How London became the dirty money capital of the world | FT Film
Russian oligarchs and companies have been investing in London for two decades, encouraged by British politicians of all stripes, but critics say the 'London laundromat' cleans dirty money from Russia and across the globe. The FT examines why it took Russia's invasion of Ukraine to put the issue in the spotlight and whether new sanctions and measures to tackle the problem go far enough. Read more at on.ft.com/3OtRKpp
Produced, directed and edited by Daniel Garrahan
#Ukraine #Ukrainewar #London #Russia #VladimirPutin #oligarch #Abramovich #property #housemarket #realestate #europe #war #laundromat #londongrad #politics #business #moneylaundering #dirtymoney #cash #economy #business #finance #kleptocrat
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“The UK has lost its moral compass” - as if it’s ever had any.
Indeed, it never had one.
UK Government*
Never had it. Think about how they conquered and plundered almost the whole world
@@NyanyiC Hang on, you’re telling me in places like Africa, South America or anywhere for that matter corruption isn’t involved 😂😭 _Nearly_ all of Europe was doing it back then when Britain had it’s empire. Not only that, every country you could go to tribes were killing each other for land. U.K. aren’t the only villains. Slaves are still used in many countries today. In fact I see videos online in Africa and South America of people bouncing bricks off heads and burning tyres on bodies all because someone stole some bread. But apparently the U.K. never had a morale compass 😂
What country has a moral compass? Ridiculous statement.
Most people in the UK actually lost out. Russian money wasn’t pumped into the economy, only into property, most of it left unoccupied. The net result was a massive increase in UK property prices (both purchase and rent prices) without the corresponding increase in average wages.
The intent isn't to enrich the average Brit. It is to enrich the British oligarchs at the expense of everyone, including morality.
Were you competing with Russian oligarchs for property? I don't think so, but the rich tax dodging English elite have been, which might explain why they hate Russians so much. They are making on that it is to do with Ukraine, but they hated them long before that.
I’m not sure the ultra high end property’s in London are affecting the price of a 3 bed semi in Milton Keynes. The problem is a lack of supply of decent quality affordable housing, that’s down to classic Tory policies.
@@edc1569 ...which will continue as long as property magnates 'donate' to the Tory party & its MPs.
Maybe not Milton Keynes, but try zones 3, 4, 5 and 6…
Its so unfortunate that the Uk is going through an economic crisis and its been on for long...It is clear how Uk has changed its policy and shifts to investing in many sectors, including sport. The results may take time, but eventually, there will be drastic changes.
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Too big to fail industries used for war that operate during peace time.
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Asking this on youtube won't get you far...
One gets the impression from this movie that London and the offshore zones are a heaven predominantly for russian money. Hell no, it is a heaven for all dirty and undeclared money, from all over the world, including the West itself! This is just how it works!
Was surprised to see this title from FT, then saw from the description that they were going to just smear Russians. Just more war propaganda, not an actual look at the Wests house of cards finance system
Exactly the point! Dutch royal family have trusts on the channel islands. Accountants have their pensionfund there. All to evade taxes.
Better us get it than new york or paris.
Panama Papers!!!
@@sidesauce avoid or evade paying taxes. The end result is exactly the same
But if a regular citizen in the uk wants £5k out of there bank account they are looked at like a criminal & questioned in the bank…it’s bollocks !!
their
A dank can freeze your account without explanations for months - welcome to Britain and FCA regulatory. If someone transfer to you good sums of money on personal account, they could be suspicious.
laws are just for the poor dont cry and dont be poor lol
Yeah and thieves can keep billions
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Ponzi
Wait the UK at one point in history had a moral compass? Mind blowing allegations there.
When was that?
@@fuckbankers before the Romans arrived to be exact....lol and they only are seeing the Russians now because of the war. The rest are ok, what journalism is this ? The usual.
Poisoning the chinese with opium and then invading and looting that country. At one point in time more then half of all the gold in London was stolen from China. Then there is India. And the list goes on
Compared with?
@@fuckbankers Exactly
It was always meant to be why do you think Britain holds on to all these islands in the middle of nowhere that serve exclusively as tax havens? Or why do you think the City of London is still a thing. London's always been the beating heart of international money laundering
Britain can't really get rid of those islands, even though they would like to. Here are some examples: * The British have organised two independence referendums in wealthy Bermuda, but the locals voted against independence both times. *The Cayman Islands are similar to Bermuda, they are fully self governing and Britain has no power over them, but they would refuse independence, no matter how hard Britain pressured them. * Gibraltar is *functionally* independent, but they can't be a fully independent micro state like Andorra or Monaco because a 310 year old treaty says that if Britain gives up soverignty, Gib goes to Spain and the locals are strongly against that. * The Falklands are also functionally independent (except for defence) and are very rich with an average income 1.6 times the British average. But they can never be properly independent "because of the obvious military threat" as one of their politicians put it. * St Helena is too poor to survive without UK money and too remote from even despotic African dictatorships for the UK to give St Helena to any other country *About the only overseas territory Britain could have got rid off is Pitcairn Island (population 46). When Trump offered to buy Greenland from Denmark, if Britain had been quick they might have convinced the USA to take it to expand their territorial waters
No, that's New York.
