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| Ibid.; Barnett, The Kremlin’s Trojan Horses Russian Influence in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, at 18. 655 Alastair Sloan & Iain Campbell, How Did Arron Banks Afford Brexit?’’ Open Democracy UK, Oct. 19, 2017; Holly Watt, Electoral Commission to Investigate Arron Banks Brexit Donations The Guardian, Nov. 1, 2017. Barnett, The Kremlin’s Trojan Horses Russian Influence in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, at 18. 657 Ibid. at 20-23. 658 Deutsche Bank Markets Research, Dark Matter The Hidden Capital Flows that Drive G- 10 Exchange Rates Mar. 2015. Robert Booth, UK Properties Held by Offshore Firms Used in Global Corruption, Say Police The Guardian, Mar. 3, 2015. Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, The Russian Laundromat, Aug. 22, 2014; Luke Harding et al., British Banks Handled Vast Sums of Laundered Russian Money The Guardian, Mar. 20, 2017. though foreign donors are not considered permissible donors under UK law. 653 However, the beneficial owners of non-British companies that are incorporated in the EU and carryout business in the UK are immaterial under the law this opacity may have enabled Russian-related money to be directed with insufficient scrutiny to various UK political actors. 654 Investigative journalists have also raised questions about the sources of sudden and possibly illicit wealth that may have been directed to support the Brexit Leave campaign the UK Electoral Commission has subsequently begun to investigate. 655 Meanwhile, experts have pointed to the role of the far-right UK Independence Party (UKIP) and its leader, Nigel Farage, in fanning anti-EU sentiment, criticism of the European sanctions on Russia, and flattering assessments of Russian President Putin as well as far left wing views as conducive to alignment with Russia’s anti-EU and NATO-skeptic positions. 656 More broadly, there are concerns about vulnerabilities to Russian government influence on various UK actors, including political parties, civil society, and think-tanks, through extensive Russian financial ties and possibly illicit financial activity. 657 While unrecorded inflows of cash may not necessarily be illicit, market research done in 2015 by Deutsche Bank confirmed through balance of payments data the popular belief that Russian money has flooded into the UK in recent years particularly into the real estate market, and that a considerable chunk of unrecorded inflows into the country are the result of Russian capital flight. 658 In March 2015, UK Metropolitan Police noted that a total value of 180 million British pounds in properties in the UK had been put under investigation as possibly purchased with corrupt proceeds by secretive offshore companies, in arrangements akin to putting money in a Swiss bank according to one investigator. 659 Documents gathered and released to numerous media outlets in March 2017 by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta detailed a global laundromat scheme involving an estimated 500 Russian oligarchs, bankers, or individuals with connections to the FSB who moved at least $20 billion in stolen or illicit money out of Russia from The documents showed that British banks processed nearly $740 million of this allegedly laundered money, drawing questions about the lack of scrutiny applied to suspicious money transfers and the anonym- VerDate Mar 15 2010 04:06 Jan 09, 2018 Jkt PO 00000 Frm 00123 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6601 S:\FULL COMMITTEE\HEARING FILES\COMMITTEE PRINT 2018\HENRY\JAN. 9 REPORT FOREI-42327 with DISTILLER 118 Luke Harding et al., British Banks Handled Vast Sums of Laundered Russian Money The Guardian, Mar. 20, 2017. Richard Kerbaj, Russia Steps Up Cyber-Attacks on UK The Times, Feb. 12, 2017. 663 Pierluigi Paganini, ‘‘Britain’s Security Has Been Threatened by 188 Major Cyber Attacks in the Last Three Months, According to the Head of the National Cyber Security Centre Secu- Download 0.63 Mb. Share with your friends:
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