The British government suspects that Russian citizens took advantage of improper checks on the company register in an attempt to launder profits from

the war

in Ukraine.

This is reported by Bloobmerg.

According to the investigation, citizens of the Russian Federation took advantage of weak checks of the company register in an attempt to launder illegal profits.

In particular, British law enforcement officers discovered a large number of fictitious companies registered in Great Britain by citizens of a number of countries in recent years, probably for the purpose of money laundering or tax evasion.

Hundreds of these firms have Russians listed as managers, and some Russian-controlled companies are now trying to use the war in Ukraine for financial gain.

One of the companies identified by British authorities is registered with an office address in London and is listed in shipping registers as the owner of a grain vessel.

This vessel is suspected of illegally transporting grain from Ukraine and violating international sanctions, anonymous officials said.

The company has three current and former officers registered with Companies House, the British company registry, who are citizens of the Russian Federation and have indicated home addresses in Russia.

Neither they nor the company carry on any significant business in London.

Several other companies with no apparent British operations were registered at the same London address by other Russian nationals, the documents said.

One of them is an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, whose home address in Companies House is listed as an apartment in the center of Moscow.

It has been established that Russians use accounts either in British digital banks or foreign leaders to launder money.

An anonymous source familiar with UK law enforcement investigations into money laundering said criminals use British companies to transfer large sums of money into the country and store them for several years.

They then either withdraw the money before they have to file a return with Companies House, or file false returns that do not reveal the true assets of the company.

The government says the UK has one of the toughest money laundering controls in the world.

The new law will help crack down on thousands of UK-registered companies used to facilitate money laundering, fraud, terrorist financing and the illegal purchase of arms.

It will be recalled that the US Treasury Department announced that it applied "one of the most significant sanctions" to suppress those who help Moscow in the

war

against Ukraine.

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