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Daily Record
Daily Record
Politics
Torcuil Crichton

Labour demands action to squeeze Vladimir Putin's money out of Scotland

Scottish Labour has unveiled plans to tackle the money and influence of Russian oligarchs in Scotland.

Ian Murray said the party would demand a range of measures to ensure Scotland is not used as a laundromat for stolen Russian money.

Murray, the Shadow Scottish Secretary in the Commons, said the Economic Crime Bill due before parliament on Monday had to be amended so that it applies in Scotland to the same 2004 date as England and Wales.

Murray, who served as an election observer in Kyiv, said: “It’s not just London, where we’ve got to tackle it though. But here in Scotland too.

Labour's Ian Murray called for Scotland to stop being a safe haven for Russian oligarchs (PA Wire)

"After years of delay, on Monday, the UK government is finally bringing forward the Economic Crime Bill that will tackle dirty money."

“But as it stands, although the bill will apply retrospectively in England and Wales to 2004, it will only apply from 2014 in Scotland.

“That means if you’ve been found to have laundered Russian money in Scotland, but had the good fortune to do before 2014, you’ll be untouched.”

Labour is already demanding the sanctions measures against oligarchs should be introduced in days not “weeks and months”.

Murray told the Scottish Labour conference in Glasgow: “It might take them months to sanction a Russian oligarch, but I’ll tell you how quickly this Tory government can implement sanctions when they want – turn up two minutes late to the job centre!”

He added the bill should also include reform of Companies House to tackle the "infamous” Scottish Limited Partnerships which have allowed dirty money to be hidden under opaque ownership structures.

Murray said: “We won’t accept criminals getting away with laundering plutocrat money just because it takes a bit of work to dig through records.”

Murray said Labour would also call on the Crown Office to tighten enforcement of Scottish Limited Partnerships failing to declare their ownership. More than 17,000 SLPs have failed to file required reports.

“Thousands of these partnerships have failed to follow their legal obligations to name a person of significant control and are therefore liable for fines," he added.

“In fact, this is the scale of it - if every one of these partnerships that have failed to meet these rules were prosecuted, it could raise an eyewatering £2 billion in fines alone.”

Murray also called for a full audit of successful ScotWind bidders to ensure no ill-gained Russian money is involved in the financing of the projects.

He said: “The Scottish Government must conduct a full audit of the recent “ScotWind” bidders to make sure none of them are party to Russian money.

“Scotland’s wind must not be used to fund Putin’s war.”

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