding costs to our financial system and threatening the UK’s reputation as a world financial centre. The NCA uses all the powers at its disposal, both criminal and civil, to pursue the laundered assets and bring those involved to justice.”
