Criminal Finances Act 2017

The Criminal Finances Act 2017 – Purpose and scope

The CFA 2017 was designed to increase powers to tackle corporate tax evasion and widen the scope for money laundering and corruption offences; recover the proceeds of crime and as a further means of trying to restrict terrorist financing.  It does this principally by introducing a number of amending provisions to the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (eg. Account Freezing Orders [AFOs] under s.303Z POCA) and Unexplained Wealth Orders [UWOs] under sections 362A–362T of POCA.

Additionally the CFA 2017 creates the corporate offences of the failure of a company or partnership to prevent facilitation of UK tax evasion and the failure to prevent facilitation of foreign tax evasion offences.  As a consequence such ‘relevant bodies’ are made criminally liable for failing to prevent anyone regarded as an ‘associated person’ from doing this.

If you think you may be affected by the Criminal Finances Act 2017please contact our experienced team who can offer practical and proactive advice on this specialist area.