Scotland ‘a safe haven’ for oligarch dirty money

SCOTLAND is facing calls to get tough on Russian oligarchs and money laundering amid accusations it has become a ‘safe haven’ for Vladimir Putin’s friends.

The UK government aims to pressure the Russian president with its Economic Crime Bill, which will probe land purchases in England and Wales since January 1999.

But it’s thought around 1,400 land sales in Scotland will evade scrutiny over a failure to digitise records, meaning only those since December 2014 can be probed.

At the same time, prosecutors face growing pressure to crack down on Scottish Limited Partnership (SLP) companies, which fail to declare who has significant control of operations.

It is thought around 17,000 SLPs should have faced fines totalling £2.2 billion, but a lack of transparency has meant it has not been possible for the Crown Office to mount prosecutions.

Figures expected this week will show that sum has risen even further, leading to calls to toughen the Economic Crime Bill in Scotland and clamp down on rogue SLPs, some of which have been linked to money laundering.

Labour MP Ian Murray said: ‘I bet you will find that Russian oligarchs own a lot of Scotland and a lot of these shell companies have been used to launder their money.

‘If you laundered Russian money through Scotland before 2014 you’re going to be in the clear because the records don’t show the nationality of landowners. That’s just utterly extraordinary.’

Justice Secretary Keith Brown told Holyrood last week he did not object to retrospective action beyond 2014, but claimed this would be ‘complicated’ to achieve.

The December 2014 date comes from when the Land Registration etc (Scotland) Act 2012 was brought in and it became mandatory to provide the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland with an applicant’s country.

It used to be common practice to put that information in property deeds, meaning it would usually have been recorded.

Former MSP and land campaigner Andy Wightman said: ‘Keith Brown made a convoluted reference to how it’s complicated but it’s not at all. There’s no duty on the Keeper of the Registers to do a big trawl – this will be a duty on the owners to declare. We’ve got to resolve this and lose the 2014 cut-off.’

Although the Scottish Government is also introducing regulations to scrutinise land purchases by foreign entities, they are not as tough as the Economic Crime Bill.

Mr Wightman said: ‘The UK Bill has stiffer penalties – up to five years in prison. Scottish regulations have a maximum of a £5,000 fine.’

The Crown Office said it was open to taking action against SLPs.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘The decision to only capture property registered in Scotland after December 2014 within the Register of Overseas Entities was determined by the UK Government.’

‘Shell companies are used to launder money’