Scotland has been left as a “smugglers cove” for the dirty money despite moves to expose Russian oligarchs, Labours Ian Murray has claimed.
The Labour Shadow Scottish Secretary has urged UK ministers to accept reforms to the hasty Economic Crime Act passed by MPs on Monday which left loopholes in Scottish law.
The Act will establish a new register of overseas entities requiring foreign owners of property in the UK to declare their true identity.
But while it applies to property bought by overseas owners up to 20 years ago in England and Wales it only goes back to December 2014 in Scotland.
Speaking in the Commons, Murray said: “So, if you’ve laundered Putin’s dirty money in Scotland before 2014 you’re in the clear.
“For example, Perthshire’s Aberuchill Castle, bought by Russian steel magnate Vladimir Lisin for over £5 million in 2005, who is on the Treasury’s watchlist since 2008, is not covered.
“Vladimir Romanov, who bought Heart of Midlothian Football Club in 2005 and swathes of central Edinburgh, and is allegedly hiding in Moscow under the protection of Putin, would not have been covered either. But they would in England.”
Murray urged the Scottish Secretary Alister Jack to take action “to sort this smugglers’ cove in Scotland”.
Jack sympathised with the point but that there were legal complexities that prevented the move.
He said: “The problem we have with the Bill is if we go back before 2014, there’s a risk that third parties who didn’t know they were engaging with an overseas entity that was non-compliant could be hurt and that hurt is something they were unwillingly engaged in and therefore we have to protect those third parties."
Murray replied: “I’m sure that anomaly could be sorted in terms of making sure you don’t hurt unsuspecting third parties.”
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