UK fast-tracks plans to harden Russian sanctions

Bloomberg

UK lawmakers voted in favour of a package of measures to toughen government powers and speed up sanctions against Russian tycoons after Home Secretary Priti Patel accused Vladimir Putin’s allies of hiding “dirty money” in Britain.
“We do not want it here,” Patel said as she opened six hours of debate on the measures in the House of Commons.
Boris Johnson’s economic crime bill looks set to become law within days after it was given the green light by the House of Commons, moving now to the House of Lords for further scrutiny. The prime minister has faced growing pressure to accelerate action to tackle money laundering in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The legislation will set up a register identifying the ultimate foreign owners of UK real estate, preventing them from hiding behind shell companies. Under the plans, individuals will have six months to join the register — down from the initially proposed 18 months, but still longer than the 28 days sought by the opposition Labour Party.
Nevertheless, Business Minister Paul Scully said the government may bring in plans this week to ensure that those who try to sell their properties within that six-month period have to declare their details at that point. That was a concession to those demanding tougher provisions amid fears that wealthy foreigners —and Russians in particular —would have time to launder their money out of the UK before the new requirements set in.
A separate effort, led by former cabinet minister David Davis, to preemptively freeze the assets of wealthy foreigners even before authorities have imposed sanctions on them was defeated in the Commons. “Moving rapidly is the only way to ensure our sanctions actually hit Putin where it hurts,” Davis said.
The UK has lagged the US and EU in sanctioning individual Russians and has attributed the delay to having to build robust legal cases to avoid the restrictions being overturned in court. Since the invasion, Britain has targeted 11 wealthy Russians with sanctions —as well as Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Patel told MPs that Putin was a “gangster” whose regime is “underpinned by a mob of oligarchs and kleptocrats who have abused the financial system and the rule of law for too long.”
The new property register would have an “immediate effect dissuading those intending to buy UK property with illicit funds,” she said.