White-collar criminals who launder billions by buying luxury UK properties must be tackled, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Tuesday. Experts warn these fraudsters are distorting the UK property market and pushing up house prices in the process.<\/p>\n
Cameron\u2019s criticism of money laundering formed part of a speech on financial secrecy in Singapore.<\/p>\n
He expressed deep concern that luxury properties, primarily in London, are being purchased by foreigners through opaque shell companies to launder dirty money.<\/p>\n
While tax evasion and corruption are likely to be the most common sources of ill-gotten gains in Britain, drug dealing, human trafficking and black-marketeering in the face of sanctions are also potential origins.<\/p>\n
Cameron said offshore firms own a \u00a3122 billion share of the UK\u2019s property market, and many of these \u201chigh value\u201d<\/em> properties are bought through secretive holding companies nestled in tax havens.<\/p>\n \u201cI want Britain to be the most open country in the world for investment. But I want to ensure that all this money is clean money,\u201d<\/em> Cameron said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no place for dirty money in Britain. Indeed, there should be no place for dirty money anywhere.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n In March, it emerged Scotland Yard suspected criminals, tax evaders, human traffickers and drug dealers of having laundered billions of pounds worth of dirty money by purchasing British properties through anonymous offshore companies.<\/p>\n The sheer scale of the problem was uncovered in a report produced by anti-corruption think tank Transparency International (TI) UK. Titled \u2018Corruption on Your Doorstep,\u2019 the study warned the UK had become \u201ca safe haven for corrupt capital stolen from around the world.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The Metropolitan Police said at the time more than \u00a3180 million (US$276 million) worth of British property had been subject to criminal investigation since 2004 as potential proceeds from corruption. Detectives added this figure was merely the tip of the iceberg.<\/p>\n UK is no place for dirty money, says Cameron, the man who has awarded numerous public contracts to party donors and members<\/p>\n \u2013 Will Thorpe (@withorpe) July 28, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Among the foreign fraudsters who have bought multiple luxury properties in London, is a convicted Nigerian ex-governor and white collar criminal.<\/p>\n Reflecting on this case, Cameron insisted the UK must not become \u201ca safe haven\u201d<\/em> for dirty money plundered from impoverished people.<\/p>\n In London, roughly 36,342 properties have been purchased through clandestine front companies in offshore tax havens.<\/p>\n Favored locations include the British Virgin Islands, the Isle of Man and Jersey.<\/p>\n Britain\u2019s wealthiest borough, Westminster, has the highest proportion of properties held offshore (almost 10 percent), while Kensington and Chelsea follows closely (7.3 percent).<\/p>\n Although many of these sales remain secret for privacy purposes, a large proportion are thought to have been purchased to stash ill-gotten gains.<\/p>\n Director of the National Crime Agency\u2019s Economic Crime Command unit Donald Toon warns foreign criminals are distorting Britain\u2019s property market.<\/p>\n \u201cPrices of high-end property are being artificially driven up by the desire of overseas criminals to sequester their assets here in the UK,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they [estate agents] have a suspicion that there may be money laundering involved then they absolutely should be submitting a suspicious activity report. You are at risk of committing a criminal offence if you do not do that.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n On Tuesday, Cameron pledged to bring in new measures to fight money laundering in Britain and cultivate greater transparency. He announced plans to introduce a central public land registry of offshore firms that will lay out what land they own.<\/p>\n Although it is currently possible to discern the names of UK individuals who own property deeds by submitting an application, the updated land registry will make this process easier, offer more detail and cover offshore firms.<\/p>\n The government will also consult experts on whether to diversify the register to include both the true owners of UK firms and the owners of offshore companies with government contracts.<\/p>\n Such a move would tackle financial secrecy and make it easier for UK regulators, MPs and transparency campaigners to decipher the owners of properties used to clean dirty money.<\/p>\n “UK is no place for dirty money” ~ David Cameron. Presumably Cameron et al are planning to leave the UK.<\/p>\n \u2013 Thomas Hemingford (@THemingford) July 28, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Cameron warned corruption is \u201can enemy of progress,\u201d<\/em> and called for British and global authorities to \u201cstep up and tackle it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n He announced plans to hold an anti-corruption summit in London in 2016 in a bid to fight corruption at the heart of British institutions. He also vowed to maximize the government\u2019s use of international aid to improve global governance and fight corruption abroad.<\/p>\n TI UK welcomed Cameron\u2019s commitments on Tuesday.<\/p>\n It called for greater transparency with respect to offshore ownership of UK properties, and urged the government to force foreign property owners to adhere to the same transparency standards as British firms.<\/p>\n TI UK\u2019s Head of Advocacy and Research Nick Maxwell backed Cameron’s proposals.<\/p>\n \u201cAn end to secret offshore company in ownership of UK property and in UK procurement can help shift the UK from being a safe-haven for illicit wealth to a place where dirty money is not welcome,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n Maxwell warned, however, the way in which this policy shift is implemented is key.<\/p>\n \u201cThe UK is leading by example, but many loopholes still exist for the corrupt to launder money in other markets,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n \u201cTransparency should be the new norm of international business. It is also important that the UK addresses domestic corruption risks, including cleaning up politics and ensuring the UK\u2019s anti-bribery legislation is not watered down.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Cameron\u2019s proposals to clamp down on money laundering were sharply criticized by some commentators on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Tax and property experts said publishing details of legal property owners will do little to catch white-collar criminals.<\/p>\n Henry Pryor, a buying agent for the luxury end of Britain\u2019s property market, said the government\u2019s promised transparency in property ownership wouldn\u2019t stop fraudsters from hiding their assets.<\/p>\n “If criminals can get access to these assets – and trade them overseas – it makes it very difficult for the authorities to understand exactly where the ownership really lies. That remains the problem,”<\/em> he told the BBC.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a ridiculous presumption that criminals follow the rules,\u201d<\/em> offshore tax expert Mark Davies added.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Mr Big wants to hide laundered money and he wants this to remain hidden, he will simply have someone else named as the owner of the property.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>.\u00a0This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" White-collar criminals who launder billions by buying luxury UK properties must be tackled, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Tuesday. Experts warn these fraudsters are distorting the UK property market and pushing up house prices in the process. Cameron\u2019s criticism of money laundering formed part of a speech on financial secrecy in Singapore. He expressed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":168869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,18,1615],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-168868","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-latest-news","9":"category-uk-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Money laundering haven<\/h2>\n
\n
\u2018Corruption is an enemy of progress\u2019<\/h2>\n
\n