The oligarch’s guide to getting round the UK’s economic crime bill
The economic crime bill being debated today in the House of Lords does not, as the home secretary, Priti Patel, insisted, show Britain’s determination to root out Vladimir Putin’s “mob of oligarchs and kleptocrats”. On the contrary, it demonstrates ingrained complacency towards dirty money that is so complete it begins to resemble complicity.
This bill tweaks the sanctions regulations to remove some of the bottlenecks that have made the UK lag behind its allies; and it updates the rules around “unexplained wealth orders”, to fix some of the flaws in the last measure that was supposedly going to tame the oligarchy. What makes the bill important, however, is the fact that it imposes transparency on offshore companies that own property in the UK. This is why the legislation is so urgent it was rushed through the House of Commons in a single day on Monday – a process that would usually take months.
If the plans work as intended, oligarchs will no longer be able to anonymously own mansions and estates. Their secrets will be revealed, and they will either scuttle away like cockroaches from an overturned rock, or face prosecution from our brave police officers. Britain will cease to be a willing fence for the stolen wealth of the world; a butler to the Kremlin’s cronies.
There is just one problem with the plan, however, which is that – unless some astonishing amendments appear out of nowhere – it’s rubbish.
If you’re an oligarch, and you want a completely legal way to avoid the provisions of the bill, own your offshore company in equal shares of 16.67% with five close relatives. That way, none of your shareholders reach the 25% ownership level required to count as the person of “significant control”. Here is another, also
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