SFO London conference on cross-border economic crime

In a statement published on 8 May 2026, the Serious Fraud Office said it had hosted a two-day International Economic Crime Conference at Drapers’ Hall in central London with France’s Parquet National Financier and Switzerland’s Office of the Attorney General. More than 100 investigators and prosecutors from several jurisdictions attended, making it a practical meeting about how countries deal with fraud, corruption and hidden money when a case stretches across borders. (gov.uk) If that sounds a long way from daily life, it is worth slowing down here. These cases are not only about wealthy suspects and distant courtrooms. They are about whether stolen money can be tracked, whether victims can be repaid and whether law enforcement can keep up when evidence, bank records and digital assets sit in more than one country. (gov.uk)

Economic crime is one of those phrases that can hide the harm it describes. The SFO says it deals with serious or complex fraud, bribery and corruption, while Home Office material says illicit finance can weaken national security, harm prosperity and chip away at trust in institutions. Put simply, this is money-related crime, but its effects reach far beyond money. (gov.uk) That is why Baroness Margaret Hodge opened the London conference by speaking about the real-world harm caused by economic crime. The official conference note does not treat this as a victimless subject, and that is the right way to read it. Fraud losses, bribery and hidden criminal profits can shape what services get funded, who gets cheated and how safely markets work. (gov.uk)

The international part matters because no single agency holds every piece of the puzzle. Government material on the UK’s economic crime plan says no one agency or organisation has all the information, intelligence or data needed to tackle this kind of offending alone. In practice, a case can involve one country where a bribe was paid, another where a company is registered and another where the money or assets end up. (gov.uk) That helps explain why the SFO, France’s PNF and Switzerland’s OAG created a joint anti-corruption prosecutorial taskforce in March 2025, and why the London gathering mattered a year later. According to the SFO’s March 2026 announcement, this conference was the first event hosted by that taskforce and the first large-scale multi-jurisdictional conference in the agency’s history. (gov.uk)

According to the SFO, the sessions were not limited to speeches. They covered case detection, sharing insight, joint and parallel investigations, corporate prosecutions, getting evidence and freezing assets across borders, non-conviction-based asset recovery and the growing role of cryptocurrency in financial crime. That mix tells you something important: modern economic crime work is part law, part accounting, part international co-operation and part digital investigation. (gov.uk) The conference also drew in political voices. Baroness Margaret Hodge opened the event, and day two began with Joe Powell MP, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Anti-Corruption and Responsible Tax, who the SFO said used his address to stress Parliament’s commitment to tackling economic crime. (gov.uk)

One phrase you will hear often in this field is asset recovery. In plain English, that means finding money or property linked to crime, stopping it being moved or spent, and then taking it back through the legal system. The SFO’s own guidance says it traces, restrains and recovers the proceeds of complex economic crime, and in some cases it can use civil recovery and forfeiture powers without needing a criminal conviction first. (gov.uk) This is more than a technical side issue. Home Office figures say £284.5 million in criminal assets was recovered in nominal terms across England and Wales and Northern Ireland in the year ending March 2025, and ministers said in September 2025 that nearly £50 million of that money was returned to victims. When you hear investigators talk about seizing assets, this is the point: to stop offenders keeping the gains and, where possible, to get money back to the people harmed. (gov.uk)

The cryptocurrency sessions matter because financial crime is no longer only about cash, bank transfers or luxury goods. UK government factsheets say cryptoassets can move funds globally at speed and in a pseudo-anonymous way, and that criminals are increasingly using them to move and launder profits from offences including fraud and money laundering. That makes digital tracing skills, exchange data and seizure powers a normal part of serious financial investigations now, not a niche extra. (gov.uk) The law has been moving too. Since 26 April 2024, new UK powers have made it easier for the police and National Crime Agency to seize, freeze and recover illicit cryptoassets, with the Home Office arguing that the change was needed because organised criminals, fraudsters and terrorists were making greater use of them. So when this conference put crypto beside asset recovery and corporate prosecutions, it was reflecting where the threat now sits. (gov.uk)

What stays with us from the London conference is not only the guest list but the lesson behind it. The SFO’s official summary said the event underscored the value of international collaboration in dealing with increasingly complex cross-border financial crime. That may sound formal, but the meaning is simple enough: if criminal money crosses borders, the response has to cross borders too. (gov.uk) **What this means for you:** when you hear the term economic crime, think beyond spreadsheets and boardrooms. Think about fraud victims, public trust, hidden wealth and the question of whether the law can still catch up when money moves in seconds. This conference did not solve that problem on its own, but it showed why countries keep meeting, sharing evidence and learning from each other in the first place. (gov.uk)