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Barclays has received a fine of £ 42 million for not managing the risk of money laundering, even in a case that involves the former son-in-law of Formula 1 Magnaat Bernie Ecclestone.
The Financial Conduct Authority fines a fine of Barclays on Wednesday about two major cases related to a criminal procedure. It is the third time in a decade that the bank is polluted the expectations of the regulator with regard to the management of financial crime risks.
In the latter case, the FCA discovered that Barclays had opened a customer money account for Wealth Manager Wealthtek, which has since been closed for “serious regulatory and operational issues”.
“A simple check that could have done was to look at the register of the financial services before he opened the account. If this had been done, Wealthtek would have seen the FCA not allowed to keep customer money,” the FCA said.
Barclays has agreed to make a payment of £ 6.3 million to the customers of Wealthtek, who have not been able to recover all the money they have lost, the regulator said.
The findings are an embarrassing blow to Barclays, because the controversial collapse of Wealthtek has been described by the FCA as “one of the most serious and biggest fraud we have ever investigated”.
De Waakhond has established criminal prosecution against John Dance and accuses the former Wealthtek -Baas of the use of £ 64 million in customer funds taken from his asset management company to finance the purchase of PrizeWinning Racehorses and a Night Club in Newcastle.
Dance did not argue in February with three counts of fraud due to the abuse of position and three counts of fraud by false representation, and a trial has been established for September 2027.
In the second case, the FCA said that Barclays provided bank services to Stunt & Co, which then received £ 46.8 million from Fowler Oldfield, “a money laundering operation of millions of pounds”.
Stunt & Co is the company of James Stunt, the former son -in -law of Ecclestone. Earlier this year he was released from criminal charges in a jury court. Jury members were told that Stunt had started a joint venture with Fowler Oldfield, who described prosecutors as a “gateway” for criminals. Two Fowler Oldfield directors were convicted of money laundering.
The watchdog said that Barclays had designated his relationship with Stunt & Co in 2015 as “low risk”, so he had not collected information about the nature of the company, the source of his wealth and funds and to properly assess the money laundering practices.
Natwest was also pulled into the scandal. It was fined almost £ 265 million in 2021 after the lender had admitted that he could violate anti-money laundering practices and prevent the non-occurrence of the money laundering scheme of money.
Although the police were told in 2016 that the offices of Stunt & Co and Fowler Oldfield were robbed – with 12 were arrested on the latter – Barclays increased the risk assessment of James Stunt or his company accounts, the FCA said. The police also noticed the “narrow link” between Stunt & Co and Fowler Oldfield.
The FCA said: “By providing continuous banking services to Stunt & Co, Barclays facilitated the movement of funds related to financial crime.”
Barclays took the accounts of Stunt & Co in 2020, but only undertook an important investigation into Stunt & Co after it was that Natwest was being charged because of the association with Fowler Oldfield, the FCA thought.
The FCA has previously imposed a fine of Barclays on errors in financial crime checks. In 2015, the bank paid £ 72 million on an attempted transaction that was so large that it was labeled an “elephant deal” by the Barclays staff, and that was linked to high-profile Qatari customers, the Financial Times reported earlier. In 2022, Barclays received a fine of his relationship with the failed payment company Premier FX.
The FCA said that Barclays “keeps involved and investing in a significant remediation program” to improve the anti-money laundering practice framework.
Barclays said it “stays deeply dedicated to the fight against financial crime and fraud”. It added that the research into Stunt & Co “was focused on historic money laundering” and not discovered that Barclays had violated money laundering instructions.
The bank said that it worked with the investigation and “and has further strengthened its financial crime and other control options”.
This article has been changed since the publication to clarify that Barclays closed the accounts of Stunt & Co in 2020.