@@Dave_Sisson You could fix the channel islands though.
@@Carewolf Yep, Channel Islands and Isle of Man are sort of semi autonomous, but if BOTH the Torries and Labour put pressure on them to clean up their act or lose visa free access to the UK, they would certainly comply.
Check "The spider's web: Britain's second empire".
People don't realise the extent to which this 'dirty' money holds up the UK economy. The UK does not have much in terms of natural resources, exports or technology. Their biggest exports are legal and financial services, hence they don't have a choice but to accept dirty money to keep the economy afloat.
slavery = dirty money
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Let's not forget the elite British nationals who also benefit from this easily corruptable system
That's the whole point this one so piece gives the impression the former evil racist British Empire are victims but they helped the US regime destroy the Soviet Union partly to transfer its wealth to London
It's not just Russian oligarchs who bring dirty money into London, even corrupt Sri Lankan politicians, especially the Rajapaksha family have invested millions of pounds (stolen monies which belong to the poor taxpayers) in various enterprises here. I hope, soon there will be new legislation imposed to arrest them and prosecuted... Fingers crossed!
'oligarchs' is just another name for mafia yeah
Don't hold your breath
everyone already knows about this. it just gives them the chance to bring up Russia again. you should read treasure island by Nicholas Shaxson
Man got it when he called aka Londonstan "Londongrad" because there the oligarchs have pumped so much money in London property that even the super rich of the UK have been priced out if the property market.
@Mol Ok some of them are living in Malaysia and 🇸🇬 Singapore.
Well done, FT, for speaking up on this important topic. The UK merits a much sounder real-value-creating financial system.
She said The UK appears to have completely lost its moral compass !? That was 300 years ago my beautiful lady !!!
Children, grandchildren, and wives are critical in the laundering process for investor visas, which is why public schools have been at the core of sheltering in property.
Yeah, but don't you think that it's bit rich to call a Nazi-dominated kleptocracy like Ukraine a "democracy"?
Gulags. We need to send capitalist filth to an Island where they can’t hurt the poor anymore.
WE LOVE MONEY
@@a_very_british_perspective $£€ is The Holy Trinity. We Worship It.
@Phil - They’ve all known about it for decades. But the money was too good to start rocking the boat. It’s only the Ukrainian War that’s prompted action.
how Naive do you have to be... the City of London has been doing this for centuries.. financing slavery, corrupt regimes etc etc etc and financially proping up various UK governments since the end of empire, despite their wilful misuse of Treasury funds that if not for the City of London would have bankrupted the country many times over.
What’s being naïve got to do with it? Don’t make out you’re better than everyone else because you know about things that most people don’t care about
Correctamundo 💯
So are you saying that having the City of London is actually beneficial to the U.K. as a whole? That it has kept our economy working even if it benefited some of the wealthiest people.
@@prepperjonpnw6482 Yes. The city of London basically props up the UK economy as a whole.
A thief believes that everyone steals.
The reason to go for Brexit... was to keep the offshore economy unchallenged by E.U. bureaucracy.
As long as the City of London keeps its special legislative position nothing will seriously change at all. This is often omitted in explaining how and why things are as bad as described here. Many laws have been passed over the decades and they always left the City of London in the exact same position they have always been in - an island of different rules and laws in the middle of the capitol of the UK.
And it should remain that way. Just because you or some so-called journalists don’t like it doesn’t mean the City of London should change or answer to you for the way they conduct their business.
@C Not so sure about bankrolling a national system with possible Russian blood money is a good argument here
@@prepperjonpnw6482 No worries - i am not even from your country. I guess that makes seeing the obvious a bit easier and from your reaction it looks like the finger was put into the right wound
The city of London where mafia rules rule.
It's not just the city of london. All the overseas territories and crown dependencies have become huge tax havens and hubs for moving around dirty money. Being such an old country we have a lot of ancient political anomalies that are easy to exploit for dodgy dealings.
The main reason for Brexit was to protect the London Laundromat & the City. Regarding reform - I'm with the woman who said; "I will believe it when I see it".
Preservation of the laundromat has been a ‘side benefit’ of Brexit, sure, but it wasn’t mentioned in the prospectus. Nearly all big business in Britain was anti-Brexit. And nearly all the people who voted for it don’t have offshore bank accounts. Rather it was a reaction to big business taking Britain down a path that didn’t chime with the interests of the people themselves.
