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| Forget the pledges to act – London is still a haven for dirty Russian money | Forget the pledges to act – London is still a haven for dirty Russian money |
| (about 2 months later) | |
| Britain, we’re told, has a new policy on dirty Russian money. We are finally pulling the red carpet from under the feet of the rich Russians who have turned London into a private members’ club. | Britain, we’re told, has a new policy on dirty Russian money. We are finally pulling the red carpet from under the feet of the rich Russians who have turned London into a private members’ club. |
| This new “hostile environment” was trailed in February after the security minister, Ben Wallace, watched McMafia – “We know what they are up to and we are not going to let it happen anymore,” he told the Times – in an onslaught of media announcements that has since become more intense. After the novichok attack in Salisbury, a headline in the Sun told us wealthy Russians were unwelcome. These are, an article on Bloomberg announced “the last days of Londongrad”. | This new “hostile environment” was trailed in February after the security minister, Ben Wallace, watched McMafia – “We know what they are up to and we are not going to let it happen anymore,” he told the Times – in an onslaught of media announcements that has since become more intense. After the novichok attack in Salisbury, a headline in the Sun told us wealthy Russians were unwelcome. These are, an article on Bloomberg announced “the last days of Londongrad”. |
| This is all nice to hear. For too long, London has welcomed money from Russia’s politicians and biznesmeny, without checking its origins. The former deputy prime minister has a flat five minutes’ from parliament; a former senator owns the second largest house in London. Russian children are the third largest group of foreign-born pupils in our private schools. | This is all nice to hear. For too long, London has welcomed money from Russia’s politicians and biznesmeny, without checking its origins. The former deputy prime minister has a flat five minutes’ from parliament; a former senator owns the second largest house in London. Russian children are the third largest group of foreign-born pupils in our private schools. |
| But what does the hostile environment policy actually consist of? If you strip away the rhetoric, the details are mundane. Officials are checking Russian visa applications, customs guards will inspect private jets on arrival and the National Crime Agency is considering whether to use unexplained wealth orders on oligarch-owned property, all things I’d have hoped they’d be doing anyway. The only person who’s been noticeably affected is the Chelsea owner, Roman Abramovich, whose visa renewal took so long he went and got an Israeli passport. As an Israeli, he can visit Britain visa-free. | But what does the hostile environment policy actually consist of? If you strip away the rhetoric, the details are mundane. Officials are checking Russian visa applications, customs guards will inspect private jets on arrival and the National Crime Agency is considering whether to use unexplained wealth orders on oligarch-owned property, all things I’d have hoped they’d be doing anyway. The only person who’s been noticeably affected is the Chelsea owner, Roman Abramovich, whose visa renewal took so long he went and got an Israeli passport. As an Israeli, he can visit Britain visa-free. |
| Wallace has an explanation for why the government isn’t doing more: it’s the EU’s fault. He told the Today programme earlier this month that, once we’ve “taken back control”, we’ll be able to impose sanctions unilaterally on Russians rather than having to persuade other European countries to act alongside us. Although this made for good headlines, it’s absurdly misleading to say our fellow Europeans are reluctant to take on wealthy Russians while we’re not. | Wallace has an explanation for why the government isn’t doing more: it’s the EU’s fault. He told the Today programme earlier this month that, once we’ve “taken back control”, we’ll be able to impose sanctions unilaterally on Russians rather than having to persuade other European countries to act alongside us. Although this made for good headlines, it’s absurdly misleading to say our fellow Europeans are reluctant to take on wealthy Russians while we’re not. |
| For decades, the principal concern of British governments from both parties has been to maintain business ties with Russia. Prime minister, David Cameron went to Moscow to drum up trade, even though the Kremlin had not only refused to extradite the two men who murdered Alexander Litvinenko with polonium-210 in 2006, but had one of them elected to parliament. Our government’s sole significant Russia-related legal proceeding has been a lengthy rearguard action to prevent Marina Litvinenko from getting a public inquiry into the murder of her husband. The then home secretary, Theresa May, only allowed the inquiry to go forward when, after the annexation of Crimea, there were no relations left with Russia worth saving, at which point we discovered Litvinenko had been helping the Spanish investigate the Russian mob. His evidence helped Spain prosecute a group of 18 Russians, including a member of the Russian parliament, for money laundering. The trial began in February this year as the culmination of a years-long investigation into mafia activity in Spain. Presumably Litvinenko also provided the British authorities with evidence, but if he did, no prosecutions have resulted from it. | For decades, the principal concern of British governments from both parties has been to maintain business ties with Russia. Prime minister, David Cameron went to Moscow to drum up trade, even though the Kremlin had not only refused to extradite the two men who murdered Alexander Litvinenko with polonium-210 in 2006, but had one of them elected to parliament. Our government’s sole significant Russia-related legal proceeding has been a lengthy rearguard action to prevent Marina Litvinenko from getting a public inquiry into the murder of her husband. The then home secretary, Theresa May, only allowed the inquiry to go forward when, after the annexation of Crimea, there were no relations left with Russia worth saving, at which point we discovered Litvinenko had been helping the Spanish investigate the Russian mob. His evidence helped Spain prosecute a group of 18 Russians, including a member of the Russian parliament, for money laundering. The trial began in February this year as the culmination of a years-long investigation into mafia activity in Spain. Presumably Litvinenko also provided the British authorities with evidence, but if he did, no prosecutions have resulted from it. |
