Green’ s wife spent millions on homes as BHS went under

The owners of more than 1,500 UK properties that were bought using offshore companies have been revealed in a major data leak after the UK Government said it plans to crack down on such arrangements.

The Pandora Papers have shown for the first time who owns the houses and apartments, estimated to be worth more than £4 billion, the BBC reported.

One of the property owners is Sir Philip Green’s wife, who bought multimillion-pound property in London as his department store BHS was headed for collapse, according to the report.

The BBC said Tina Green’s ownership of the London properties had been revealed in the Pandora Papers, a massive leak that was reported by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

She bought the properties through anonymous firms based in the British Virgin Islands, the BBC said.

This is not illegal, and there is no suggestion of wrongdoing on the part of the Greens or other property owners in the data.

However, the government has said it plans to bring in new laws that make it more difficult to own property anonymously through foreign companies.

Lady Green’s purchases included a £15 million apartment in Mayfair and a new home for the couple’s daughter near Buckingham Palace, which was bought for £10.6m in 2016, the BBC said.

It happened in the months after the Greens sold department store BHS for just £1 to Dominic Chappell, the report said. Just over a year later the company entered administration, leaving a large hole in its pension fund and 11,000 lost jobs.

When contacted by the

PA news agency about the claims, Sir Philip said: “I do not own or have never owned any offshore real estate.”

In response to detailed questions from the BBC, lawyers for Sir Philip and Lady Green declined to answer, and suggested that the matters were private.

Other property owners include foreign oligarchs and royals.

Last year Sir Philip’s Arcadia, the company behind Topshop, went into administration after the

Covid-19 pandemic “severely impacted” its sales.

Online retailer Boohoo bought Arcadia brands Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Burton, while Asos bought Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge from the group.

The Pandora Papers are made up of around 12 million documents from 14 service providers, including law firms and companies that have set up secret offshore accounts, the ICIJ said.

“

I do not own or have never owned any offshore real estate

POWER COUPLE: Former Arcadia owner Sir Philip Green with his wife Lady Green.