What are the impacts of overseas corruption and international illicit finance within the UK?

Background

For some economic crime types, such as fraud, the consequences of the crime are far easier seen and felt amongst the public, communities and businesses. The existing evidence base in relation to harms resulting from fraud is therefore also more developed in some areas.

For other crime types, harms are not always as clearly defined or robustly evidenced. Being able to begin to quantify and illustrate this harm – for example to individuals, to the economy or society more generally would support our understanding of the impact of economic crime. The following questions are where research would be particularly useful to begin doing this.

Next steps

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Source

This question was published as part of the set of ARIs in this document:

Economic Crime Areas of Research Interest ARI report July 2025 1

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Related UKRI funded projects


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    Why might this be relevant?

    The project specifically focuses on corruption within criminal and non-criminal commercial enterprises, addressing the impact of overseas corruption and illicit finance within the UK.

  • The (Mis)Use of Corporate Vehicles by Transnational Organised Crime Groups in the Concealment, Conversion and Control of Illicit Finance

    Transnational organised crime groups and the difficulties in intervening with illicit finances have been identified as a high-priority concern by the UK government (see Serious and Organised Crime Strategy (SOCS) (2013))...

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    Why might this be relevant?

    The project investigates the misuse of corporate vehicles by transnational organized crime groups for illicit finance, focusing on the UK and the EU, directly addressing the impacts of overseas corruption and illicit finance within the UK.

  • Fight Against Large-scale Corruption and Organised Crime Networks (FALCON)

    Current evidence suggests that the global fight against corruption faces serious challenges: policy decisions are not well informed, the corruption landscape is complex and enormous, while measuring corruption is so far ...

    Funded by: Horizon Europe Guarantee

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    The project aims to support anti-corruption efforts by developing indicators and tools to inform policy decisions and improve law enforcement, addressing the impacts of overseas corruption and illicit finance within the UK.

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    In December 2014, RUSI launched a Strategic Hub for Organised Crime Research to develop a world class research agenda that meets the needs of policymakers. With the support of government agencies and Research Councils UK...

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  • Combating Corruption in International Business: Limitations of Law

    In a competitive business environment, it is not unknown for international businesses, be they small, multinational or transnational to engage in corrupt practices. Bribes and kickbacks to public officials and politician...

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  • The Financial Aspects of the Trade in Counterfeit Products: An Exploratory Study

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    The project explores the financial aspects of the trade in counterfeit products, which is related to transnational organized crime, providing partial insight into the impact of illicit finance within the UK.

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