UK Government Wants More Power to Seize Crypto Assets: Report

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

Jamie Crawley is a CoinDesk news reporter based in London.

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