Polina Kovaleva (26 years old) lives in Kensington, an apartment in the upscale London neighbourhood. It was her 21st birthday when she bought it for 4.4million pounds without a mortgage. Svetlana polyakova, her mother, is not wealthy. According to FBK, she was the lover of Sergey Lavrov for more than 20 years.Alexei Navalny is the founder of the anti-corruption foundation. Boris Johnson, Prime Minster, is being pressured to sanction Polina and her mother.
Let’s return to 2017, when the young lady bought her house. No one could have doubted then that something didn’t fit. No. Londongrado has been the name of London for many decades.It has been the global capital for money laundering. The United Kingdom established a highly opaque system after World War II when it was trying to figure its place in the post-imperial world.
Even before Vladimir Putin became president in the early 1990s Soviet institutions were able to hide their financial transactions behind shell corporations registered in Jersey. According to British media, the KGB used the discretion afforded them by the UK’s offshore territories in order to keep their money safe.
As the 1990s progressed,A string of scandals prompted prosecutors in the USA and Switzerland to pay closer attention to the dubious fortunes of a number of people.London, however, seized the chance to capitalize on its suddenly competitive advantage as a major financial centre where oligarchs practically run free.
A total of 140 Russian oligarchs have been elected to the House of Commons. For the moment, however, 23 assets have been frozen. Roman Abramovich, apart from his ownership of Chelsea, also has other mansions such as Kensington Palace Gardens (which is valued at over 135 million euros), and 15-bedroom Kensington Palace Gardens.
The best way for oligarchs and their money to be laundered has been to invest in the realty market. The system allows UK’shell businesses’ to purchase real estate, and also allows tax havens based elsewhere to own British property without needing to reveal the true owners. owners.
Some 87,000 properties in England and Wales belong to `offshore companies´, which makes it impossible to know who their real owners are or if they were bought with criminal money. Russians linked to the Kremlin have bought houses worth 1.5 billion pounds or been accused of corruption. A few meters from the Parliament, properties worth almost 430million pounds are found in Westminster. Over half of them are owned by British overseas territories and Crown dependents. There are several houses worth more than 10,000,000 pounds in Belgravia, the exclusive area with the most expensive postcode. Nobody knows their owners. Its owners are among others companies registered in Panama, Virgin Islands and Isle of Man.
The Economic Crimes Bill is a promise that has been made since 2016. Since 2016, the Economic Crimes Bill has been promised. But it hasn’t been presented in Parliament. It is expected that it will be approved on the speed track and ready for use as soon as next week. It’s basically designed to stop oligarchs buying property in the UK. They can hide their identities by creating a network shell companies that are registered in tax havens.
The legislation addresses three main points: It creates the long-awaited “beneficial owner registry” which will be responsible for Companies House. This registry will be transparent, can review “unexplained assets orders”, and allow the prosecution of those involved in violating sanctions.
It does have significant loopholes, however, that could give the oligarchs an edge. One problem is the length of time that megarics have to declare their assets. It was supposed to take 18 months. However, the opposition demanded that it be extended for an additional 28 days. Six months is enough time for criminals, to sell their property and invest in other assets.
The sanctions are beginning to be noticed by the real estate industry in any case. Many operations are being destroyed by the agencies in the most exclusive areas, where it is common to purchase million-dollar homes ‘a tocateja.