Fraud update: Serious Fraud Office hosts International Economic Crime Conference

We have been closely tracking developments in UK fraud investigation and prosecution.

We recently reported on how the UK Government published its Fraud Strategy 2026 to 2029, which aims to set out how it will combat fraud committed against individuals and businesses over the period 2026 to 2029.

We then examined the fraud strategy in more detail, noted some of the interesting highlights and then delved into the detail:

What is the UK Government’s Fraud Strategy 2026 – 2029 and what does it tell us?

We also analysed Fraudscape 2026 (the flagship intelligence report from CIFAS) and how, alongside the reported increases in fraud, we continue to encounter situations where a CIFAS marker has been wrongly applied and can be removed.

We shall now look at a conference hosted by the Serious Fraud Office (“SFO”) and attended by France’s Parquet National Financier (“PNF”) and Switzerland’s Office of the Attorney General (“OAG”).

What is the Economic Crime Conference?

As we previously explained, the SFO, PNF and OAG are founding members of the International Anti-Corruption Prosecutorial Taskforce, launched in March 2025.

Over two days, the conference will bring together over seventy practitioners from the world’s leading economic crime agencies to share best practices, practical insights and innovative approaches for tackling complex cases of international fraud, bribery and corruption.

More specifically, the programme will seek to:

• Increase lines of communication and deepen understanding between agencies;
• Pave the way for new strategic partnerships or initiatives to combat international economic crime; and
• Send a clear message to would-be offenders that the SFO, PNF and AOG are united in their commitment to tackling international economic crime.

What is on the conference programme?

The programme will include sessions on:

• Case detection;
• Conducting joint and parallel investigations;
• Obtaining international assistance: evidence and asset restraint or freezing;
• Cryptocurrency: asset tracing, obtaining information from exchanges, and modalities of cryptocurrency fraud;
• Use of co-operators or assisting offenders;
• Prosecuting corporates: liability, co-operation and non-trial resolutions; and
• Non-conviction-based asset recovery.

This event will take place in advance of the UK’s Illicit Finance Summit in June 2026.

What is the UK’s Illicit Finance Summit?

In June 2026, the UK will host a major international summit to tackle the flows of dirty money around the world.  This summit will bring together governments, civil society organisations and private sector representatives.

The event will focus on strengthening global enforcement efforts to prevent, disrupt and recover dirty money.  It will forge new agreements to tackle modern methods for moving dirty money, such as laundering in the property sector, misuse of crypto-assets and trading in illicit gold.

The highlights include:

• Governments, civil society and the private sector gathering in London next year to accelerate the fight against corruption and dirty money, as details of major summit are outlined by the Foreign Secretary.
• Foreign Secretary calling out illicit finance as the ‘lifeblood of crime’ on UK streets and promising to ‘take the fight to the corrupt’.
• New funding for investigative journalists exposing corruption announced as UK prepares to launch the new Anti-Corruption Strategy.

NAVIGATING FINANCIAL INSTITUTION-RELATED CHALLENGES

What can I do to try and challenge a wrong decision to close my personal and/or bank account(s)?

In the meantime, we are increasingly being approached by individuals who have been “de-banked” in circumstances where they are adamant that they have always acted in full compliance with the relevant bank account’s Terms and Conditions and all other legal and applicable rules and regulations.

We have previously written about how other issues individuals may face, including account closures, are not limited to political figures in the UK and affect many thousands of lawful individual and business customers every year.  These cases have exposed the difficult balance many financial institutions and their individual and business customers must navigate to gain and maintain access to basic banking services.

To assist those whose accounts have been closed, Gherson’s Financial Crime, Investigations and Regulatory team have previously written blogs titled

• “Why has my bank account been closed?”
• “Why has my business bank account been closed?”
• “140,000 SMEs “de-banked” last year – why could I have been de-banked?”
• “What are the proposed new laws aimed at preventing de-banking?”
• “Why the proposed new laws to try and prevent de-banking to not go far enough”.
• “Am I entitled to a basic bank account in the UK?”
• “How to challenge crypto-related bank account closures”
• “De-banking and crypto – will the landscape be positively changed by the introduction of new rules for both?”

What can I do to try and challenge a wrongly imposed CIFAS marker?

We are also being increasingly approached by individuals who feel that a financial institution has wrongly imposed a CIFAS marker in their name.

If you have always acted in full compliance with the relevant bank account’s Terms and Conditions and all other applicable legal rules and regulations, then you should have a good basis to challenge the bank’s decision to implement any CIFAS markers.

A strong challenge will often involve demonstrating through evidence that you have not breached the bank’s Terms and Conditions or any rules and regulations, and that all transactions were at all times completed in full compliance will all the applicable laws and regulations.

In a previous blog, we examined what a CIFAS marker is and how to try and get it removed, as well as what you can do if a CIFAS marker has been wrongly imposed.

We have also recently examined Challenging a crypto-related CIFAS Marker: what you can do.

Adverse Information on Compliance Databases

We also being increasingly approached by individuals who feel that incorrect and/or inaccurate data about them stored in compliance databases is having an adverse effect on their relationship with financial institutions and are facing subsequent issues, such as bank account closures and difficulties in opening a bank account.

We have also written a series of blogs on a basic overview of the main functions of compliance databases such as World-Check, and how you can correct information about yourself on such databases.

HOW GHERSON CAN ASSIST

Gherson’s Regulatory, White-collar and Investigations team are highly experienced in providing assistance on what you can do if your bank freezes or closes your account.  This includes assisting you in submitting a request under data protection legislation, otherwise known as a Data Subject Access Request, to ascertain what information banks and other financial institutions may be holding on you and their decision making, and then analysing the response and assisting with any appropriate challenge.

If you have any questions arising from this blog, Please do not hesitate to contact us for further advice, send us an e-mail, or alternatively, follow us on X or LinkedIn to stay up-to-date.

The information in this blog is for general information purposes only and does not purport to be comprehensive or to provide legal advice. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the information and law is current as of the date of publication it should be stressed that, due to the passage of time, this does not necessarily reflect the present legal position. Gherson accepts no responsibility for loss which may arise from accessing or reliance on information contained in this blog. For formal advice on the current law please do not hesitate to contact Gherson. Legal advice is only provided pursuant to a written agreement, identified as such, and signed by the client and by or on behalf of Gherson.

©Gherson 2026