ENGLAND Law Enforcment Authority freeze more than 100 million pounds in accounts on bribery fears

Banking crime reporter(wp+reuters):::British police have frozen eight bank accounts containing a total of more than 100 million pounds, which is suspected to have derived from bribery and corruption overseas.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said on Wednesday a London court had approved the Account Freezing Orders (AFOs), the largest granted to date, and that police would recover the funds if investigators proved it had been intended for unlawful use.

The NCA said it could not provide any details that could identify individuals related to the accounts.

AFOs and Unexplained Wealth Orders, that allow police to freeze assets until property owners account for their wealth, are part of a toolbox introduced last year to help stem a tide of suspected corrupt cash washing through the country.

London has long attracted corrupt foreign money, especially from Russia, Nigeria, Pakistan, former Soviet states and Asia, and the NCA estimates that around 100 billion pounds of dirty money is moved through or into Britain each year.

“The NCA is ... seeking to ... convince the NCA’s foreign counterparts that even if they cannot prosecute untouchable oligarchs at home, if they have assets here, these can be attacked,” said David Corker, a partner at law firm Corker Binning.

ENGLAND offers £25 million contract to maintain drug supply after Brexit

Health reporter(reuters+wp):::

Britain is asking logistics providers to bid for a 25 million pound express freight contract to deliver medicines into the country on a daily basis after it has left the European Union on Oct. 31.

The Department for Health and Social Care said the contract would form part of its contingency plans to deal with any complications that stem from Britain’s departure from the world’s biggest trading bloc.

The service is intended to deliver small parcels of medicines or medical products on a 24-hour basis, with an additional provision to move larger pallets carrying goods on a two-to-four day basis.

“I want to ensure that when we leave the EU at the end of October, all appropriate steps have been taken to ensure frontline services are fully prepared,” health minister Chris Skidmore said in a statement.

The contract will run for 12 months, with a possible further 12-month extension. The department has already sought to help companies build up buffer stocks of medicines and procured additional warehouse space.

The British government was embarrassed earlier this year after it signed a 14 million pound contract with a company to provide extra ferries in the event of a no-deal Brexit, even though the company did not have any ships. It later scrapped that contract.