Nearly 52,000 properties in the UK are still owned by anonymous owners, including kleptocrats and oligarchs, despite the introduction of rules requiring them to disclose their identity.
Transparency International NGO identified more than 6.7 billion pounds of property in the UK purchased with suspicious funds, the majority of which is owned by opaque offshore companies. It is mainly about luxury real estate in the chic districts of London. Almost 20 percent of the total amount came from Russia, in particular from persons subject to sanctions and close to the Kremlin, the NGO said.
The UK, which is regularly accused of doing too little about the influx of black money into the country, has begun to act more harshly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, specifically by passing a law that forces property owners to make themselves known.
But according to Transparency International, almost half of the companies that had to declare their owner did not do so before the deadline of January 31. They have completely ignored the law or provided information that does not allow the public to know who owns it. It is also often pointed out the facilitating role of the powerful British financial sector and the armies of lawyers, accountants and other brokers in London.
“Transparency about the identity of the real owners (in the UK, Ed.) is essential to address the country’s role as a global hub for dirty money,” Duncan Hames of Transparency International said in a statement. He called on the British Parliament to” close the loopholes “and on public services to”actively apply ” the new rules.
