Last week, the British channel Channel 4 aired a documentary about Russian corruption in London.
In the film, a sort of archetypal fur-clad potentate named Boris comes to London to buy an apartment worth several million pounds and wants to register it to an anonymous offshore company. The whole process is recorded with hidden cameras. The role of the corrupt Russian official was brilliantly played by Roman Borisovich, one of the public donors to the ACF (Anti-Corruption Foundation).
Take a look at what it looks like.
A London real estate agent, without batting an eye, tries to sell a property worth around £10 million to a “health minister” from Russia. The latter openly says that he stole the money from the state budget, skimming it from public procurement contracts for medical equipment. The agents are not bothered in the slightest and even offer to put him in touch with specialist lawyers who can help register it all to some exotic offshore entity.
In the video, it may all look staged, like a clever prank, but in reality this is exactly how it works. The “medical equipment” in the story refers to the same scanners that were so heavily milked for kickbacks that there was enough left over to build “Putin’s palace” in Gelendzhik (a Black Sea resort city). The “anonymous offshore companies” used for the deals in the film are no different from the Panamanian trusts that hold the title to the very real estate of Andrei Yakunin, the son of Russian Railways chief Vladimir Yakunin.
Immediately after the broadcast, the filmmakers launched a very useful campaign to change British law so that the real owners of property can no longer be hidden. It is a very simple and straightforward demand. You can read more about the recommendations here. The campaign has already been backed by Transparency International and Global Witness, and there has been quite a lot written about it under the hashtag #FromRussiaWithCash.
This campaign is an excellent example of how to make life significantly harder for our crooks and shut down their ability to anonymously buy up British real estate. The Anti-Corruption Foundation is joining the campaign with pleasure.
For us, this is not some abstract issue; it is a very real one. Here are a few specific examples.
A £4.5 million house. Registered to an offshore company in Panama:
Who does it really belong to? Andrei Yakunin, the eldest son of the head of Russian Railways, the one who is supposedly a “successful businessman” with a chain of railway-station hotels.
Or take this small house in Knightsbridge, the most expensive part of town. It is registered to a Cypriot offshore company.
Who does it really belong to? Roman Rotenberg, the son of Boris Rotenberg, one of Russia’s main government contractors, who has been under international sanctions for a year already.
As it turns out, Roman Rotenberg is also a British citizen.
There are many more examples like this, and we will definitely be writing about them. In the meantime, there are several ways to support the campaign.
If you live in the UK, you can write to your MP asking them to support the recommendations (EDM 275) submitted to Parliament. Twenty-six MPs have already signed on. A letter template is available here.
2) Absolutely anyone can tweet at MPs, and unlike ours, they are perfectly happy to reply and engage. You should ask them to sign the recommendations too, or tell them how many of Putin’s friends own property in their constituency.
The campaign organizers have put together this list of MPs and their Twitter accounts.
Tomorrow is the last working day in the British Parliament, so hurry and persuade them before the recess.