Under standard protocol, the Justice Department is supposed to get formal approval from the U.K. before meeting with British citizens in the U.K. In this case, the Justice Department requested to meet with Mr. Hayes, laying out the planned criminal case against him.

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Notably, the Justice Department last year said that British bank HSBC had failed to flag money laundering that benefited Mexican drug traffickers, Iran, Libya and others under U.S. suspicion or sanction.

WSJ: Fed tells Citi to improve anti-laundering systems

Since 2011, the Justice Department has been overseeing a criminal investigation of News Corp. relating to revelations that its British papers hacked phones and bribed public officials to get information for articles.

WSJ: Bribery Allegations Surfaced Against WSJ in China