The National Crime Agency (NCA) has recovered almost £6m worth of assets by dismantling an international money-laundering network that diverted payments away from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).
Over the past four years, the NCA has undertaken a civil recovery investigation focusing on the assets of Gregory Candy-Wallace who the NCA argued was diverting Pay as You Earn (PAYE) and National Insurance Contribution (NIC) payments away from HMRC.
In December 2020, the NCA submitted to the court how an organised crime group had diverted more than £50million of PAYE/NIC payments away from HMRC by offering outsourcing services to third-party companies, but then failing to pay the appropriate sums to the UK’s tax, payments and customs authority.
According to the NCA, these funds were initially moved through a complex network of UK accounts, with most of the funds then moved to accounts held in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The case was due to go to trial at the High Court in July 2024, but a settlement was reached on 19 June 2024 with Candy-Wallace and the companies he controlled.
On 11 July 2024, the NCA obtained a Recovery Order over funds totalling £1,079,000 from bank accounts, which was argued to have been used by the international money-laundering network.
The NCA has also recovered a residential property near Eastbourne valued at approximately £1.7m and the balances of five further UK company bank accounts totalling approximately £1.2m.
Two further settlements had previously been reached with companies (Foxton Wren Ltd and Moneo Solutions Ltd) whose bank accounts had been used as part of the money-laundering network. A combined sum of approximately £1.7m was recovered from these companies.
As a result of the NCA’s investigation, assets worth a total value of approximately £5.8m were recovered.
Adrian Searle of the National Economic Crime Centre at the NCA said: “The abuse of UK and offshore company accounts to facilitate money laundering represents a significant threat to the UK economy, adding costs to our financial system and threatening the UK’s reputation as a world financial centre.
“The NCA uses all the powers at its disposal, both criminal and civil, to pursue the laundered assets and bring those involved to justice.”
Read the full report here.
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