@@sirrathersplendid4825 Most Tory MP's have offshore a/c & certaily most busnesses. All the rich make use of Trust Funds. They conned the public - manufactuing consent - into voting against there own self interest..... again.
@@sirrathersplendid4825 I bet that people mostly who voted for Brexit had all other reasons, they believed the EU should be in charge of Britain, they believed that would be less of imigrants who are rivals and they trully believed that the UK economy would do better. What they were not told is that the UK would not be able to stay in EEA as Norway or Swiss. The were not told that more imigrants from Non-EU countries would come instead of Europeans. So technically a lot of losses, but the UK is not under EU law now.
@@discoboy8169 - Most people didn’t imagine the EU would be quite so vindictive towards the UK.
@@sirrathersplendid4825 Vindictive ? Why do you think so ? The EU has clear state rules. It was clear and easy to understand since the beginning. Everyone said this again and again. The UK can stay in the single market BUTth UK has to follow the rules. The EEA countries ALSO have to follow a the EU regulations.... Britain said, we don't want to Follow EU rules anymore. So the only solution was that the UK leaves the single market....
"The Russians have accounted for about a billion pounds worth of real estate in London", that's hardly anything.
Yup, surprised as well. that's like a hundred luxury flats 😅
Fantastic documentary. Very eye opening and informative. Keep up the good work.
Curious the FT only started caring about this issue after Russia invaded Ukraine.
THIS^^^^^
They are singling out the Russians but what about the others?
👍
Yeah we've had the Panama Papers and subsequent Pandora Papers leaking many powerful politicians, heads of state, billionaire business owners with ties to money laundering & secret offshore accounts via the City of London. Papers that journalists got assasinated for. Sadly those investigations get drowned in the maelstrom of the 24 hour news cycle. There've also been several superb web-documentaries on the phenomenon of the City of London. Now FT seemingly only brings it up to single out Putin & Russina oligarchs
There have been quite a few articles over the years about it, some even in the FT. But just as the Russian invasion prompted the seizing of oligarch assets it has also forced businesses and politicians to examine how deep the oligarchs’ tentacles have inserted themselves into the City’s understructure.
If you watch the documentary " the spiders web " you'll soon realise how the city of London, since the end of ww2, has been doing this with the knowledge of the British government of whatever hue
Great documentary, I've watched it twice already. As long as Britain supports "offshore" banking nothing will change.
Indian govt proved in UK courts that Vijay Malya, a financial criminal, is indeed involved in the crime beyond any reasonable doubt. The courts refused to extradite him on the basis of "Indian prisons being too uncomfortable". Yeah.
Interesting... I must look into this.
Thank you for this programme. Very informative and truthful.
A rather predictable focus on Russian 'oligarchs' but we have dirty money from all over the world and the UK itself.
Spot on .
But those are 'good' dirty money, while russian are 'bad' dirty money.
shouldn't the focus be on the biggest source of dirty money? Sure, there might be some from Ecuador, but it's a tiny percentage.
@@JekaZMD well, Russia is the only one that says it wants to nuke London
It has ruined the local housing market. True reform and policing would revive it, but ... I'm not holding my breath...
It is doing the same here in most of the US . . . disgusting.
It's the same in every developed country. Check what happens in Australia, Spain, Holland, UK... Governments welcome money from "international investors" and they start buying real estate making house inflation go up so the normal citizens can't compete. It's just humankind as always. Money and power are really appealling to some individuals. They do anything for that
A permanent living & housing obligation might be the solution ! 🤔
Add in uncontrolled immigration for years and it's no wonder property is scarce and hence exhorbitantly priced. Every decision governments have taken over the last 50 years has paved the way for this situation with property. I think if you could add up all the unoccupied properties in this country that are owned by foreign investors, it would be a shockingly high number. Middle Eastern, Russian, Chinese, African. And I imagine most of the wealth ill-gotten otherwise why the need to 'launder' it.
@@herenow6953 Okay, just a side-note to this comment: immigration has nothing to do with this thread about fraudulent investors ruining the property markets by injecting tainted money. There is also no clear link between immigration and ill-gotten gains. That's just xenophobic babble.
The FT is so important to be reporting on this, congrats, and know that you have massive support!
When I worked in the City any approach from Russian Investors was an automatic red flag and extremely unlike to take on as a client as the “golden rule” of source of wealth would be too difficult to confirm. I noticed after 2010 this changed and soon some of our bank were actively chasing after Russian Investors to come on board as legitimate clients
A great follow-up video would be to put the spotlight on the enablers themselves - the real estate and law firms, bankers, and other business professionals who benefit from all the ill-gotten largesse.
that video would be about 3 months long. lol
If you buy property thru an estate agent I think there are rules in place to try and prevent money laundering you have to declare where the money has come from
@@fredatlas4396 Not if it's an offshore subsidiary in a territory, instead of native soil. You weren't listening to the video where the real estate people were talking.
