OCCRP joined the Londongrad Kleptocracy Tour, organized by campaigners making an attempt to get soiled cash out of the U.Ok.’s capital, to ask what measures are nonetheless wanted to combat kleptocracy and corruption.
Because the tour bus ascends North London’s Highgate West Hill, dozens of tour-goers wrestle to look over a tall pink brick wall and catch a glimpse of Witanhurst, a Grade II-listed mansion believed to be value 300 million kilos (about $361 million) and owned by the Russian billionaire Andrey Guryev.
Roman Borisovich, an anti-corruption campaigner and one of many tour’s organizers, describes what’s hidden behind the partitions of London’s second-largest non-public residence after Buckingham Palace: A non-public cinema corridor, a 25-car storage, and an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
Credit score: Katie McCraw/OCCRP Roman Borisovich speaks on the tour bus.
Lately, properties like Guriyev’s have been snapped up — and vastly expanded — by the Russian oligarchs whose fortunes have exploded below the rule of President Vladimir Putin. These oligarchs plundered Russian state assets after the autumn of the USSR, and London turned their favored second residence.
Moments after skirting Guriyev’s property, the bus passes Beechwood Home, acquired by ex-Arsenal FC shareholder Alisher Usmanov in 2008 for 48 million kilos ($96.1 million). Subsequent door is Athlone Home, a 65-million-pound ($80.1-million) mansion owned by the billionaire Mikhail Fridman. Quickly after: a 17.95-million-pound ($24.61-million) property as soon as owned by the son of Vladimir Yakunin, a former KGB colleague of Putin’s.
Since 2016, grassroots group the Marketing campaign for Laws Towards Moneylaundering in Properties by Kleptocrats, generally known as ClampK, has been visiting properties like these on what they name “kleptocracy excursions.” These days, nevertheless, these excursions have added significance. With many of those oligarchs now focused by an intensive sanctions program launched in response to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, a few of their most dear property, like these mansions, have been frozen amid U.Ok. authorities efforts to clamp down on Kremlin-linked wealth.
Arthur Doohan, ClampK’s co-founder, says the tour’s objective is to “spotlight the size of the harm completed by kleptocrats to each the nations that they steal from and the nations that obtain stolen monies.”
Credit score: Katie McCraw/OCCRP Mikhail Fridman’s Athlone Home, as seen from the ClampK tour bus.
Oliver Bullough, an investigative journalist and tour organizer, says from the entrance of the bus that it’s going to take years of devoted political will, strong laws, and correct resourcing of legislation enforcement to reverse what he calls the “felony foolishness” of getting allowed soiled cash to infiltrate the U.Ok.’s economic system over the previous few a long time.
“By giving individuals a spot to spend stolen cash, we’re simply encouraging them to steal extra,” Bullough says.
‘A Fast and Soiled Software’
On the day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.Ok.’s prime minister on the time, Boris Johnson, promised a “remorseless mission to squeeze Russia from the worldwide economic system.”
Since then, the U.Ok. has sanctioned greater than 1,500 Russian people and entities. Russian-owned property value a mixed 18.39 billion kilos ($20.8 billion) have been frozen. The brand new Financial Crime Act was rushed via parliament in weeks and sought to forestall nameless possession of U.Ok. properties via shell corporations. Further proposed laws, the Financial Crime and Company Transparency Invoice, is now being debated within the Home of Lords.
However when requested how a lot progress had been made in really seizing these frozen property through the previous 12 months, Bullough was forthright: “None. No progress. None in any respect.”
Credit score: Katie McCraw/OCCRP Oliver Bullough speaks to journalists outdoors the disused Previous Brompton Highway tube station in London, which Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash purchased in 2014.
Whereas authorities sanctions permit for the freezing of property, shifting to confiscation is “extraordinarily troublesome,” in keeping with Helena Wooden, a Senior Analysis Fellow on the Centre for Monetary Crime and Safety Research at U.Ok.-based suppose tank the Royal United Companies Institute (RUSI).
“Sanctions are a fast and soiled software of overseas coverage. We have to discover a solution to take away these property from our economic system — sanctions should not going to permit us to do this,” Wooden says.
In accordance with U.S. legal professional Jamison Firestone, confiscating kleptocrats’ property is troublesome as a result of it requires proving that their wealth originates in crimes which will have taken place a long time in the past. On prime of that, governments must show {that a} specific asset was purchased with the proceeds of a specific crime — assuming they’re even in a position to unpick complicated possession buildings that usually contain secretive trusts.
And consultants are fast to spotlight loopholes within the current laws.
