Britain will need to invest more in investigations if it is serious about driving out corrupt capital
SUSPECTING THAT a fancy London pad was acquired with stolen money is one thing, proving it another. British crime-busters have long struggled to join the dots to courts’ satisfaction. So last year the country introduced Unexplained Wealth Orders , which shift the burden of proof. These can be issued when there is a gap between the value of an asset and the legitimate income of the apparent owner—for instance a foreign official on a modest state salary or one of his relatives.
It emerged this week that three London homes have been frozen by the High Court, in the second use of such orders by the National Crime Agency . The properties, worth £80m when purchased a decade ago, are held by offshore companies. The owner has not been named but is a “politically exposed person”—a politician, state official or someone linked to them.
The government touts UWOs as evidence that it is taking on foreigners who launder ill-gotten gains through property purchases, often hiding behind shell companies. A public register of the owners of offshore firms that hold British property is in the works. But many more such orders would be needed to reach beyond the tip of the money-laundering iceberg. Transparency International has identified 150 British properties worth £4.4bn bought with iffy wealth, and that is just the “low-hanging fruit”, says the anti-corruption group. The NCA complains of being underfunded, and resources have been diverted from white-collar cases to areas with more visible victims, such as knife crime.
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