Back in Action: How the UK is reviving unexplained wealth orders (The Academy Bulletin)

In an article published in the Fall 2025 issue of the Bulletin of the International Academy of Financial Crime Litigators, Andrew Dornbierer explores the revival of unexplained wealth orders (UWOs) in the United Kingdom.

Introduced in 2017 as a tool to combat the abuse of UK’s markets to launder criminal proceeds, the UWO mechanism suffered a severe setback in 2020. After only a handful of attempts to use it, a decision by the High Court effectively left it sprawled on the canvas.

In the last year or so, however, the mechanism has slowly started to prove itself. Most recently, the UK’s Serious Fraud Office – in its first use of the UK’s UWO mechanism – secured GBP 1.1 million from the sale of a property belonging to the ex-wife of a convicted fraudster.

This article offers a short history of UWOs in the UK. It examines how, after a turbulent start and subsequent amendments to the mechanism, UWOs are now back to being used by UK authorities to tackle illicit financial flows. If applied responsibly, proportionately and in harmony with established legal rights, unexplained wealth orders promise to be a powerful tool in the UK’s fight to recover criminal assets.

This is the fifth issue of The Academy’s Bulletin. It has been established to transmit the work of Academy Fellows, draw attention to matters of importance to the legal community and provide high-level analysis of cutting-edge issues in global financial crime investigations and litigation. The Basel Institute on Governance acts as Secretariat to the Academy.