Nearly every trail of dirty money leads to a shell company in the British Virgin Islands or another UK-linked financial centre. It’s time for the UK to end the corporate secrecy in its Overseas Territories that enables global financial crime.

👇 Really important story from @byrobdavies.bsky.social on the ongoing failure of British overseas territories to honour their pledges to introduce accessible registers of company ownership – a key tool in the fight against dirty money.

👇 Great report from our friends at @influencemap.bsky.social on how the UK’s feeble efforts on lobbying transparency have undermined the policy response to one of the world’s most pressing challenges: climate change.

👀 The Treasury recently published the first report on the Economic Crime Levy (ECL). In our new blog we argue that this new funding mechanism for tackling economic crime has notable strengths but also real limitations.

👇 Great spot by @owenboswarva.bsky.social. We thought this was likely the case but it is nevertheless disappointing to see it confirmed by Cabinet Office Minister @georgiagould.bsky.social yesterday:

🤔 Not a fan of corruption? ❗Interested in ways to improve trust in politics? 😃 Keen to work alongside our small friendly team? 🫵 You might be the person we're looking for! @spotlightcorruption.org is recruiting a new lead for our work on #DefendingDemocracy Deadline: 16/3/25 More details below 👇

✌️ Victory! @spotlightcorruption.org is delighted to see our campaign to give law enforcement agencies greater protection from legal costs when pursuing the assets of deep-pocketed crooks has been successful. The measure has been included in the new Crime Bill announced in Parliament this week 👇.

🆕 BLOG 🆕 Keir Starmer's ministerial code promised a new register of ministerial gifts and hospitality. Now, as the first set of transparency records under these new rules are published, Rose Whiffen looks at what has actually been delivered. www.transparency.org.uk/news/promise...

👓 WHAT WE'RE READING – 5 stories from the anti-corruption world 😓 It's been a terrible few weeks but it has produced some brilliant and important writing. 1️⃣ @thetimes.com: A fired-up @edwardlucas.bsky.social calls on the UK to up its anti-corruption game in response to developments in the US.

✨🔍 NEW 🔍✨ We’ve just added 6000+ new meetings to our Open Access database of Westminster and (now) Holyrood meetings with external organisations. Check out the new data here ⤵️ openaccess.transparency.org.uk

📨 We'll shortly be sending out our latest newsletter, with commentary from @suehawley.bsky.social, our submissions to the spending review and the @legalservicesboard.bsky.social, and a job advert 🫵. ✍️ Sign up at our website if you would like to receive it: www.spotlightcorruption.org/newsletter/

📢 Awesome opportunity to join the team at Spotlight on Corruption and work on an incredibly important and interesting topic. Apply via the link below and please share with anyone you think would be a good fit for the role👇

👏Great to see @mp4stratford.bsky.social sky.social highlighting the urgent need for political finance reforms to protect our democracy from undue influence. We look forward to seeing the details of the Political Donations Bill when it returns to @houseofcommons.parliament.uk

📨 Our latest newsletter is winging its way to our subscribers' inboxes right now! 👇 If you are not already a subscriber, click below to see what's on offer. ✍️ And sign up at our website if you would like to receive future editions: www.spotlightcorruption.org/newsletter/

📨 We'll shortly be sending out our latest newsletter, packed with great stories about all the work we did in January. ✍️ Sign up at our website if you would like to receive it: www.spotlightcorruption.org/newsletter/

Proper investigation of Abramovich’s tax affairs is essential, particularly in light of concerns that HMRC is failing to use all the tools available to pursue wealthy individuals and companies. It doesn't matter how rich you are - everyone should have to pay their fair share.

📢 The latest publication of departmental transparency releases is out today. This will show who the new government has been meeting with in its first months in power… www.gov.uk/search/trans...

👀 A recent flurry of parliamentary interventions is piling pressure on the UK Government to introduce major reforms to the UK’s political finance rules. While the Govt’s promise to introduce reforms is welcome, there is no time to lose.

👇 Really good piece from my colleague George on Lord Anderson's new ethics bill. "Steps to bolster the regulation of standards in public life are long overdue. Here is a ready-made Bill to do just that. The govt should ... throw their weight behind this well-considered ... piece of legislation."

🚨 Statement 🚨 We have called for the City Minister Tulip Siddiq to relinquish the anti-corruption duties of her role. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... 1/8

👀 A few things coming up in Parliament this and next week for anyone interested in what the Government should do to reform the UK's Swiss-🧀-style political finance laws.

"The UK is so vulnerable to being influenced by money coming in from people like Musk into our political system because we don't have any checks and balances." Former Green Party leader Caroline Lucas discusses Musk and British politics. #Newsnight

Amazing opportunity!

👏 We’re delighted to see @electoralcommission.org.uk throw its weight behind our long-standing call for political parties to introduce ‘know your donor’ policies, in this great @theguardian.com interview by @pippacrerar.bsky.social.

