Laundering case date set

The first accountant to be prosecuted for alleged money-laundering offences since the UK brought in wide-ranging regulations to tackle international fraud in 1994 will go on trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court on 15 June.

John Butler Rees, 48, an accountant based in Knightsbridge, London, and three other men are accused of laundering $800,000 (#490,000) from the proceeds of a US bank fraud. The trial is expected to last 8 to 10 weeks.

The charges have been brought by the Financial Investigation Unit of the City of London Police and are the most significant since the UK Money Laundering Regulations came into effect in 1994.

Butler Rees, whose name does not appear on the published list of any CCAB body, is charged under Section 93 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988.

The four men face charges relating to the movement of $498,750 into an account at the Greenwich, London, branch of Midland Bank in the name of JBR Asset Management, and $300 into the Bank of Austria.