🆕 BLOG 🆕 Up to £10 billion could be laundered through UK property each year, according to the latest government risk assessment. From opaque trusts to crypto schemes, criminals are finding new ways to hide dirty money. Read more ⤵️ www.transparency.org.uk/news/authori...

New investigation from @transparencyuk.bsky.social and @theguardian.com finds several Bangladeshis linked Hasina's regime - now under investigation by authorities there - appear to have either sold, transferred or refinanced UK property since the revolution began. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

🗣️ "We urge UK law enforcement to continue their inquiries and to freeze all suspect assets without delay." With the NCA freezing millions in assets from Bangladesh's former regime, @duncanhames.bsky.social urges UK authorities to freeze more suspect assets. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Guardian coverage here of new analysis by @transparencyuk.bsky.social on the use of trusts to hide the ownership of property. Our research found £2.5bn worth of real estate bought with suspicious wealth and held by trusts. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

📝 BLOG Is this the end for Adolf Tooth Fairy Hitler? Companies House can now reject suspicious filings, but 65,000 companies are still breaking beneficial ownership rules. Read our latest blog on the progress and gaps in UK company law reform. ⤵️ www.transparency.org.uk/news/slow-ev...

Great story highlighting the loopholes and oversight issues that make Scottish Limited Partnerships attractive to crooks. Featuring the "King of Fraud" and a company owner that is in fact, no longer alive. theferret.scot/muirhouse-sl...

I have a new piece out in Foreign Affairs on how #statecapture ruins economies and livelihoods... www.foreignaffairs.com/guest-pass/r...

Is this the beginning of the end for 'Adolf Tooth Fairy Hitler'? Hopefully... from @bcowdock.bsky.social @transparencyuk.bsky.social www.transparency.org.uk/news/slow-ev...

18 months on from landmark Companies House legislation and it's looking more like evolution than revolution. Some solid progress already achieved, but a long way still to go. www.transparency.org.uk/news/slow-ev...

Exc: MPs sound alarm over "disinformation" articles written by fake journalists. The target was Ahsan Mansur, who is seeking UK help tracing assets allegedly stolen from Bangladesh under the regime of Sheikh Hasina and laundered into British property. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

On Wednesday we published an interactive map showing the tens of thousands of UK companies hiding their beneficial owner. It's now updated - with filters and search functions. In this thread I use it to uncover a truly shocking and unexpected case of hidden ownership.

🗣️ "There'll be undoubtedly LLPs being used in this kind of activity. They're being used either directly to send goods to Russia... as well as to circumvent sanctions" @liambyrnemp.bsky.social quizzes @bcowdock.bsky.social on if LLPs registered with Companies House are being used to evade sanctions

🗣️ "This has made them really attractive to money launderers, crooks and sanctioned individuals." This afternoon @bcowdock.bsky.social gave evidence to the Business and Trade Committee and explained why Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) are so attractive for those seeking to hide illicit wealth.

Huge win! Government announces plans to open up the Land Registry. If delivered, will finally reveal more about who owns land in England and Wales. Read my blog post for more details & how you can write to the Minister to make sure this now happens: whoownsengland.org/2025/03/06/h... 🧵1/

Big questions to answer for the service providers in the UK who facilitated these purchases. www.ft.com/content/ec75...

If you're a US investigator whose work on Russian oligarchs and global kleptocrats just got shut down, consider reaching out to OCCRP. Me (Signal): cakrawala.99 occrp.org

The BVI has unveiled its plans to make company ownership more transparent. Unfortunately these plans would do very little to stop the money laundering that happens there on an industrial scale and may even put users of the new system in danger. Read more here: www.transparency.org.uk/news/smokesc...

Clubs being owned by opaque firms presents a major risk. When added to the world of fixers, enablers and questionable sponsors it becomes clear that football clubs are vulnerable to those with suspect wealth to hide. See also: www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/... and josimarfootball.com/2025/01/03/8...

It took me nearly two years to report on Suella Braverman's use of private email accounts in government. I've obtained some of the internal government emails around my FOIs, showing attempts at obfuscation and the request by an official to "gather intel" on me. relightmyfoia.blog/2025/01/20/w...

🗣️ "These findings should serve as a reminder to all who serve a public role to carry out thorough due diligence on who they associate with." @bcowdock.bsky.social spoke to the @thetimes.com about the importance of due diligence for senior figures in public life. www.thetimes.com/uk/article/r...