2026 seems too late to close the loopholes allowing foreign funding of UK political parties It's not like the warnings are new - this has been a longstanding call of almost every leading democracy/transparency group in the UK

Super comment piece in today’s @thetimes.com Law section by former Chief Crown Prosecutor Andrew Penhale on the impact that the crisis in the UK criminal justice system is having on economic crime cases.

🎯Brilliant to have someone with so much on the ground experience in Andrew Penhale (ex Chief Crown Prosecutor) give his expert take on how to tackle huge delays in economic crime and #corruption cases. Adopting his recommendations should also help ease pressure on the wider court system.

👍 Great to see the UK government highlight its plans to make further use of #anti-corruption sanctions and review #sanctions enforcement.

🆕 In a major #openjustice victory, earlier today @spotlightcorruption.org won the right to publish the transcripts and Court documents from a major corruption trial that highlighted UK government complicity with a foreign bribery scheme.

🆕 Last week’s announcement of anti-corruption #sanctions against key figures in a gold-smuggling ring targeting Southern Africa has been welcomed by our partners AfriCOG, @cifar.bsky.social, TI Zimbabwe & the International Lawyers Project. Here’s our joint statement on why these sanctions matter:

👀 it will be very interesting to see which cases this new unit investigates

We're pleased to support @spotlightcorruption.org's important work examining government progress on lobbying reform. Their findings show why action is needed to enhance transparency in lobbying and restore trust in our democratic institutions.

📹 Our Executive Director @suehawley.bsky.social welcomes the appointment of Baroness Hodge as the UK's new #Anti-CorruptionChampion. And she calls for 2️⃣ essential initiatives: 1️⃣ greater investment in our law enforcement agencies, and 2️⃣ a full suite of reforms to improve standards in public life.

Elon Musk’s $100m threat to bankroll Nigel Farage exposes these gaping loopholes endangering UK democracy bylinetimes.com/2024/12/05/e...

This is a corker of a thread about an incredibly important issue (if I don’t say so myself)👇

We join our colleagues at @transparencyuk.bsky.social in calling for ambitious electoral finance reform. It must be an urgent priority for the government to bring forward a new Elections Bill that 👉 tackles the loopholes in election laws and 👉 bolsters UK defences against foreign influence (a 🧵)

Really important story 👇 www.theguardian.com/business/202...

🕟 Late yesterday afternoon the government slipped out the latest tranche of departmental #lobbying #transparency data. But even careful readers won't be much the wiser. 👇 Here's @spotlightcorruption.org's take on why the current system is not fit for purpose and what needs to happen to fix it.

📢 Really pleased to see @philbrickellmp.bsky.social draw on research from @spotlightcorruption.org in his speech in Parliament yesterday.

👀

👀 Great round up of top corruption-related stories on our radar from my fab colleague @alexbeatty.bsky.social

Are there constitutional principles (civil service, delegated legislation, watchdogs?) that could usefully be put into statute? Yesterday's discussion with Ministers Pat McFadden and Nick Thomas-Symonds is from 11:23:25 to 11:35:05 (no transcript yet): www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/....

Great to see @joepowell.bsky.social raise the importance of the Serious Fraud Office continuing to prioritise foreign #bribery cases – and even better to see Solicitor General Sarah Sackman confirming that the SFO is working “incredibly hard in this area”.

🆕 After the Autumn budget offered small change for tackling economic crime, more resourcing for economic crime fighting agencies is urgently needed, says a new report from @spotlightcorruption.org.

The government should reinvest criminal assets and fines into an innovative new Economic Crime Fighting Fund to turbocharge enforcement, says @jamesbj.bsky.social.

🚨📽️🗣️🔷 In our last party conference video of 2024, James Bolton Jones of @spotlightcorruption.org talks about his panel discussion with Dr Maria Nizzero of @rusi.bsky.social, the Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP and Sir David Davis MP. 💡 They had a great exchange about fixing the UK's dirty money problem...

Today the wife of Russian oligarch German Khan is asking the Court of Appeal to overturn #sanctions against her in a key case that challenges the UK’s approach to targeting family members & associates with sanctions. 👇 Here’s our take on why this case matters:

Really important story over the week which should inject urgent thinking into how to prevent political donors accessing public contracts, grants and other benefits by the Cabinet Office. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

✨ 📽️ 🔷 This week, we hosted a very interesting panel event at Conservative Party Conference #CPC24 with Bright Blue. 🗣️ Dr Maria Nizzero from @rusi.bsky.social sat alongside the Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP, Sir David Davis MP and James Bolton Jones from @spotlightcorruption.org, and had this to say...

🆕 The UK is unique is using money from its aid budget to fund its domestic law enforcement agencies’ fight against the #corruption afflicting developing countries, but our latest report finds much more needs to be done given the vast scale of the problem. A thread: