NatWest banked cash from ‘sophisticated’ money-laundering scheme, court hears

Sophisticated operation tried to receive criminal cash in such a way that gold dealer could persuade NatWest it was part of ordinary business operations

NatWest was banking laundered street cash for an English gold dealer in sums equivalent to the takings of a Premier League football stadium on a match day.

NatWest was banking laundered street cash for an English gold dealer in sums equivalent to the takings of a Premier League football stadium on match day as part of a “sophisticated” money laundering operation, an English court has heard.

Jurors sitting at one of the UK’s largest ever money-laundering trials heard that the gold dealer, Fowler Oldfield, deposited some £266m (€317m) through the bank between 2014 and 2016. It was “blindingly obvious” that the money, couriered to the dealer in holdalls and sports bags, was criminal in origin, prosecutors said.