U.K. Targets Russian-Language Crypto Laundering Networks With £500 Million Push

LONDON — The U.K. Home Office has announced a £500 million ($635 million) funding package over three years for a new multi-agency campaign against international crypto-asset money laundering rings. The funding comes from Britain’s Economic Crime Levy, an annual charge on regulated-sector entities such as commercial banks, legal firms, and asset managers with annual U.K. revenue exceeding £10.2 million.

The initiative shifts law enforcement attention toward Russian-language criminal networks that convert physical cash into digital currency for organized crime. It forms part of a new Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Strategy, under which 500 specialized officers will be recruited across territorial police forces, the National Crime Agency (NCA), and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Those specialists will work against an estimated £100 billion ($127 billion) in illicit capital that moves through the U.K. or U.K. corporate vehicles each year. The recruitment drive also comes as authorities use powers expanded by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, which amended the U.K. Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

The amended legislation gives law enforcement agencies enhanced administrative powers to freeze, seize, and recover illicit crypto assets directly from exchange platforms and unhosted wallet providers without requiring a prior criminal conviction. The 500 dedicated specialists across police forces and the CPS are intended to accelerate asset forfeiture proceedings in complex, multi-jurisdictional digital asset cases.

The operational expansion builds on Operation Destabilise, an NCA-led investigation into Russian-speaking money-laundering brokers working across London and key international hubs. The brokers convert street-level cash into cryptocurrencies used by ransomware syndicates, hostile foreign state operations, and international drug trafficking cartels dealing in Class A substances.

Over the past year, Operation Destabilise produced 119 arrests and led to the seizure of more than £25 million ($31.7 million) in physical cash and crypto assets. Separately, government figures released with the strategy show that U.K. enforcement agencies recovered nearly £350 million ($444 million) directly from illicit networks over the past year and disrupted or denied more than £1 billion ($1.27 billion) in potential criminal proceeds.

The same period brought nearly 4,000 money-laundering convictions by British prosecutors. Approximately £26 million ($33 million) in recovered funds was returned directly to victims of financial fraud.

Cross-border enforcement is another part of the expanded effort. In March, the NCA’s National Economic Crime Centre (NECC) hosted a week-long operational sprint at its headquarters with the U.S. Secret Service under Operation Atlantic.

Operation Atlantic targeted widespread “approval-phishing” scams, in which attackers trick victims into signing malicious smart contract transactions that drain crypto wallets. Investigators identified approximately 20,000 victims and worked with major cryptocurrency exchanges and issuers to freeze $12 million in assets held across Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, and Tether.

The Home Office said financial crime vectors have shifted rapidly as a result of developments in financial technology, artificial intelligence, and non-custodial digital asset protocols. The NCA’s economic crime division recently ranked crypto assets as the third-highest priority among nine key economic crime threats identified with HM Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

In its latest annual report, the NECC warned that criminal enterprises are using digital tokens and cross-chain bridging techniques with increasing sophistication to obscure ownership trails and carry out illicit transfers at scale. “Fighting financial crime has become more complex as criminals embrace new technologies,” said Sal Melki, the NCA’s deputy director for economic crime. Melki said the new funding would support an upgraded financial intelligence apparatus for the country while expanding capabilities to dismantle the core infrastructure of international laundering syndicates.