The follow up should start from royalty such as THE BANDIT QUEEN of england .
Not forgetting our respected educational institutions
The economy stopped relying on manufacturing and started relying on dirty money
that's was the scheme, Thatcher decided to creat uncorrupted place which is save for foreign investments and it was good tactic.
you dont even have to industrialise or comodify everything.. we dont have to work everyone to death like we're constantly at war either.
You think London lauders dirty money , you should see what happens in Toronto ,Sydney , Vancouver , Wellington, Dubai etc.....
London is the money laundering capital of the world. Bar none. All those cities are far behind London.
No way London is the worst and Miami
The problem with these facts (not just this situation but other similar situations) is that people watch, learn about it, get all worked up, grumble and complain for a bit, then nothing changes. A few weeks later the next 'issue' is in the news, people complain about that, make social media posts about it, then nothing changes. It will never change. All governments are corrupt, they always have been, always will be. Absolute power etc.
Lost it's moral compass?! When did Britain/financial institutes have one?
The FT needs to take it's KZhead channel more seriously, but and start putting out more content like this.
these kind of productions take months of prep time, think about all the people interviewed it took at least one full 8hr day for each. ontop of keeping them all on subject.
They got the go ahead from the those in control to do it now
exactly- its so very good.
its
@@TinLeadHammer the last bastion of grammar here. Keep illuminating.
I loved this.. more stories like this please.. Also, I hate to think what's going to happen to the market when they all "mysteriously pull out of the UK"
is there any reason why the big 4 accounting firms hq is in London?
The system in Britain has been the intentional destruction of any competitive British business on the world-stage; small, medium-sized, large businesses, through selling them off, underfunding them, over-regulating/taxing them or simply allowing their intellectual property to be sold-off to favoured-foreign-country companies. This is the reason for the low-growth and GDP in the UK since at least the 60's. The balance of payments that sustains Britain's GDP and currency then requires billions of pounds of investment per year from abroad. This is why so many universities are implicated, the banking system and key real estate locations among others, to allow the facilitation of money to enter the system. Cracking down on corruption would require the wholsale dismantling of the entire British economic system and its corresponding institutions. Such an outcome is unlikely unless there was some sort of large economic shock. Is the Ukraine crisis such a shock? No. It will require a bigger one.
This is why Britain is so determined Germany must collapse its economy in a mick war with Russia and Germany has realised if they continue their economy will go into irreversible collapse.
Too many are being fed on taxes and fines. Average working class is losing everything, to the Ponzi scheme.
Your comment and resumé it’s really even more smart then entire video…. 👍
And now lack of investment in UK education, coupled with the extremely high cost of living, which has been left unchecked by successive governments, will set the UK economy back decades from a growth perspective. We have essentially let a small amount of investors extract massive amounts of wealth from the UK populous.
Our government isn't supposed to be funding private businesses, it's supposed to be funding public services. And it has been very busy since 2010, cutting funding for all public services including the NHS. The reason our gdp has been so low since 2010 is down to our tory government and their tory ideology and policies. They have been taking our rights away and suppressing wage growth, that's part of the reason our economy hasn't grown since 2010. Also they've been giving big tax cuts for big corporate businesses and the wealthy. And it's very clear to see this doesn't benefit the majority of us or drive the economy
Really glad FT is now covering this issue! There is a great documentary on the topic from a few years ago: The Spidersweb - Britain’s Second Empire
There was another chance to stop it: staying in the EU where legislation against money laundering was coming. This is also why some politicians pushed for Brexit with all their might, nothing else makes sense.
Well said but it's not new London was always like this
Commentator: The UK seems to have lost its moral compass. Royal West Africa Company: Am I a joke to you?
I'm trying to figure out between slavery, work houses and colonialism when the UK ever had a moral compass?
@@sidesauce yup, while locking little children inside workhouses, coal mines and factories
@@sidesauce Bravo for ending the transatlantic trafficking of human beings they pioneered I guess? That morality kept shining through when they compensated slave owners for their loss of property, a debt which was only settled this century (and in part by descendants of these same slaves).
Shameless holds no boundaries when it comes to financial British Britain 🇬🇧
Might wanna look at your own country and how it’s basically owned by American tech company’s..That is not only shameless but pathetic
NO ACTION THOUGH!
@@oracle8589 owned? Pmsl 🤣 that's a new one! The Irish people own Ireland sonny, no one else I can assure you, especially no commercial entity or corporations!
