Home Secretary Priti Patel (Aaron Chown/PA)
(Picture: PA Wire)Russianoligarchs who have made their fortunes through crime should be put behind bars, Priti Patel said on Wednesday as she urged law enforcers to “go harder” after dirty money in London.
The Home Secretary said she also wanted to see “lawyers, property agents and accountants” who facilitate money laundering sent to jail. Ms Patel said additional powers to help police and the National Crime Agency pursue offenders would be introduced in new legislation, due later this year.
But she also insisted that investigators could do more under existing laws as she warned that “dirty money and illicit finance have become the norm for many overseas investors, including the kleptocrats linked to President Putin, who have funded his illegal war in Ukraine.”
In an article for the Evening Standard, she added: “I have been clear about the need to go after those criminals even harder and make them pay for their corruptly obtained assets.
“I want law enforcement to make much greater use of powers to seize any UK assets linked to criminality. We’ve invested £400million over the next three years to tackle economic crime.
“This will enhance the intelligence capacity in the NCA so they can progress vital complex criminal investigations and put some of these kleptocrats, as well as the lawyers, property agents and accountants who enable them, behind bars.”
Ms Patel said the Government had “sanctioned more than 1,100 individuals and over 100 entities linked to the Russian state, including over 120 oligarchs” since the invasion of Ukraine began in February.
Pledges of action against Russian dirty money after the Salisbury Novichok poisonings of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in 2018 failed to lead to the seizure of any illicit wealth.
