Russian oligarchs Rothenberg brothers used a loophole in British legislation to bypass sanctions - BBC

In 2016 and 2017, the UK government introduced new rules for almost all British companies to name its true owners. So they wanted to fight money laundering. However, Limited Liability (ELP) English companies have not been trapped in new transparency rules. This provoked an ELP boom - over 4,500 new societies have been created over the last five years. For comparison, in five years to 2017 - 2950.

Journalists analyzed thousands of documents that demonstrate how ELP became a way to bypass the laws on combating money laundering. As noted in the BBC material, ELP is legally used for example in real estate, investment and pension funds - they have tax advantages, and the amounts that investors risk are limited. Unlike most companies, ELP does not have a separate legal entity. This means that they cannot have assets, have no beneficial owner and cannot legally open bank accounts on their own.

But documents that are at the disposal of journalists identify the beneficial ELP owners and are evidence of their use to open bank accounts and facilitate financial crimes. Among the owners of such societies are people from the environment of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. The brothers Arkady and Boris Rothenberg were investigated by the US Senate Committee in 2020.

It argued that they used a global network of false companies to evade US sanctions introduced after the annexation of Ukrainian Crimea in 2014. These companies were used to buy art works for millions of dollars. One of these companies was Sinara Company LP, a Limited Liability Company, established in January 2017. Its legal address is located in the heart of London, two steps from Oxford-Serkus. The company's documents stated that she is engaged in tourism and ticket selling.

From July 2017 to June 2018, the company sent 14 electronic transfers for a total amount of $ 133,000 an art consultant, which, as stated in the Senate report, "contributed to the purchases for Rothenbergs. " According to Britain's legislation, the real owners of Sinara Company LP (which closed in 2019) should not be disclosed.

"This is a real scandal, people such as Rothenbergs who have been under sanctions in America for years can still use British corporate structures to withdraw their money from Russia and then spend them at their discretion," the deputy from the Labor Party said Britain Margaret Hodge, who heads the Parliamentary Tax and Corruption Group. Most limited liability companies are established by so -called agencies for the formation of companies that provide legal address and administrative support.