Absolute shitshow. Why not just put a sign saying “Oligarchs welcome”?
> The government is also opposing changes that would require nominees and trustees owning shares to tell Companies House, the UK’s company register, who they are acting for.
Let that one sink in…
Ladies and Gentlemen, your government…
LSE researchers found that than two-thirds of English and Welsh properties held by foreign shell companies do not report the identity of their owners:^1
>The UK government hurriedly introduced a register of overseas entities in August 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February that year, in an attempt to “flush out corrupt elites laundering money through UK property”.
>However, critics said there were severe flaws in the rules from the start.
>The true owners of more than 100,000 properties in England and Wales controlled via overseas shell companies are not public, despite the rules that came into force on 31 January, according to the report published on Monday by researchers from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), the University of Warwick and the Centre for Public Data.
>[…] Yet legal loopholes are used to obscure the ownership of the vast majority – 87% – of the properties, the analysis found.
>Between 6% and 9% were owned by companies that had ignored the law requiring them to sign up to the registers, while the rest had “out-of-date or poorly documented records”, the authors said.
4 comments
Absolute shitshow. Why not just put a sign saying “Oligarchs welcome”?
> The government is also opposing changes that would require nominees and trustees owning shares to tell Companies House, the UK’s company register, who they are acting for.
Let that one sink in…
Ladies and Gentlemen, your government…
LSE researchers found that than two-thirds of English and Welsh properties held by foreign shell companies do not report the identity of their owners:^1
>The UK government hurriedly introduced a register of overseas entities in August 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February that year, in an attempt to “flush out corrupt elites laundering money through UK property”.
>However, critics said there were severe flaws in the rules from the start.
>The true owners of more than 100,000 properties in England and Wales controlled via overseas shell companies are not public, despite the rules that came into force on 31 January, according to the report published on Monday by researchers from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), the University of Warwick and the Centre for Public Data.
>[…] Yet legal loopholes are used to obscure the ownership of the vast majority – 87% – of the properties, the analysis found.
>Between 6% and 9% were owned by companies that had ignored the law requiring them to sign up to the registers, while the rest had “out-of-date or poorly documented records”, the authors said.
^1 Jasper Jolly (3 Sep. 2023), “Owners of 100,000 properties held by foreign shell companies unknown despite new UK laws”, https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/sep/03/owners-of-100000-properties-held-by-foreign-shell-companies-unknown-despite-new-uk-laws
Very simple new rule; tell us who owns a property or the government can confiscate it as potential proceeds of crime