Key takeaways

• The UK Criminal Finances Act 2017 has received Royal Assent and is expected to come into force by September 2017. It will have a significant impact on the investigation and enforcement of corporate crime in the UK.
• Notably, the Act creates a new corporate offence of failing to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion in the UK or overseas by ‘associated persons’, with a ‘reasonable procedures’ defence potentially available to companies.
• The Act modifies the money laundering reporting regime, including by substantially extending the time within which UK authorities can investigate a company’s notification of suspected money laundering. It also introduces ‘unexplained wealth orders’ as an investigative tool and to complement existing mechanisms for the authorities to recover criminal assets.