On April 21-22, one of the leading practical conferences on anti-corruption and risk management in Europe took place in London: C5’s London Forum on Global Anti-Corruption, Compliance & Risk Management 2026.

Over 100 participants from more than 20 countries and 15 industries gathered in the UK. The main political speaker was Matthew Wagstaff, Director of Legal Services at the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the UK’s main body for investigating major cases of fraud, bribery, and corruption.

“It’s business as usual for the SFO… a new Director certainly doesn’t mean any change in approach to our core mission. Our focus over the coming months centers on three areas: delivery, disclosure, and innovation. That means more investigations, more prosecutions, and continuing to modernize how we work,” said Wagstaff.

The head of the UK anti-corruption body stressed that cooperation with international partners will become one of the main priorities.

“We’re strengthening our international partnerships, hosting our first international conference next month,” promised Wagstaff.

Indeed, the question of how long the UK will remain a “safe haven” for questionable capital has been one of the hot topics of domestic and foreign policy in recent years.

Friends and critics of Great Britain from different parts of the world believe that London has created and supports a two-faced system: at the level of demonstrative rhetoric, it is a fighter for democracy and transparency, while at the level of practice, it is a comfortable “harbor” for those who have robbed their peoples and countries.

Of course, this is subject to the availability of large amounts of capital to pay for this “service.”

We recognize that an unofficial industry has developed in the UK over the decades, serving the interests of dubious individuals with criminal records. It includes elite law firms that masterfully exploit loopholes in legislation to block extradition requests for years, immediately labeling any criminal case in their homeland as “political persecution.”

British PR agencies have learned how to whitewash the reputation of foreign corrupt officials, turning them into “persecuted oppositionists” or “patrons” in the eyes of Western society.

Real estate agents have been turning a blind eye to the origin of funds for a long time, which has turned the London housing market into a giant safe for storing stolen money.

One such case concerns Kazakhstan and is the subject of a major journalistic investigation that demonstrates the current situation in the UK housing market.

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