"China-US tensions: A closer look at the Five-Eyes intelligence partnership / CGTN": kzhead.info/sun/e5qnm6WOnJmhY58/bejne.html
@@oracle8589 As opposed to being a vassal to the US regime
Well done to all the good journalists here! #Putin Cronies will pay for the corruption and so #Putin himself! To the face of the World journalist is not a crime but an important step for our democracy! Thank you so much to all of you!
Excellent video. It's clear that the globalisation of the economy has allowed dirty money to flow right across the world. Not just London, but across the world.
When Brazil was doing well economically there was at the same a money laundry scheme. That time Brazil was the 6th economy in the world. Some countries didn't like that, so they provided brazilian prosecutors with data to prosecute corruptors and freeze their companies accounts. These countries didn't want to eliminate corruption in Brazil they wanted to eliminate competitors. While in Brazil there are laws against dirty money in other countries they welcome that money.
Believe it or not nobody cares about Brazil enough to do something like that. Your not that important
This is a important and pithy statement from Felix... When you push out dirt with a broom or vacuum..voila.dosent go away like physics matter never gets destroyedit just changes shape and form !!..it just gravitates to a new place who welcomes it..the dirtier you are the better ...the accounting. Tax, and legal industry is just face paint to make it look better. !!.
Well said....
Brazil is 90 times larger than Portugal and belongs to indigenous Native American people. Just saying.
That is one twisted and confused view of Brazil.
The idea that the "UK has completely lost its moral compass" begs the question when did it have one? During the slave trade? During its industrial revolution when it was overrun with poverty? How about during the colonial period when it aggressively conquered much of the world?
Britian banned the slave trade, fought against fascism, has invented more things than any other nation including the telephone, radio, nearly all modern sports, penicillin, cement, tooth brushes, world wide web, light bulbs... the list goes on. And has taken in more immigrants than any other nation apart from America.
It had one when it fought against Napoleon's French Empire, when it intervened in the Crimean War in 1854, when it fought against the Central Powers in the first World War, when it fought against the Third Reich in the second World War, when it fought in the Korean war against a mad dictator. I could go on but I won't.
well they did say COMPLETELY, meaning it doesnt have to be much in the first place
Britain profited from the transatlantic slave trade but then quite abruptly changed its mind about that and it became the predominant anti slaving power in the world. Sometimes you hit a tipping point.
@@joinedupjon sometimes you just figure out a better business model
Since when does the UK have a moral compass?
Thank you.
One US Ambassador on leaving his position in UK summed it up in one quote "If you have the money then whatever you want you can buy in London and become the insiders insider. UK Offshore Tax Havens offer the biggest" laundry to for money for the World!"!
whats the name of the ambassador?
With the devaluation of the GBP even Premier League football clubs have now become very attractive "investments" for those with funds to laund... sorry, invest!
This kind of investigation brings home the fact that sanctions and grey lists used to punish small developing economies acting as "tax havens" isn't so much about moral superiority and stamping out corruption, but crushing the competition.
Very well said. You are absolutely spot on. The UK's hypocrisy is staggering.
100%
Just as was the case with the economic institution of slavery. Mafia don’t like it when you encroach on their trade.
And the UK never gets sanctioned by any of these authorities... whether it's FATF or another
I am from Colombia - some of whose citizens have done their own bit of money laundering. This whole video reminds me of a good-looking girl of my acquaintance, from a rather poor background, who was totally bamboozled by the attentions of a local drug lord. She eventually married him, and it wasn't long before she ended up with a broken jaw. Once he was killed by a rival gang, she wrote a book about all the abuse she had suffered. You guys in London-stan are doing the same!
london-stan? perdón? y qué tiene que ver tu anécdota?
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The UK used to rule the waves, and used to wave the rules too. A short history of the UK.
And they still do. America may have the largest military and spend the most money on it but Britain has a superior navy snd special forces team than the US. They have centuries of winning wars and all that experience where the US has never won a war by itself for that very reason, they can have all the money in the world but that can’t buy experience and the knowledge passed down by generations. During the Falklands all the US diplomats were saying there was no way Britain could go across the world and defeat Argentina in its back yard but they did it with the upmost ease it was never in doubt. If that was the US it would of ended a stalemate because they don’t know wtf they’re doing despite all the military training Britain has given them over the years they will always be inferior to daddy britain
@@oracle8589 Yeah right! And we won the second world war single handed.
@@oracle8589 the US navy is far far far, and I can’t stress this enough, far larger than the Royal Navy. There is absolutely no comparison these days I’m afraid.
@@alawesy What has size got to do with anything? Britain has always gone for quality over quantity in recent years and France were so impressed that they copied the model. The Royal Marines beat the Navy Seals in training exercises look it up if you don’t believe me. You seem to think that having the biggest economy means your the best at everything by default well your not. Money doesn’t buy intelligence or culture, something America is seriously lacking in
@@oracle8589 Size has a massive part to play in any conflict. Also helps that the 10 American carriers are far more capable than ours. Their destroyers also have more air defence capabilities than ours. Our Navy is good but it is limited in size and simply would not be able to defeat the US Navy in a war. If you think otherwise you’re deluded.
