Anti-corruption groups and Met detectives say £180m worth of real estate is under investigation as being used in money laundering and stolen capital
Hundreds of millions of pounds’ worth of UK properties held in secretive offshore companies have been used to launder the proceeds of international corruption, Scotland Yard investigators suspect.
The Metropolitan police have revealed that more than £180m of British property has been put under criminal investigation in the last decade as the likely proceeds of corruption. Detectives have warned it is the tip of the iceberg.
In almost every case, suspected international money launderers hold the properties in secretive offshore companies. One investigator said the arrangements were “like putting money in a Swiss bank – they have become ubiquitous for the corrupt”.
The scale of the problem has been revealed by Transparency International on Wednesday, with the anti-corruption campaign group warning that the UK has become “a safe haven for corrupt capital stolen from around the world”.
Half of the 144 (77) properties investigated by Scotland Yard were registered to companies in Jersey, which does not automatically declare the identity of the beneficial owner.
“In nearly all the grand corruption cases we investigate, we find what we suspect is proceeds of corruption being used to purchase high-value properties,” said Det Ch Insp Jonathan Benton, head of operations at the Met’s proceeds of corruption unit.
“Properties that are purchased with illicit money, which is often stolen from some of the poorest people in the world, are nearly always layered through offshore structures.”
Anti-corruption investigations have so far led to the confiscation of just £6m in UK property assets. Last year, One, an international anti-poverty campaign, estimated that developing countries are losing $1trn (£650bn) a year from corruption, including money laundering and tax evasion.
James Ibori, the convicted money launderer sentenced to 13 years for fraud, has a mansion in Hampstead which he bought for £2.2m.
Police and anti-corruption campaigners say the problem is being exacerbated by continuing secrecy, which obscures the beneficial ownership of properties held in tax havens like the Channel Islands and British Virgin Islands.
In London alone, 36,342 properties are held in offshore companies in secret jurisdictions, according to data released to TI by the Land Registry. The favourite locations to hold the assets are the BVIs, Jersey and the Isle of Man.
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