Four guilty of £266 million money laundering plot
Four people have been found guilty in the UK’s largest-ever money laundering case, involving £266 million laundered through Bradford-based scrap jewellery business Fowler Oldfield.
From 2014 to 2016, the company received up to £1.7 million in cash per day, with couriers from criminal networks delivering bags of banknotes.
The funds were used to buy untraceable gold, much of which was taken out of the UK. The scheme was exposed in 2016 when a cash-in-transit company flagged suspicious deposits.
The rigorous investigation by West Yorkshire Police’s Economic Crime Unit involved the forensic analysis of invoices, emails and paperwork as well as studying over 8,000 hours of CCTV footage.
NatWest bank was also fined £264.8 million in 2021 for its anti-money laundering failures related to this case.