The board of the Duke of York’s Chinese enterprise included two businessmen investigated in China over financial misconduct allegations, the founder of a company sanctioned in the US on human rights grounds and a former Communist Party official, The Times can reveal www.thetimes.com/uk/royal-fam...

Who owns London’s luxury real estate? Sometimes there's no way to know. The family of Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Aliyev held properties in the British capital worth millions of dollars. Do they still own them? We can't tell. They’re hidden behind a secretive offshore trust. Our latest story🧵👇

NEW: It’s an arms race with criminals and the corrupt. If you get rid of offshores to hide bad actor ownership of properties, you end up with trusts. See our latest.

New analysis here by @occrp.org and @transparencyuk.bsky.social on overseas companies used by Azerbaijan's ruling to hold interests in UK property. We found the familiar problem of trusts hiding full information on those behind their multi-million pound property empire. www.occrp.org/en/investiga...

With news that Bangaldesh's Anti-Corruption Commission is investigating City minister Tulip Siddiq, here is our investigation into London's links to alleged corruption involving the former Bangladesh elite, under the regime ruled by Siddiq's aunt. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

UK Companies House nerds will be pleased to see Barbara Kahan appeared briefly as a director of now sanctioned TGR Corporate Concierge Limited, it's always the ones you least suspect.... www.thetimes.com/business-mon...

Excellent work by the NCA and partners to uncover this, but there's much more to do. Russia has shown a willingness to work with organised crime and money launderers worldwide to evade and avoid sanctions. www.wired.com/story/operat...

For more than a year I’ve been trying to figure out how tens of millions of pounds worth of both bottled and bulk whisky ends up in Putin’s Russia. We have *some* answers but do DM if you can help find out more. 🧵 www.heraldscotland.com/news/2475850...

✨ OUT NOW ✨ We reveal almost £1 in every £10 of political donations comes from ‘unknown or questionable sources’. That's we need tighter spending rules to shine a light on dark money and hold those who abuse the system accountable. Find out more ⤵️ transparency.org.uk/report-new-r...

New joint investigation from @theguardian.com and @transparencyuk.bsky.social finds almost £400m in UK property owned by associates of former Bangladeshi PM, Sheikh Hasina. Bangladeshi authorities are now investigating the wealth of these figures. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

NEW 🚨 Britain's electoral laws are broken - but successive governments have done nothing Musk's proposed $100million donation to Nigel Farage shows we are on the cusp of a real crisis for British democracy But it can be fixed. Here's how, by me democracyforsale.substack.com/p/musks-100m...

Do proud Brits really want other countries’ billionaires playing games or settling scores with our democracy? Time to close the gaps in our political funding rules that make it possible.

New joint investigation from @theguardian.com and @transparencyuk.bsky.social finds almost £400m in UK property owned by associates of former Bangladeshi PM, Sheikh Hasina. Bangladeshi authorities are now investigating the wealth of these figures. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Hundreds of hours of painstaking work went into this, from journalists, editors, subs and lawyers. It is available for free in The Observer. For now. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

NEW: @financialtimes.com cover fresh analysis from @transparencyuk.bsky.social on £11 billion worth of UK property we've identified purchased with suspect wealth. £5.5 billion of this is held by companies in the BVI. on.ft.com/3CZjfpt

1/ The UK’s fight against dirty money is at risk. Weak progress in the British Overseas Territories (OTs) threatens to undermine the Foreign Secretary’s anti-corruption campaign. Here’s my take: 🧵 transparency.org.uk/overseas-ter...

Great to see the Foreign Secretary begin his campaign against Kleptocrats and dirty money. Next on the agenda should be stopping opaque trusts hiding property ownership, opening up company registers of the UK's offshore secrecy havens and clamping down on enablers. www.linkedin.com/posts/davidl...

As the UK prepares to host its Overseas Territories this week, we assessed the lack of progress made by British Virgin Islands in tackling its role as a secrecy haven favoured by organised crime, the corrupt and Putin's cronies. transparency.org.uk/bvi-continue...

🚨 🎁 🚌 You wait for an anti-corruption starter pack and then two come along... ICYM our good friends at @spotlightcorruption.org 's invaluable starter pack earlier this week, here's another... go.bsky.app/Dj9uCxn We will add more accounts as our members and others arrive! #xodus, #anticorruption