New Anti-Corruption Champion and NCA funding as campaign against corruption steps up

Baroness Margaret Hodge announced as UK's new Anti-Corruption Champion as National Crime Agency receives new funding and sanctions imposed on illicit gold trade.

• Baroness Hodge of Barking appointed UK Anti-Corruption Champion after decades of campaigning against corruption and illicit finance.  
• Foreign Secretary announces new £36 million support for National Crime Agency's work to combat corruption on visit with Baroness Hodge and the Security Minister today.
• Further sanctions also announced targeting the illicit gold trade, which is fuelling corruption and financing Putin's war efforts. 

Baroness Hodge of Barking will support the government's agenda to tackle corruption at home and overseas as the Prime Minister's new UK Anti-Corruption Champion, the government has announced today.

Baroness Hodge is a leading campaigner on corruption and illicit finance. As Chair of the Public Accounts Committee from 2010-2015 and of the APPG on Anti-Corruption and Responsible Tax, she has shone a light on the impact of dirty money in the UK.    

In her role as the new UK Anti-Corruption Champion, she will work with Parliament, the private sector and civil society to help drive delivery of the government's priorities to clamp down on corruption and the organised criminals who benefit from it, helping to deliver safer streets and secure borders.  

The Foreign Secretary, Security Minister and Baroness Hodge visited the National Crime Agency (NCA) today to hear first-hand about their work tackling corruption and dirty money in the UK and overseas.  

During the visit, the Foreign Secretary announced that FCDO will extend its funding support to the NCA's International Corruption Unit (ICU) by up to £36 million over 5 years. This will help the ICU to continue its successful investigations of cross-border corruption, money laundering and bribery cases overseas. The ICU has already frozen over £441 million of assets related to international corruption since 2020.  

Tackling corruption is fundamental to our national security, which is a foundation of this government's Plan for Change to deliver growth, putting more money in people's pockets, getting the NHS back on its feet, rebuilding Britain, and securing our borders in a decade of national renewal.    

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said:

Corruption poses a real threat to the UK. It enables the activities of dictators, smugglers and organised criminals around the world, making our streets less safe and our borders less secure.

Take Syria, where Bashar al-Assad was ousted from power this weekend after decades of brutal suppression, financed in recent years by laundering the proceeds from the illegal Captagon trade abroad.

This government will make the UK a hostile environment for the corrupt and their ill-gotten gains as we put national security as a foundation of our Plan for Change and decade of national renewal.  

That's why I'm delighted to confirm further funding to the National Crime Agency's International Corruption Unit and welcome Baroness Hodge as the UK's Anti-Corruption Champion to bear down on this menace.

Security Minister Dan Jarvis said:

We are proud to announce the appointment of Baroness Hodge of Barking as the government's new UK Anti-Corruption Champion.

Margaret brings decades of experience and expertise to this important role, and I know she is the right person to help drive forward our ambition to tackle corruption in all its forms — both at home and overseas.

We understand the scale of the challenge and are ready to put in the hard work to deliver the credible and lasting change our country needs. I look forward to having Margaret alongside us to support that work.

Anti-Corruption Champion Baroness Hodge of Barking said:

After years of campaigning on the issue, I feel privileged and delighted to be able to work as the Government's champion, combatting corruption and the illicit finance that flows from it, both at home and abroad.

The time has now come to put an end to dither and delay. We must take determined and effective action and I look forward to playing my part in that work.

The UK has also imposed further sanctions to tackle dirty money, this time targeting the illicit gold trade. Illicit gold is an assault on the legitimate trade of a valuable commodity, fuelling corruption, undermining the rule of law, and entrenching human rights abuses such as child labour. Russia uses the illicit gold trade to launder money and evade sanctions, in doing so bolstering Putin's war efforts.  

Today's sanctions will disrupt and deter the illicit gold trade by imposing asset freezes on five individuals, including infamous British-Kenyan gold smuggler Kamlesh Pattni and his enablers. Pattni smuggles illicit gold out of southern Africa for use in money laundering and was implicated in the Goldenberg corruption scandal in the 1990s.    

The government has also pledged to bring forward an ambitious, government-wide anti-corruption strategy in 2025, which will draw on expertise from across government, law enforcement, private sector, civil society, and academia, to develop a single UK response to tackling corruption, and ensure that this is reflected in the UK's diplomatic engagement around the world.   

These announcements come on the back of a major NCA investigation last week – Operation Destabilise – that exposed and disrupted Russian money laundering networks supporting serious and organised crime around the world, further highlighting the harm caused by dirty money to UK and international security.  

Background

About the ICU

The International Corruption Unit (ICU) investigates international bribery, corruption and related money-laundering offences. Its key role is to investigate:

• money laundering in the UK resulting from corruption of high-ranking officials overseas.
• bribery involving UK–based companies or nationals which has an international element.
• cross-border bribery where there is a link to the UK.

The ICU also traces and recovers the proceeds of international corruption.

Today's sanctions consist of three individuals designated under the UK's Global Anti-Corruption Sanctions Regulations 2021:

• Kamlesh Pattni, a British-Kenyan businessman who has used bribery to export gold from southern Africa as a means of laundering dirty money.
• Also designated are Pattni's sister and brother-in-law, who have a long history of involvement in his network of companies.

A further individual is designated under the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019:

• Alain Goetz, a Belgian gold trader at the head of various gold refineries and companies across Africa. Goetz has smuggled illicit gold extracted from mines in the DRC controlled by armed groups which have been involved in serious human rights violations.

A further individual is designated under the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019:

• Anto Joseph, the CEO and manager of several gold trading companies, including Paloma Precious (designated by the UK in November 2023). Paloma Precious has purchased more than USD 300 million of Russian gold, thereby indirectly providing revenue for the Government of Russia which could be used for the war in Ukraine.

Definitions:  

• Asset freeze: an asset freeze prevents any UK citizen, or any business in the UK, from dealing with any funds or economic resources which are owned, held or controlled by the designated person. It also prevents funds or economic resources being provided to or for the benefit of the designated person. UK financial sanctions apply to all persons within the territory and territorial sea of the UK and to all UK persons, wherever they are in the world.
• Travel ban: a travel ban means that the designated person must be refused leave to enter or to remain in the United Kingdom, providing the individual is an excluded person under section 8B of the Immigration Act 1971.
• Trust services sanctions prohibit the provision of trust services to or for the benefit of a designated person, including the creation, operation or management of a trust or similar arrangement, within the UK or by UK persons outside the UK.