UK says crypto and AI is making dirty money harder to track
Key Points
- The Home Office said fintech, crypto and AI have made money laundering harder to fight
- The UK will hire 500 new officers backed by £500 million over three years
- The NCA estimates over £100 billion is laundered through the UK each year
- Operation Destabilise saw 119 arrests and £25 million in cash and crypto seized in under a year
- Law enforcement stripped almost £350 million from criminals in the past year
The Home Office says the rise of fintech, crypto and AI has made money laundering harder to fight, as it announced 500 new officers and £500 million to chase dirty money.
The department set out the figures in a press release alongside a new Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Strategy, which covers how the UK plans to stop criminals hiding, moving or profiting from crime.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) estimates that criminals launder more than £100 billion through the UK or UK corporate structures each year.
Money laundering networks move and conceal the profits of drug trafficking, fraud, people smuggling and corruption, and also help hostile states and elites move illicit wealth through the international financial system.
The Home Office said this threat has grown in recent years because of fintech, crypto and AI. The strategy responds by funding new intelligence capabilities, advanced technology and closer work between law enforcement and the private sector.
“Combatting financial crime has become more complex as criminals embrace new technologies to increase the scale and harm of their offending,” said Sal Melki, Deputy Director for Economic Crime at the NCA.
He added that the funding would let the agency build a new financial intelligence service for the UK and increase its capacity to target money launderers and the financial architecture they rely on.
The £500 million comes from the economic crime levy and runs over three years. It pays for hundreds of new investigators across police forces, the NCA and the Crown Prosecution Service, who will follow the money behind serious and organised crime, including Russian and other international laundering networks.
The new officers will build on the NCA’s Operation Destabilise, which targeted Russian money laundering networks operating in the UK and overseas. Officers arrested 119 suspected money launderers and seized over £25 million in cash and crypto in less than 12 months.
The Home Office said the same networks enable hostile state activity, ransomware groups and the global movement of class A drugs. The NCA plans a new campaign of arrests, cash seizures and other methods to disrupt the networks operating on UK streets.
The release also carried results from the past year’s enforcement. Law enforcement stripped almost £350 million from criminals, denied them over £1 billion, returned £26 million to victims, disrupted 2,700 illicit finance operations and increased money laundering convictions to almost 4,000.
Almost £1 million of that came from people smugglers and immigration offenders. The Home Office said a significant portion of the money recovered from criminals will go towards public services and law enforcement.
“We are putting 500 more officers on the trail of dirty money, going after the criminal bosses behind organised crime and stripping them of the funds they use to fuel drug trafficking, people smuggling and other serious crime,” said Shabana Mahmood, Home Secretary.
“This crackdown will make Britain a harder place for criminals to launder money, and ensures that when we recover criminals’ assets, that funding will go to further bolstering law enforcement,” said Lucy Rigby, Economic Secretary to the Treasury.
The strategy also builds on the work of the High Street Organised Crime Unit, which is running a nationwide crackdown on shops used as fronts for organised crime.
The government is now changing the law on closure orders to keep rogue vape and barber shops shut, and has given police and trading standards additional funding.
“Reforms to anti-money laundering supervision provide a golden opportunity to strengthen the supervision of professional services, ensure more consistent oversight and help us identify and disrupt crime,” said Steve Smart, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the Financial Conduct Authority.
The Serious Fraud Office said it has secured £15.4 million through judicial outcomes since April 2026. It is also supporting a review of money laundering prosecutions as part of the strategy.