Same thing is happening in Australia. It is out of control. Australian Citizens are suffering because of it and the government aren't interested in doing anything because they receive piles of stamp duty.
By the Russians as well or other parties?
Canada too time to kick the establishment to the curb
@@jokerfrown Chinese
Would say it might be happening across a lot of the "stable developed economies", Australia, UK, Canada, New Zealand. Corrupt money will always attempt to seek out places to re-establish their legitimacy.
It's the buying up of farmland, water sources and critical infrastructure by international corporations that should have had bells ringing in Australia... It didn't though....
It would be interesting to see an update of that video to see which new rules and regulations have been applied and what is still missing
Absolutely stunning material👏 I mean, I knew a lot of that already as I've been following this topic for quite a while, but this is the first video that portrays this disastrous outrageous issue in such a comprehensive insightful manner, keep up the great work FT🤞🏻✌
If you haven't seen it already watch a documentary "The Spider's Web: Britain's Second Empire". This clip is just sliding on the surface, the documentary is a real eye opener.
@@JerzyFeliksKlein No, I haven't, thank you🤝
and entirely blames Russia so yall get of guilt free LOL.
London has never had a moral compass to lose - this is centuries in the making not new.
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I agree with your sentiments
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@@samarachienye1551 Sounds interesting. Been trying to learn this forex trading....
The fact I was never told about that got my attention in a second was already at 1:00. Never knew you can lose something you never had...
Well, one could say the UK had a moral compass for a split second there. You went from dark ages, to brutal colonialism, to pretentious and pretend moral compass, to whatever this is. The British have always just looked away when there was money to be made.
The UK is the home of liberalism, they took religion really seriously prior to this. Interesting how you started with the dark ages rather than the brutal Roman Empire, or the brutal Scandinavian invasions, or the brutal Norman invasions. Honestly, can you name me a single global power that has a consistent moral compass? Literally just one. I can portray any country as bad if I want to. Besides San Marino. They are literally just a little church.
@@XXXTENTAClON227 I always say same to people who saing that Russia always was bad, pretending all other countries, especially Western ones are just angels )) I just recently found that black slaves were sold in Africa by African countries, so they usually were enslaved their own local people and then sold. Vikings also were selling slaves. So many countries did that.
Margaret Hodge could have denounced these financial crimes 24/7 for the last few decades plus! People in other countries do suffer because of these despots,dictators who are supported by Britain,France and the US!!!
If you look on KZhead, you will see that she has been doing so in her job an MP, for years. But she's only 1 voice, and the Conservatives major donors come from the City of London. Realpolitik.
@@BigHenFor Yep, including 'cash for peerage' offers too.
By definition it is impossible to know if London is the capital rather than Hong Kong, Panama, Tel Aviv, New York, Beijing, Wilmington, Geneva..... a multitude of candidates. Most of them, paradoxically, in strong jurisdictions with solid property laws.
Great quality video Excellent for my A level economics students - so depresssing - makes me feel ashamed
It's good that steps are being taken to crack down on this corrupt money laundering, but the idea that this has anything whatsoever to do with the conflict in Ukraine is completely ridiculous. The two things are completely unrelated. The only relationship between them is that this conflict has prompted the UK government to start taking steps that it should have been taking many years ago for countless other reasons.
This is the most sane answer here. You're absolutely right.
The original calculation was having these oligarchs vested in the custodian of their wealth would prevent them from taking risky ventures like engaging in unprovoked war . But that assessment did not go down well. But then these assets can be frozen and auctioned off if they can stand legally , and the money so obtained can be used to finance a loan for Ukraine to purchase arms. So not all is lost
Yes, you absolutely right. This has nothing to do with the war in Ukraine, in fact, this material has only appeared on air to further discredit Russia. At the beginning of the program they talk about Soviet Union corruption, but then the focus is only on Russia? Really? What happened to the rest 15 republics? Including Ukraine! Which is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Somehow they forgot to mention Zelensky’s property portfolio in London, not to mention all the Ukrainian oligarchs with the same volume of assets. And they are talking about fighting for democracy? What a load of one sided rubbish.
to me it seemed like the video was also trying to make this point.
Yes so keep training Ukrainian troops and sending aid to Bandarites LOL. its worked GREAT so far.
Yes focus on Russian links to dirty money in London but American and here at home dwarfs any of that , its far far worse. And nothing will be done about that.
Truth✔
Saudi Arabia owns most residential property in and around London
WOW! Good job 👊.
Very informative piece.
Please do an expose on Switzerland and dirty money.
