In the UK, around £700 million worth of property linked to sanctioned Russian oligarchs has still not been officially ‘frozen’. This was reported by the British branch of Transparency International, The Moscow Times reports.
According to the organization’s research, analysts have identified 33 real estate properties – residential buildings, apartments and office premises located in London and Surrey – that are not included in the British register of frozen assets.
Among the discovered properties is the Witanhurst mansion in Hampstead, which is the second largest house in London after Buckingham Palace. As noted, it is associated with the owner of the “Phosagro” group Andrey Guriev, although his representatives deny this.
The report also mentions a mansion in Kensington Palace Gardens worth 90 million pounds, which is supposedly owned by billionaire Roman Abramovich. According to the land registry, the owner of the property is the Cypriot company A. Corp Trustee, which indicated as its address the building at the “Chelsea” stadium, which previously belonged to Abramovich.
The head of the study, Ben Caudock, explained that a significant part of the properties that are not subject to restrictions are registered in offshore companies registered through trust structures. In a number of cases, the property may belong to relatives of sanctioned persons, which allows for formal circumvention of restrictions.
“Theoretically, the UK government has the ability to study the origin of assets, but in practice there are actually no such tools. Overall, the problem of corporate opacity persists, which prevents effective control of these assets, ” – Kaudok noted.
According to Transparency International, three objects are directly owned by individuals whose names coincide with the names of those on the sanctions lists.
“It is becoming increasingly difficult to explain why no action has been taken against these individuals yet, ” – Kaudok added.
A representative of the UK’s Office for the Enforcement of Financial Sanctions (OFSI) stated that OFSI “takes enforcement action in relation to every recorded case of alleged violation of the sanctions regime, regardless of whether the objects are listed as frozen in the land register or not”.
“We continue to pursue corrupt supporters Putin and key Russian enterprises. At the moment, sanctions have been imposed against more than 1,200 individuals and more than 120 legal entities – these are the largest and most stringent economic measures in the history of Great Britain, ”, – said Caudok.
Despite this, the assets that have already been arrested have not yet been used. London Mayor Sadiq Khan previously stated that the British government should confiscate real estate owned by Russians accused of corruption and ties to the Kremlin. According to him, the funds received from the sale could be used to build about 4 thousand homes for low-income citizens.
