Asset Tracing in the UK: Impact of Public Registers of Ownership and New Unexplained Wealth Orders -
Background -
The UK government has made a number of recent moves that have major implications for individuals and entities that hold assets in the UK. In March 2018, the government announced plans to establish the world’s first public register of beneficial ownership of non-UK companies that own or buy property in the UK. The government then confirmed, in May 2018, that it also intends to require British Overseas Territories to make their company ownership information currently private public. These upcoming public registers indicate a clear move toward the public outing of beneficial owners, first promised by former Prime Minister, David Cameron, at his anti-corruption summit in 2016, and will undoubtedly bolster the Unexplained Wealth Order (“UWO”) regime introduced in January 2018. Under this regime, law enforcement agencies can apply to the High Court for UWOs to force respondents, located anywhere in the world, to explain how they paid for the asset in question, including property they own in the UK or elsewhere.
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