I support the current thing
Do an expose on yo mamma and her dirty money
Yes the neutral country🇨🇭and home to the BIS and the most corrupt banksters in the world.
NO! I won't have it Switzerland is perfect!!!!
It won't
The same thing is happening in Vancouver, Canada. Vancouver, like London, has become a money laundering capital, but the dirty money here comes from China, not Russia. In some sense, it is more insidious here because much of the money comes from fentanyl which is brought in from Mainland China, sold to young people and then this drug money is laundered through government run casinos. The drug money is then legitimized through real estate purchases. Everything you described in this video is happening in Vancouver, but with kleptocratic Chinese. Lawyers, accountants, and real estate agents are profiting.
Be wary though that all the money you state as chinese only arrives to canada by passing through london offshores ..... London owns china since the two great Opium Wars
Exactly, Toronto also.
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@@interesting7215 3 at this stage with this one 4 ... If its mine it's because my comment about london offshores got censored (which would not surprise me tbf)
Lookup the fentynl production. The majority of production and profits sre sourced to Mexico
Does anyone know the name of the track being played in the intro?
This is happening in australia too. golden visa for the chinese.
As I'm a fan of the B1M channel on YT and generally wonder about the occupancy of new construction, I gotta say the empty property aspect in London has been a thing of curiosity to me for sometime and that money is probably funding a lot of projects, but I'd imagine if they start to look deep, they're going to find a lot of personnel and/or agencies benefitting from all that dirty money is far more widespread than initially suspected.
I’d love to know what actual occupancy rates are in, say, Kensington and Chelsea. Having once rented a tiny granny flat as a student in one of the wealthiest parts of Westminster, I suspect it’s less than 20%.
Oh yes..
You shouldn't be a fan of B1M, it's an advertising channel for projects and often shilling for various advertisers.
Vacant land is what Money laundering is😂
First they accept the money, then they say “it might have been a mistake”, and then they freeze the money and the assets. Isn’t it called a robbery in itself?
No, because frozen assets are still owned by their owners. As far as I know assets can only be confiscated if the owners are actually convicted criminals. All of those oligarchs will have full use of their property once sanctions are lifted. That might take a long time though.
@@MrBlaxjax So you have just stolen it and just a long time to take it away? Still theft.
@@MrBlaxjax No. They can also keep the money or give back whatever they "think" is an equivalent. Once Pakistan bought billions of dollars worth of weaponry from the US, and before the weapons were delivered, the US froze the transaction while keeping the payment. The US refused to give back the money (or the weapons); instead offered Pakistan an equivalent amount of soybeans (which were surplus production in US, about to be discarded).
@@tonycodolo well no. It's not theft. The property is still yours. Sanctions do absolutely restrict your ability to do anything much with your assets. You can live in your property, but you can't sell it. As for businesses...as far as I can see they are basically toast. The business isn't taken from the owner, but as far as I know the business can't really trade. Sanctions might seem unreasonable but they are carried out through a legal process. It's not theft mainly because there is no beneficiary. No one gains anything. If an oligarch's yacht is sanctioned by the us government, the government gains nothing. The yacht remains in the ownership of the oligarch. But the yacht cannot be sold and its movement would be restricted.
@@KatariaGujjar I'm mainly talking about sanctions placed on individual people. I don't really know that much about weapon sanctions between countries.
How dare Margaret Hodge talk about Moral Compass????? As offshore as they come....
So the UK has stopped giving Golden Visas (because of the Ukraine war). And now the UK economy is tanking more than other G7 countries.... any connection?
Man really just said "£50million a year....any self-respecting oligarch makes that in a week". Jesus Christ.
Did you know that Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky finances Zelesny, Hunter Biden (Burisma), and the Azov Nazi-batallion? And, don't you think that it's bit rich to call a Nazi-dominated kleptocracy like Ukraine a "democracy"?
Correction..."Any self respecting oligarch steals that in a week."
@PGH Engineer Nonsense.
These people chose to speak out during the Russia Ukraine conflict. Where were these experts twenty years ago when the dirty money start flowing into London? Unbelievable!
Yes, Russia is pushing back against open borders Globalisation and now must be destroyed.
Your comment is most probably unjust, you may have noticed one of the contributors won a costly legal case against an oligarch. Patricia Hodge talked about persuading Cameron to act back in 2015. Did you watch the video?
Weak comment. Think about what your saying
Many of them were making profits from the ancillary parts of the inflow. Some were involved in preventing scrutiny or regulatory oversight of the phenomenon, as it was "part of doing business". Only now does it become a scramble to point fingers elsewhere.
@@kbram7363 weak attempt at deflection.
Good documentory. Will things ever change?
"The UK lost its moral compass." Didn't know you could use something you never had.
