calls for action over dirty money flowing
Last Updated : GMT 09:07:40
Egypt Today, egypt today
Egypt Today, egypt today
Last Updated : GMT 09:07:40
Egypt Today, egypt today

Through Scotland

Calls for action over dirty money flowing

Egypt Today, egypt today

Egypt Today, egypt today Calls for action over dirty money flowing

A tiny flat in the crime-ridden Edinburgh suburb of Pilton
Edinburgh - Egypt Today

Dirty money from eastern Europe is flowing through companies registered to nondescript properties across Scotland in a practice that has alarmed global campaigners and policymakers, experts say.

The first Scottish Limited Partnerships (SLPs) were set up a century ago when they were widely used to register contracts for tenant farmers, but today organised crime gangs and corrupt politicians are exploiting the system with them.

A tiny flat in the crime-ridden Edinburgh suburb of Pilton was found to be home to hundreds of SLPs including Fortuna United, part of a $1 billion (824 million euro) theft that crippled the economy of Moldova in 2014.

"It's kind of crazy," Ben Cowdock, an SLP expert at anti-corruption campaign group Transparency International, told AFP.

"There were over 100 SLPs in the Moldova scheme, and some were used to own shares in banks, allow individuals to take over banks and then make dodgy loans to companies that they also controlled."

SLPs can own assets and borrow money, just like a person. They can register as a partnership of two parent companies with no obligation to reveal the people behind them -- until last year.

Such companies also cleaned money for Russian and Azerbaijani "laundromats" exposed by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

More recently, a joint investigation by Al Jazeera and Scottish daily The Herald this month linked SLPs to $1.5 billion of assets seized from associates of ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.

On paper, their registered address looked like an office suite a few minutes walk from Queen Elizabeth II's Scottish palace -- but it is actually a run-down apartment with a broken window.

"We are aware that SLPs are a feature of some money laundering typologies and are working with partner agencies to tackle the practice," a spokesman for the UK National Crime Agency said.

- 'Attractive for illegitimate uses' -

SLPs were established in 1907 and widely used as a loose tenancy agreement but they are now primarily used for private equity and venture capital investments.

"What seems to make them attractive for legitimate use in the fund industry also makes them attractive for illegitimate uses," Stephen Chan, a partner specialising in SLPs at Scottish law firm Harper Macleod, told AFP.

Cowdock said there were 612 SLPs registered in 2009, a figure that rose to more than 5,000 by 2015.

Over 70 percent of SLPs registered in 2016 were controlled by anonymous companies based in jurisdictions such as Belize, Seychelles and Dominica, Transparency International found.

The British government changed the rules last year to compel SLPs to identify "persons of significant control", but some have simply ignored the regulation.

"If you're hell-bent on laundering money it's still quite an attractive tool, because it's cheap and disposable," Cowdock said. "You can submit false information, and then launder your money before anyone notices."

Companies House, a government agency, said the government was "considering whether any further action is required to prevent limited partnerships from being used for unlawful activities".

- 'Clearly not enough' -

Alison Thewliss, a Scottish National Party politician fighting to change the law, said dodgy SLPs were "damaging Scotland's good name".

But Scotland's semi-autonomous government is powerless to regulate them directly as company law is controlled from London.

"The UK government has agreed to close some of the loopholes but it's clearly not enough," Thewliss told AFP.

But David Young, a partner at law firm Pinsent Masons, cautioned that the controversy should not tarnish the reputation of legitimate SLPs.

He said the ability to register companies, rather than people, as partners enables firms to create subsidiaries that ring-fence parts of the business to ensure their assets are not overexposed.

"Anti-money laundering and other checks should be carried out, but there is nothing wrong with the vehicle itself," he told AFP.

Source:AFP

egypttoday
egypttoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

calls for action over dirty money flowing calls for action over dirty money flowing



GMT 06:57 2016 Thursday ,21 January

2 Daesh members killed in Libyan city of Derna

GMT 11:30 2012 Saturday ,01 September

Bare Bones Ghost chair

GMT 13:55 2011 Saturday ,17 December

Beat box creates music using RFID tags

GMT 13:00 2017 Friday ,29 September

Egypt's non-petroleum exports record $1.9 bln

GMT 09:21 2011 Wednesday ,21 December

LightPad turns the smartphone into a tablet

GMT 20:26 2015 Thursday ,27 August

Sheikha Fatima hails Emirati's Woman Day

GMT 17:32 2012 Thursday ,01 November

Unusual set of modern furnishing

GMT 09:08 2017 Saturday ,01 April

Ivanka Trump, husband Jared benefitting

GMT 11:14 2017 Saturday ,23 December

Brunel tells players he will take France rugby job

GMT 19:56 2011 Thursday ,28 July

Abu Dhabi rents cool on supply

GMT 16:26 2014 Wednesday ,19 March

Third terrorist killed by Army in Tizi Ouzou

GMT 12:07 2014 Monday ,03 February

Home design ideas

GMT 01:31 2012 Thursday ,10 May

11 Ways to love yourself more

GMT 18:21 2011 Sunday ,16 October

London gallery shows retrospective of Syrian artist

GMT 11:10 2017 Saturday ,08 April

Murdock London appoints

GMT 16:10 2012 Sunday ,10 June

Dozens of Kuwaitis fighting with FSA in Syria

GMT 11:13 2017 Tuesday ,10 October

Catalan economy rattled by independence push

GMT 09:36 2017 Tuesday ,05 December

Abu Naga said CBE pays off $2 bln to Afreximbank

GMT 08:19 2017 Wednesday ,20 September

Syrian army cut ISIS supplies line in Deir Al Zour

GMT 09:10 2017 Sunday ,29 October

Sahar underlines importance of mountainous tourism

GMT 09:17 2011 Friday ,30 December

Miranda Kerr in New Campaign for Bally

GMT 07:17 2017 Monday ,20 November

Pinera, Guillier to contest runoff in Chile election
 
 Egypt Today Facebook,egypt today facebook  Egypt Today Twitter,egypt today twitter Egypt Today Rss,egypt today rss  Egypt Today Youtube,egypt today youtube  Egypt Today Youtube,egypt today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday
egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday
egypttoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
egypttoday, Egypttoday, Egypttoday