Scotland Yard investigators suspect hundreds of millions of pounds worth of UK properties held in secret offshore accounts were proceeds of global money laundering schemes. One detective told the UK Guardian that the setup was akin to “putting money in a Swiss bank – they have become ubiquitous for the corrupt.” The Metropolitan police have put more than GBP 180m worth of suspected properties under investigation over the last decade, with Transparency International calling the UK “a safe haven for corrupt capital stolen from around the world.” In London, more than 36,300 properties are held in secret offshore accounts, according to data released by the Land Registry.
“In nearly all the grand corruption cases we investigate, we find what we suspect is proceeds of corruption being used to purchase high-value properties,” Jonathan Benton, head of operations at the Met’s proceeds of corruption unit, told the Guardian. “Properties that are purchased with illicit money, which is often stolen from some of the poorest people in the world, are nearly always layered through offshore structures.”