| The only person who’s been noticeably affected is Roman Abramovich, whose visa renewal took so long he got an Israeli passport | The only person who’s been noticeably affected is Roman Abramovich, whose visa renewal took so long he got an Israeli passport |
| France has been ahead of us too. It attempted to prosecute (though the case collapsed in June) the billionaire Suleiman Kerimov for tax evasion surrounding his purchase of luxury property and arrested fellow oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov in 2007, showing a consistent appetite for checking the bona fides of money entering its economy. British prosecutors and investigators have never attempted anything of the kind. It is a sign of quite how unhostile wealthy Russians are finding London that a new billionaire, who made his fortune in real estate before falling out with the Kremlin, decided to relocate to the UK in May, bringing his family with him. | France has been ahead of us too. It attempted to prosecute (though the case collapsed in June) the billionaire Suleiman Kerimov for tax evasion surrounding his purchase of luxury property and arrested fellow oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov in 2007, showing a consistent appetite for checking the bona fides of money entering its economy. British prosecutors and investigators have never attempted anything of the kind. It is a sign of quite how unhostile wealthy Russians are finding London that a new billionaire, who made his fortune in real estate before falling out with the Kremlin, decided to relocate to the UK in May, bringing his family with him. |
| It is admittedly difficult to secure a conviction against well-resourced defendants skilled in hiding their assets in the liminal offshore world that is the subject of my book Moneyland, but there is plenty we could do to make it easier. Earlier this month, Denmark’s Danske Bank released an investigation into money laundering at its Estonian branch, revealing that some €200bn (£180bn) of suspicious funds moved through its non-resident bank accounts between 2007 and 2015. The biggest group of account holders were British limited partnerships. | It is admittedly difficult to secure a conviction against well-resourced defendants skilled in hiding their assets in the liminal offshore world that is the subject of my book Moneyland, but there is plenty we could do to make it easier. Earlier this month, Denmark’s Danske Bank released an investigation into money laundering at its Estonian branch, revealing that some €200bn (£180bn) of suspicious funds moved through its non-resident bank accounts between 2007 and 2015. The biggest group of account holders were British limited partnerships. |
| These corporate structures are popular because they’re cheap to set up, look legitimate, provide complete anonymity (when their partners are companies in a tax havens) and can be created with no checks on the information provided. They are almost an invitation to commit fraud and their popularity with Russian crooks has been the subject of journalistic investigations for the best part of a decade. | These corporate structures are popular because they’re cheap to set up, look legitimate, provide complete anonymity (when their partners are companies in a tax havens) and can be created with no checks on the information provided. They are almost an invitation to commit fraud and their popularity with Russian crooks has been the subject of journalistic investigations for the best part of a decade. |
| Despite this, the government has consistently failed to take any meaningful action to rein them in. In March, it refused to require that Companies House conducts the standard anti-money laundering checks on its customers that any private sector company would have to do, arguing that would be too expensive. Without such checks, there is nothing to prevent further billions being siphoned out of Russia through accounts owned by fraudulent British companies. | Despite this, the government has consistently failed to take any meaningful action to rein them in. In March, it refused to require that Companies House conducts the standard anti-money laundering checks on its customers that any private sector company would have to do, arguing that would be too expensive. Without such checks, there is nothing to prevent further billions being siphoned out of Russia through accounts owned by fraudulent British companies. |
| Britain lets Putin move his dark money with impunity. That has to stop | Oliver Bullough | Britain lets Putin move his dark money with impunity. That has to stop | Oliver Bullough |
| Some politicians appreciate the urgency of acting to close these gaping loopholes. The Tory MP Tom Tugendhat, who chairs the foreign affairs committee, has been filling the space left by the barely tenanted Foreign Office by holding hearings. On the Labour benches, Anneliese Dodds of the shadow Treasury team has proposed policies that would help end some of the more egregious practices. | Some politicians appreciate the urgency of acting to close these gaping loopholes. The Tory MP Tom Tugendhat, who chairs the foreign affairs committee, has been filling the space left by the barely tenanted Foreign Office by holding hearings. On the Labour benches, Anneliese Dodds of the shadow Treasury team has proposed policies that would help end some of the more egregious practices. |
| But blocking the channels that dirty Russian money follows into the UK requires concerted efforts – diplomatic, legislative, regulatory, investigative – by all our institutions, not sporadic efforts by well-intentioned individuals. Britain is wide open to the Kremlin’s kleptocratic cash, which poses a serious threat to our national security and right now the government is doing almost nothing about it but issuing press releases. | But blocking the channels that dirty Russian money follows into the UK requires concerted efforts – diplomatic, legislative, regulatory, investigative – by all our institutions, not sporadic efforts by well-intentioned individuals. Britain is wide open to the Kremlin’s kleptocratic cash, which poses a serious threat to our national security and right now the government is doing almost nothing about it but issuing press releases. |
| A government policy on dirty Russian money? That would be a good idea. | A government policy on dirty Russian money? That would be a good idea. |
| • Oliver Bullough is the author of Moneyland: Why Thieves and Crooks Now Rule the World and How to Take it Back | • Oliver Bullough is the author of Moneyland: Why Thieves and Crooks Now Rule the World and How to Take it Back |
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| London | London |
| Tax havens | Tax havens |
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