Human Wrongs Watch
4 March 2015, Transparency International* — It is well-known that the global rich are buying up large parts of London. But who they really are and where their money comes from is too often a well-kept secret. They use secret offshore companies to buy the properties and don’t disclose their identities.
Source: Transparency International
These secret companies (or shell companies) are a common way for moving corrupt money around the world.
They can hide money that corrupt politicians divert from investments in schools and hospitals and they can hide the proceeds of other crimes.
The corrupt are helped to buy properties by lawyers, accountants and estate agents who do not ask where the money is coming from – which by law in most countries, including the UK, they are supposed to do.
Today Transparency International UK is publishing Corruption on your doorstep: How corrupt capital is used to buy property in the UK. This investigation of the London land registries shows just how extensive the use of secret offshore companies is to buy property:
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 