The government says it is breaking down on money laundering with stronger laws and requirements. It will also offer a register of offshore companies having UK property when parliamentary time permits.
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BBC investigation revealed the buyers of more than 1,500 UK properties bought using offshore firms. Pandora Papers has the details about the exposure of offshore financial documents and list property with an approximated value of over £4bn.
The BBC operated with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the Guardian, Finance Uncovered and other media outlets to recognise in the leaked files the individuals behind overseas companies that occupied property in England and Wales.
Based on the findings, the owners are UK political donors, individuals involved in corruption, also high-profile international politicians. Some of them are the wife of retail magnate Sir Philip Green, the Qatari ruling family, Ukrainian billionaire Gennadiy Bogolyubov, and Mikhail Gutseriev.
Not only that but also main political donors to the Conservatives have spent properties by offshore companies. They are Mohammed Amersi, Lubov Chernukhin, and Victor Fedotov who is known as a Russian businessman.
A former UK Prime Minister, David Cameron firstly declared in 2016 a plan for register foreign companies having UK properties. Hopefully, corrupt individuals and countries will no longer be able to propose, launder and hide illegal funds through London’s property market, and will not profit from our public funds.
However, the law has still not been submitted to Parliament. It was not registered as one of the government’s parliamentary preferences at this year’s Queen’s Speech.
The government says it is breaking down on money laundering with stronger laws and requirements. It will also offer a register of offshore companies having UK property when parliamentary time permits.