New analysis revealed earlier this month by marketing campaign group Transparency Worldwide exhibits virtually 52,000 properties in EnglanOCCRP joined the Londongrad Kleptocracy Tour, organized by campaigners making an attempt to get soiled cash out of the U.Ok.’s capital, to ask what measures are nonetheless wanted to combat kleptocracy and corruption.
Because the tour bus ascends North London’s Highgate West Hill, dozens of tour-goers wrestle to look over a tall pink brick wall and catch a glimpse of Witanhurst, a Grade II-listed mansion believed to be value 300 million kilos (about $361 million) and owned by the Russian billionaire Andrey Guryev.
Roman Borisovich, an anti-corruption campaigner and one of many tour’s organizers, describes what’s hidden behind the partitions of London’s second-largest non-public residence after Buckingham Palace: A non-public cinema corridor, a 25-car storage, and an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
Credit score: Katie McCraw/OCCRP Roman Borisovich speaks on the tour bus.
Lately, properties like Guriyev’s have been snapped up — and vastly expanded — by the Russian oligarchs whose fortunes have exploded below the rule of President Vladimir Putin. These oligarchs plundered Russian state assets after the autumn of the USSR, and London turned their favored second residence.
Moments after skirting Guriyev’s property, the bus passes Beechwood Home, acquired by ex-Arsenal FC shareholder Alisher Usmanov in 2008 for 48 million kilos ($96.1 million). Subsequent door is Athlone Home, a 65-million-pound ($80.1-million) mansion owned by the billionaire Mikhail Fridman. Quickly after: a 17.95-million-pound ($24.61-million) property as soon as owned by the son of Vladimir Yakunin, a former KGB colleague of Putin’s.
Since 2016, grassroots group the Marketing campaign for Laws Towards Moneylaundering in Properties by Kleptocrats, generally known as ClampK, has been visiting properties like these on what they name “kleptocracy excursions.” These days, nevertheless, these excursions have added significance. With many of those oligarchs now focused by an intensive sanctions program launched in response to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, a few of their most dear property, like these mansions, have been frozen amid U.Ok. authorities efforts to clamp down on Kremlin-linked wealth.
Arthur Doohan, ClampK’s co-founder, says the tour’s objective is to “spotlight the size of the harm completed by kleptocrats to each the nations that they steal from and the nations that obtain stolen monies.”
Credit score: Katie McCraw/OCCRP Mikhail Fridman’s Athlone Home, as seen from the ClampK tour bus.
Oliver Bullough, an investigative journalist and tour organizer, says from the entrance of the bus that it’s going to take years of devoted political will, strong laws, and correct resourcing of legislation enforcement to reverse what he calls the “felony foolishness” of getting allowed soiled cash to infiltrate the U.Ok.’s economic system over the previous few a long time.
“By giving individuals a spot to spend stolen cash, we’re simply encouraging them to steal extra,” Bullough says.
‘A Fast and Soiled Software’
On the day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.Ok.’s prime minister on the time, Boris Johnson, promised a “remorseless mission to squeeze Russia from the worldwide economic system.”
Since then, the U.Ok. has sanctioned greater than 1,500 Russian people and entities. Russian-owned property value a mixed 18.39 billion kilos ($20.8 billion) have been frozen. The brand new Financial Crime Act was rushed via parliament in weeks and sought to forestall nameless possession of U.Ok. properties via shell corporations. Further proposed laws, the Financial Crime and Company Transparency Invoice, is now being debated within the Home of Lords.
However when requested how a lot progress had been made in really seizing these frozen property through the previous 12 months, Bullough was forthright: “None. No progress. None in any respect.”
Credit score: Katie McCraw/OCCRP Oliver Bullough speaks to journalists outdoors the disused Previous Brompton Highway tube station in London, which Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash purchased in 2014.
Whereas authorities sanctions permit for the freezing of property, shifting to confiscation is “extraordinarily troublesome,” in keeping with Helena Wooden, a Senior Analysis Fellow on the Centre for Monetary Crime and Safety Research at U.Ok.-based suppose tank the Royal United Companies Institute (RUSI).
“Sanctions are a fast and soiled software of overseas coverage. We have to discover a solution to take away these property from our economic system — sanctions should not going to permit us to do this,” Wooden says.
In accordance with U.S. legal professional Jamison Firestone, confiscating kleptocrats’ property is troublesome as a result of it requires proving that their wealth originates in crimes which will have taken place a long time in the past. On prime of that, governments must show {that a} specific asset was purchased with the proceeds of a specific crime — assuming they’re even in a position to unpick complicated possession buildings that usually contain secretive trusts.
And consultants are fast to spotlight loopholes within the current laws.
