Money-laundering landowners are lurking offshore
THERE was a flurry of excitement this week when the Tory Government were forced into a humiliating climbdown on a policy they ought to have been in favour of anyway.
Faced with a potential rebellion, Theresa May agreed to open up secretive offshore tax havens accused of sheltering McMafia money which is then laundered into the UK.
The move will compel British overseas territories to set up “registers of beneficial ownership” that would create a public trail showing who ultimately owns companies based there.
The Campaign group Global Witness estimate that £68billion flowed out of Russia via the UK overseas territories between 2007 and 2016.
There is lots of dirty money stacked up in secretive accounts in these British overseas territories favoured by tax avoiders, money launderers, kleptocrats, crooks, terrorist gangs, oh, and many Scottish landlords.
Scandalously, there are parts of Scotland where people do not know who owns the land they live on.
At least 750,000 acres of Scottish land is owned in offshore tax havens without the identity of the true owners being revealed.
Unfortunately, offshore propertyowning companies will not be covered by registration requirements for years. So, this tightening of the rules might snare Russian McMafia money but not Scottish MacMafia landowners, though the two may not be mutually exclusive.
Property in London and Scotland is increasingly being bought up by offshore trusts, leading to serious concerns about money laundering and corruption.
As land campaigner Andy Wightman MSP points out, this is a welcome first step but did not target the UK crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.
MPs supporting the change said they hope to turn to the crown dependencies in due course, and hopefully the offshore landlords that blight Scotland.