Ministers criticised for not tackling London’s reputation as money-laundering hub

theguardian.com:

The government was forced to deny claims that it had scrapped a crucial economic crime bill on Wednesday, as MPs from across the house rounded on ministers for failing to tackle the UK capital’s “Londongrad” reputation as a money-laundering hub used by Russian oligarchs, criminals and kleptocrats.

The scathing comments in the House of Commons follow the shock resignation of junior minster Lord Agnew on Monday, whorevealed in his departing letter that the government had only last week made a “foolish” decision to kill off the bill during the next parliamentary year.

As recently as December, prime minister Boris Johnson promised a “year of action” on fraud at a summit organised by US president Joe Biden, saying the government would target “the illicit finance that undermines democracy everywhere, strengthening our law enforcement powers to go after the criminals who abuse our corporate structures”.

Agnew had also hit out at the government for failing to take action against Covid loan fraud, which critics have said could cost the taxpayer billions of pounds. The damning accusations pushed Rishi Sunak to assure that the government would “do everything we can” to recover stolen funds. “I’m not ignoring it, and I’m definitely not ‘writing it off,’” the chancellor said on Twitter on Wednesday.

Figures from HMRC show an estimated £5.8bn has been lost due to to fraudulent claims for furlough and other business relief schemes. Reports suggest HMRC has off£4.3bn stolen of that sum as unrecoverable. However, the government has refused to confirm the figure.