The new bill – the second of two that had to be announced hastily amid accusations that the government had gone soft on dirty money – is backed by the new security minister, Tom Tugendhat. “I am delighted that today we are introducing reforms that will make it much harder for kleptocrats to shield their ill-gotten gains and treat the UK as their safe house,” the former Tory leadership candidate said as he launched the draft law. The company’s comptroller has been accused in the past of acting as a letterbox, taking all the claims of the kleptocrats and their representatives at face value, thus making them official, much to the embarrassment of the UK. But the proposed reforms were delayed earlier this year, prompting the resignation of then Chancellor of the Exchequer Lord Agnew – and criticism from Labor that the Tories were soft on Russian “dirty money”. Johnson was forced to announce that the financial crime bill would go ahead, but it was split into two parts. The first focused on creating a register of overseas ownership of land and property in the UK and facilitating the prosecution of those involved in breaching sanctions. It was hurriedly overcome in the spring. Other measures in the latest bill include tightening regulation of Scottish and other limited partnerships. Lightly regulated Scottish limited companies had become havens for money laundering from Russia and elsewhere because of low reporting requirements and the fact that they can be controlled by opaque offshore companies. Law enforcement will be given new powers to more quickly and easily seize cryptocurrencies that are the product of crime or illegal activity, such as ransomware hacker attacks. Money laundering using cryptography has increased sharply, Europol warned earlier this year. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. A paper published by the Rusi thinktank earlier this week urged both the US and the UK to remain focused on fighting corruption, following a flurry of activity at the start of the war last February. “While the Russian invasion has highlighted the need to combat this problem now, it has been years of turning a blind eye to ‘dirty money’ that have allowed it to take deep root in democratic societies, especially in the US and the UK,” the authors wrote. , Isabella Chase and Maria Nizzero.
