UK officials charge 8 in $55M bank corruption case

LONDON (AP) -- Prosecutors say that eight people have been charged in connection with a roughly 35 million pound ($55 million) corruption case involving what was once one of Britain's biggest banking groups.

The Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement late Tuesday that police charged two former employees of the Halifax Bank of Scotland, Lynden Scourfield and Mark Dobson, with steering loans through a business consultancy in return for corrupt gifts.

Three members of the consultancy — David Mills, Michael Bancroft, and John Cartright — face fraud charges. Mills, Bancroft, and Scourfield also face a charge of money laundering, as do their wives, Jacqueline Scourfield, Alison Mills, and Beverley Bancroft.

The Halifax Bank of Scotland, an early victim of the global financial crisis, was absorbed by Lloyds Banking Group PLC in 2009.