Britain began to seize property of unknown origin

This week, for the first time in the UK, an investigation was launched into the property of a foreigner who did not pass the test for purity of capital.

What do I get from this?

Since the end of January, the British authorities have been able to check and seize the property of foreigners. This innovation scared many Russians. If you have assets in the country, be sure to read.

What happened: This week, the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) issued its first arrest warrant for property of unknown provenance, an opportunity the British authorities only received a month ago.

• We are talking about two properties in London and in the south-east of England, which are estimated at £ 22 million. The warrant was issued in respect of a foreign politically exposed person (politically exposed person). Until the end of the investigation and the decision of the court, all transactions with this property are frozen .
• About whom exactly there is a speech, the British authorities do not reveal. Earlier, an NCA spokesperson, in response to an inquiry from The Bell, said that the agency is going to apply the warrant in one or two cases involving foreign officials with assets of dubious origin. FT, citing its sources , wrote that they were going to check the property of a politician from a CIS country located in Central Asia.

Details: In 2017, the UK adopted a package of measures to combat money laundering, part of which is the so-called "unexplained wealth order" (UWO) or a warrant for the arrest of property of unknown origin.

• The decision on whether to issue such a warrant is made by a judge of the High Court of London or the Court of Session of Scotland, who will be contacted by British officials. In each case, the judge himself will determine the list of documents that will have to be provided to the owner of suspicious property, and decide whether he managed to prove the purity of his assets.
• Only five departments can apply to the court for a warrant of unconfirmed income - in addition to the NCA, these are the Serious Fraud Office, the Crown Prosecution Service; financial regulator (Financial Conduct Authority) and tax service (Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs).

Who it threatens: those who, by court decision, meet three conditions at once.

1. The owner of suspicious property must be associated with crime or be (past or present) a politically exposed person (PEP) from countries outside the 27 members of the European Union, as well as Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein. Family members of politically exposed persons and other people associated with them are also at risk.
2. The second condition is worded broadly: "if there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the legally received income, which is known to the public, would not be sufficient to purchase the property."
3. The value of suspicious property must be above 50 thousand pounds. This is four times lower than the average UK home price and nearly ten times the London average, according to national statistics.

Transparency International, which has been pushing the amendments since 2014, believes there are £4.4bn worth of suspicious assets in the . UK which allegedly belong to First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov (his representative did not respond to a request from The Bell).

Is everything so scary? In fact, British courts have previously had the right to seize property. By a court decision, Kazakh banker Mukhtar Ablyazov and Elena Kotova, a representative of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, lost their London mansions. The main difference is that British officials can now go to court on their own initiative without filing a case. But lawyers do not expect mass trials.

Experts: “The screws have been tightened for several years,” says Dmitry Zapol, partner at IFS Consultants. At risk are beneficiaries of trusts and residents of the UK - people from other countries who live on funds transferred from abroad, says Antoaneta Proctor, partner at Taylor & Wessing law firm.

When searching for suspicious property, departments can use databases of citizens and their property. Among them are the Connect service from the British tax service, data from research agencies like Quintel Intelligence, as well as World-Check from the Thomson Reuters news agency, Zapol lists.

With the entry into force of the new legislation, the procedure of proof is also changing: if earlier the prosecutor proved the guilt of the suspect, now the owner of the disputed property himself will have to defend his good faith in court, says lawyer, doctoral student at the University of East Anglia Natalya Mosunova.

Lawyers advise recipients of the warrant to cooperate with the court in every possible way and provide all available documents. If you do not respond to the request of the court or do not provide enough data, the property is automatically recognized as doubtful and may be seized.

“But there will obviously not be mass trials,” says the solicitor of England and Wales, lawyer Dmitry Gololobov: the origin of funds from 99% of foreigners has long been understood and verified - banks, lawyers, and realtors are involved in this.

Sofia Okun, from London for The Bell