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UK property register cracks down on oligarchs
Britain will now require foreign companies holding UK
property to identify their true owners in an official register as part of a
crackdown on Russian oligarchs and corrupt elites laundering illicit wealth.
The
register of overseas entities, which becomes active from today, is part of a
wider economic crime law enacted this year in an effort to stop the flow of
illicit Russian cash into London following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
It will
seek to ensure criminals cannot hide behind secretive chains of shell
companies, and support government efforts to root out Russian oligarchs using
property in Britain to hide dirty money, the business ministry said in a
statement. Junior business minister Martin Callanan said:
To ensure
we are free of corrupt elites with suspicious wealth, we need to know who owns
what.
We are
lifting the curtain and cracking down on those criminals attempting to hide
their illicitly obtained wealth.”
Foreign
entities that already own land in the UK that is within the scope of the
register will have six months to comply by identifying their beneficial owner
to Companies House.
The
register will apply to property bought since January 1999 in England and Wales,
and since December 2014 in Scotland.
Those not
complying with the new rules could face sanctions including fines of up to
£2,500 ($3,043) per day or five years in prison.
The
register has been described as a significant provision of the economic crime
law, with a Transparency International official in March calling the step a
“seismic change” that will force foreign property ownership into the open.
The law was
brought in in March as the government faced calls to do more to make it harder
for those close to Russian President Vladimir Putin to launder dirty money
through property in London, long dubbed by some as “Londongrad”.
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