Oligarch money is embedded in London. Beware the big talk of a ‘crackdown’
In some of London’s most exclusive neighbourhoods, you can suddenly sense the kind of unease that wealth usually keeps at bay. As the government talks up its determination to crack down on Russian oligarchs, a much wider shift may be afoot. On Friday the Financial Times quoted the chair of Aylesford International, a Chelsea estate agent whose current offerings include a four-bedroom apartment in Cadogan Square, SW3, going for the best part of £12m. “The severity of these sanctions is the beginning of a new world, a new market,” he said. “I don’t think you can hide any more.”
On Monday, the House of Commons will debate the government’s economic crime (transparency and enforcement) bill – first drafted four years ago, since subjected to serial delays, but now finally revived thanks to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Ministers say they want to tackle the tangle of secrecy and deception that has long surrounded money stripped out of overseas economies and poured into British property, assets and banks, and thereby smooth the way for even harsher action against people linked to the Russian government. Whether this will do anything to halt the current killing and chaos is rather more doubtful than some people are making out, but Boris Johnson insists the bill will “continue to tighten the noose around Putin’s regime”.
Among its other measures, the new legislation will create a public register of the owners of overseas interests that buy and sell property in the UK, to lift the veil provided by shell companies. There will be reforms to the system of unexplained wealth orders that will supposedly allow the UK authorities to seize criminal assets without the need to prove criminal activity, and a new specialist “kleptocracy
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