We’re not ready to talk about China though! 😂 They’ll have to invade Taiwan before we even consider their money “dirty”
in Solomon island too
Amen! China is now the Super, Super Power. Tentacles in much of the UK's major infrastructures! Much more so than Russia & 30% plus of world production! I mean look at their Human Rights record & yet the Olympics were held there? We need to open our eyes!
I love how these people call others kleptocrats, while living off stolen money.
😁
Pa fact
These so called journalist prostitutes don't have that much brains to figure out that they are benefiting from the same system they criticize like some wannabe smartasses. They should try to live the same freedom in Putin's russia and pretty soon they will be falling off their balconies! And its pretty rich all this coming out of FT - a newspaper whose editors know very well what system they are part of, that this whole video comes off as sham propaganda gimmick. If it weren't for all these services London offers, the problem is there are enough other similar hubs worldwide that offer the similar services and will take that money supply away - like Panama City , Geneva, Macau, Cyprus, Luxembourg etc .
Spot on
Define "These people" and whose money was "stolen"?
Thanks,
This is why Brexit was. For being unregulated and uncontrolled by EU authority. And being a private laundromat of Russian Oligarchs!!! A big hurray and claps for B. Johnson, N. Farage and others. Well done dudes. It was a nice job for UK.
Wow, real journalism by real journalists. Haven’t seen you for a long time. Thank you so much.
All of these issues have been called out by Private Eye for many years. Whilst the FT taking up the cudgels is to be applauded, any claim to leading or pioneering the cause would be disingenuous. It remains to be seen how the political and commercial chains will be loosened and if the parasitic services provided by professional and financial providers in London and other UK territories will ever be subjected to the criminal inspection and processes of law they so patently should be.
What a superb 20 minute piece. FT and Transparency International have done a class job here.
Excellent documentary
I would like to congratulate the FT on making this film. There is nothing new or original in the film, others have made films saying the same thing for decades now. But FT is part of the establishment, and it took courage for them to make this film.
Imagine having to treat the press like a toddler.
If you read the FT regularly you would know that the FT have always been reporting on this issue and always had a number of journalists who pointed out Londons Dirty Money. They have journalists who are on all sides of most debates. Thats what makes it a great paper.
courage, bollocks, they haven't told you 1/10 of the story, this is crap
"establishment"? Which government organization you think FT is a part of?
Not courage. Story well known and reported in FT over decades. FT is more about open, honest free trade for all - open capitalism, if you will. It sees ultra-rich deep power manipulation as toxic for wider wealth generation. I recently bought a board game, Anti-Monopoly, it is not the original Landlords Game. It poses two forms of capitalism: monopolistic wipe out all others and a scenario where traders have their ups and downs but nobody can achieve sole existence. FT is not, and never has been about hyper-money-power. But it has been naïve about how inadequate checks and balances have become in a 'let the market do its own monitoring' model
You should absolutely do a special on Canada. As other comments name Vancouver and Toronto, it is country wide. The real estate and legal weed industry now the biggest siphon of illegal money in Canada as well as lack of investment rules, it's been a criminal tax haven and money laundering country for decades. The organized Chinese crime family's have massive control of Canada (easy to suspect the people's party of China definitely helps support these crime families or are part of it. All government connected.) after the topple of the Montreal construction industry (Italian mafia had 100% control in the city before raids).
Shocking
Keep this up, I might have to start trusting a news paper a little.
What a fantastically put together documentary. 10/10
It doesn't seem to be touching the new hero of the west, does it? According to the Forbes 2022 report, within three years of being "elected" Zelensky has become the eighth richest politician *On the planet*. He has shares in Amazon, in Tesla, in Microsoft, In Alpha, and many other first-class companies. He earns more than 113 million dollars per month. He owns three private jets, five yachts and fifteen properties. Meanwhile the West confiscates the private property of russian businessmen, with their crime being that... they are russians.
Correctamundo 💯
We recieved your CV yesterday. Will be in touch soon.
@@coachking5208 Yes-sir-ee! I was looking for a ‘how to’ guide (if I were an oligarch!)
It is high-quality propaganda, yes. There is a financial lockdown coming, and most people will welcome it.
*No worries dear Oligarchs, you always have Asia.* *Singapore, UAE, Macau, Hong Kong, and a lot more 😂😂😂*
“We in the west decided we would march into Russia… and remake the collapsing, communist empire in our image. We weren’t remaking the former Soviet empire in our image, the new kleptocratic order was remaking us in their image.” A profound insight.
That explains a lot!
If you want to learn more (including how we got here and how much worse it is than this piece shows), there is an excellent 2011 book by Nicholas Shaxson "Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men who Stole the World". This is a feature of the CIty, not a bug. It was intended to be this way.
Thanks for your recommendation.. also 'How Europe underdeveloped Africa' gives a great insight.
Thousands of golden visas were also sold in Cyprus and Malta