Indians may be hit as Britain plans public register of property

LONDON Foreign citizens and companies who own property in London and the UK will be listed in a public register to help investigators track down and recover proceeds of crime, official sources have said.

Since 2004, Britain’s law enforcement investigations into international corruption have identified more than £180 million worth of property in the UK as the suspected proceeds of corruption, with 75% of those investigated using overseas companies to hide their real owners.

Indians are among the largest overseas buyers of UK property. The register may reveal the ultimate beneficiary of owners.

“This is believed to be only the tip of the iceberg of the scale of proceeds of corruption invested in UK property,” the global anticorruption group Transparency International said in a recent report. The new proposals, announced on Wednesday, are intended to deliver what is called “the world’s first public register of the beneficial owners of overseas companies and other legal entities who own UK property”.

An official said the register would also list the beneficial owners of overseas-registered firms involved in central government procurement exercises. “While the government welcomes legitimate foreign investment in the UK, overseas investors in the UK property market have also included criminals laundering the proceeds of crime,” he said.

The UK government launched a call for evidence, asking overseas investors, property and transparency experts for their opinions on how this register could be delivered.

Business minister Margot James said: “We are committed to protecting the integrity and reputation of the UK property market and this register would be a valuable measure to increase transparency and investor confidence.”

Donald Toon, director for economic crime at the National Crime Agency said: “Greater transparency over the true ownership and control of UK property held in the name of overseas companies will make the UK a less attractive place to launder money and will assist investigators track down and recover the proceeds of crime.” SEOUL: South Korea has successfully test-fired a home-developed ballistic missile with a range long enough to hit any part of North Korea, Yonhap news agency reported on Thursday.

The announcement comes a day after the North fired its own ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan — which analysts dubbed a warning ahead of a China-US summit, at which Pyongyang’s accelerating atomic weapons programme is set to top the agenda.

South Korea is protected under an American security umbrella and is home to thousands of US troops.

But in 2012 it reached an agreement with the United States to almost triple the range of its ballistic missile systems to guard against the North’s nuclear threats, and has since been developing missiles with longer ranges.

Citing a high-ranking government official, Yonhap said the South’s missile with a range of 800 km could serve as a strong deterrent to Pyongyang.

A defence ministry spokesman declined to comment.

The South plans to deploy the new missile this year following further tests to determine its reliability, Yonhap said.

In June last year, the South successfully test-fired two homedeveloped missiles capable of carrying a one-tonne payload up to 500 kilometres.

Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme is likely to dominate when US President Donald Trump meets China’s leader Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida Thursday, their first face to face meeting.