Home Secretary of the House of Commons, David Blunkett introduced The Proceeds of Crime Bill on 18 October 2001. It was passed by Royal Assent on 24 July 2002. The purpose of this law is to facilitate the Assets Recovery Agency to recover property obtained through criminal behaviour.
The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) is the new name replacing previous name, the Assets Recovery Agency. This gives the government power to take back any proceeds gained by the criminal element in their criminal activity. Courts now have the ability to freeze assets that a person or persons gains from illegal means.
Money laundering is being affected in a negative way. All financial institutions, including banks, are fully responsible for disclosing any suspicious transactions. By law, failure to report their suspicions makes the employees of the bank guilty of a crime themselves.
On 16 June 2009 Paul Evans of SOCA gave a speech at CCS (Commercial Crime Services annual event. He addressed the subject of SOCA’s methods of destabalising crime and reduce the harm they cause to the public sector. They strive to dismantle organised criminal networks in United Kingdom.
The Office Of Fair Trading estimates the cost UK fraud victims pay because of organised crime to be approximately 3.5 billion pounds annually. SOCA attacks mass marketing fraud schemes and intercepts money sent by the victims to fraudulent scammers. Mr. Evans believes in educating the public in ways to protect themselves from being victimized.
The criminal element is in pursuit of money belonging rightfully to honest people. When they send out an email claiming the potential victim has won money but needs to send a deposit to facilitate the transfer, ask yourself why they want to send YOU money. SOSA knows they only want to steal money FROM you. They try to educate the public in the hopes of launching identification and prosecution of these crooks. They want to put them in jail where they belong, not allow them to benefit from the proceeds of crime.
Business valuations and forensic accounting and services related to commercial disputes are niche services you can get at financial firms. If you need to know more about proceeds of crime why not go to the BTG Forensic site for details on how the cases are dealt and who might need it.