UK Government Wants More Power to Seize Crypto Assets: Report
The reforms will be set out under a new economic crime bill aimed at addressing the use of digital currencies to hide the origin of potentially nefarious funding.
Feb 28, 2022 at 9:31 a.m. UTCUpdated May 11, 2023 at 5:19 p.m. UTC
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The U.K. government is proposing a set of reforms, which will give it greater power to seize crypto assets, to tackle money laundering, the Financial Times reported on Monday.
- The reforms will be set out under a new economic crime bill aimed at addressing the use of digital currencies to hide the origin of potentially nefarious funding, FT reported.
- Ministers will soon publish a white paper proposing reforms to the Companies House, the U.K.'s registrar where all businesses must submit financial statements and other information.
- The reforms will insist that applicants registering new companies should provide more details of their identities.
- These proposals are being brought forward in conjunction with another economic crime bill introducing a register of overseas entities, requiring foreign owners of companies to reveal their identities to prevent criminals from concealing funds behind shell companies.
- Such legislation has been been in the works for some time but was delayed in favor of other measures that had more mass appeal.
- The government is now accelerating its plans in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has sharpened concerns about the flow of "dirty money" into the U.K.
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Jamie Crawley is a CoinDesk news reporter based in London.