New analysis revealed earlier this month by marketing campaign group Transparency Worldwide exhibits virtually 52,000 properties in EnglanOCCRP joined the Londongrad Kleptocracy Tour, organized by campaigners making an attempt to get soiled cash out of the U.Ok.’s capital, to ask what measures are nonetheless wanted to combat kleptocracy and corruption.
Because the tour bus ascends North London’s Highgate West Hill, dozens of tour-goers wrestle to look over a tall pink brick wall and catch a glimpse of Witanhurst, a Grade II-listed mansion believed to be value 300 million kilos (about $361 million) and owned by the Russian billionaire Andrey Guryev.
Roman Borisovich, an anti-corruption campaigner and one of many tour’s organizers, describes what’s hidden behind the partitions of London’s second-largest non-public residence after Buckingham Palace: A non-public cinema corridor, a 25-car storage, and an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
Credit score: Katie McCraw/OCCRP Roman Borisovich speaks on the tour bus.
Lately, properties like Guriyev’s have been snapped up — and vastly expanded — by the Russian oligarchs whose fortunes have exploded below the rule of President Vladimir Putin. These oligarchs plundered Russian state assets after the autumn of the USSR, and London turned their favored second residence.
Moments after skirting Guriyev’s property, the bus passes Beechwood Home, acquired by ex-Arsenal FC shareholder Alisher Usmanov in 2008 for 48 million kilos ($96.1 million). Subsequent door is Athlone Home, a 65-million-pound ($80.1-million) mansion owned by the billionaire Mikhail Fridman. Quickly after: a 17.95-million-pound ($24.61-million) property as soon as owned by the son of Vladimir Yakunin, a former KGB colleague of Putin’s.
Since 2016, grassroots group the Marketing campaign for Laws Towards Moneylaundering in Properties by Kleptocrats, generally known as ClampK, has been visiting properties like these on what they name “kleptocracy excursions.” These days, nevertheless, these excursions have added significance. With many of those oligarchs now focused by an intensive sanctions program launched in response to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, a few of their most dear property, like these mansions, have been frozen amid U.Ok. authorities efforts to clamp down on Kremlin-linked wealth.
Arthur Doohan, ClampK’s co-founder, says the tour’s objective is to “spotlight the size of the harm completed by kleptocrats to each the nations that they steal from and the nations that obtain stolen monies.”
Credit score: Katie McCraw/OCCRP Mikhail Fridman’s Athlone Home, as seen from the ClampK tour bus.
Oliver Bullough, an investigative journalist and tour organizer, says from the entrance of the bus that it’s going to take years of devoted political will, strong laws, and correct resourcing of legislation enforcement to reverse what he calls the “felony foolishness” of getting allowed soiled cash to infiltrate the U.Ok.’s economic system over the previous few a long time.
“By giving individuals a spot to spend stolen cash, we’re simply encouraging them to steal extra,” Bullough says.
‘A Fast and Soiled Software’
On the day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.Ok.’s prime minister on the time, Boris Johnson, promised a “remorseless mission to squeeze Russia from the worldwide economic system.”
Since then, the U.Ok. has sanctioned greater than 1,500 Russian people and entities. Russian-owned property value a mixed 18.39 billion kilos ($20.8 billion) have been frozen. The brand new Financial Crime Act was rushed via parliament in weeks and sought to forestall nameless possession of U.Ok. properties via shell corporations. Further proposed laws, the Financial Crime and Company Transparency Invoice, is now being debated within the Home of Lords.
However when requested how a lot progress had been made in really seizing these frozen property through the previous 12 months, Bullough was forthright: “None. No progress. None in any respect.”
Credit score: Katie McCraw/OCCRP Oliver Bullough speaks to journalists outdoors the disused Previous Brompton Highway tube station in London, which Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash purchased in 2014.
Whereas authorities sanctions permit for the freezing of property, shifting to confiscation is “extraordinarily troublesome,” in keeping with Helena Wooden, a Senior Analysis Fellow on the Centre for Monetary Crime and Safety Research at U.Ok.-based suppose tank the Royal United Companies Institute (RUSI).
“Sanctions are a fast and soiled software of overseas coverage. We have to discover a solution to take away these property from our economic system — sanctions should not going to permit us to do this,” Wooden says.
In accordance with U.S. legal professional Jamison Firestone, confiscating kleptocrats’ property is troublesome as a result of it requires proving that their wealth originates in crimes which will have taken place a long time in the past. On prime of that, governments must show {that a} specific asset was purchased with the proceeds of a specific crime — assuming they’re even in a position to unpick complicated possession buildings that usually contain secretive trusts.
And consultants are fast to spotlight loopholes within the current laws.
New analysis revealed earlier this month by marketing campaign group Transparency Worldwide exhibits virtually 52,000 properties in Englan
