Pandora Papers

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58792393

 

Pandora Papers: The secret owners of UK property worth billions

By Pandora Papers reporting team
BBC Panorama

Published

3 hours ago

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The secret owners of more than 1,500 UK properties bought using offshore firms have been uncovered by a BBC investigation.

The details are featured in the Pandora Papers leak of offshore financial documents and list property with an estimated value in excess of £4bn.

The owners include high-profile foreign politicians, individuals accused of corruption and UK political donors.

Ministers say they will bring in a new law when they have parliamentary time.

Successive Conservative governments have pledged to introduce legislation making it compulsory to name those owning property via foreign companies in a bid to stamp out money-laundering.

Among the revelations:

• The wife of retail magnate Sir Philip Green went on a buying spree of London property while the couple's recently sold High Street empire teetered on the verge of collapse
• The Qatari ruling family purchased two of London's most expensive homes through offshore companies, saving millions of pounds in tax
• Ukrainian billionaire Gennadiy Bogolyubov, who is under investigation by the FBI and had hundreds of millions in assets frozen in a fraud case, owns more than £400m of UK property
• A £40m London office block is owned by the son of sanctioned Russian oligarch Mikhail Gutseriev

The BBC worked with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the Guardian, Finance Uncovered and other media outlets to identify in the leaked files the individuals behind overseas companies that owned property in England and Wales.

• A simple guide to the Pandora Papers leak
• Your guide to nine years of finance leaks
• World leaders deny wrongdoing after Pandora leaks

Owning real estate through an offshore firm is legal, and there is no suggestion of wrongdoing in simply using a foreign company to purchase property.

However, the UK government recently raised its own assessment of the money laundering risk for the property market from "medium" to "high".

The greatest level of risk is where there are "difficulties in determining the ultimate beneficial owners", according to a Home Office report in December 2020.

It comes as a number of world leaders - including the King of Jordan and the ruling family of Azerbaijan - have featured in the Pandora Papers leak after buying property in the UK using offshore companies.

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58780559

Pandora Papers: Blairs saved £312,000 stamp duty in property deal

By Pandora Papers reporting team
BBC Panorama

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1 day ago

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Tony and Cherie Blair did not have to pay £312,000 in stamp duty when buying a £6.45m London townhouse, leaked documents show.

The ex-Labour prime minister and his barrister wife bought the property as an office for her business in 2017 by buying the offshore firm that owned it.

Mrs Blair said the sellers had insisted the building was sold in this way but they had brought it under UK control.

She said they would be liable to pay capital gains tax if they sell it.

When the property was put up for sale, the ultimate owners were a family with political connections in Bahrain - but both parties say they did not initially know who they were dealing with.

Mrs Blair said her husband's only involvement in the transaction was that the mortgage for the property used their joint income and capital.

The revelation is contained in the Pandora Papers, a leak detailing the work of companies offering offshore financial services in the British Virgin Islands, Singapore, Panama, Belize, Switzerland and other countries.

BBC Panorama in a joint investigation with the Guardian and other media partners have had access to nearly 12 million documents and files.

• King of Jordan amassed £70m secret UK-US property empire
• A simple guide to the Pandora Papers leak
• Your guide to nine years of finance leaks

Since leaving Downing Street in 2007, the Blairs have built up a significant property portfolio. Altogether they are reported to have spent more than £30m on 38 residential properties before they bought the office.

Documents show how the way the property in Harcourt Street, Marylebone, was acquired in July 2017 saved the Blairs a bill for stamp duty.

The four-floor building is now home to Mrs Blair's legal advisory firm, Omnia Strategy, and her foundation for women.

The previous owner of Harcourt Street is listed in UK Land Registry records as Romanstone International Limited - a British Virgin Islands firm.

Romanstone itself had been owned by another BVI company, whose shareholders were members of the Al Zayani family. Among them was a minister in Bahrain's government - Zayed Rashid Al Zayani, Bahrain's minister for industry, commerce and tourism.

The leaked documents show the Blairs bought the building by setting up a UK company to acquire Romanstone. Mr and Mrs Blair each held a 50% stake in the British company. They closed the offshore company after the purchase.

Buying the property in this way meant the Blairs did not have to pay stamp duty.

Stamp duty is paid by the purchasers of a property or land over a certain price.

The tax is not paid when a company owning a property is acquired because the shareholder of a company is switching hands, rather than the actual ownership of the property.

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES

Image caption,Tony and Cherie Blair bought the four-floor building in 2017

No laws were broken in buying the Harcourt Street office but Mr Blair had previously been critical of tax loopholes, once saying "the tax system is a haven of scams, perks, City deals and profits".

In his first speech as Labour leader in 1994, Mr Blair said: "Millionaires with the right accountant pay nothing while pensioners pay VAT on fuel.

"Offshore trusts get tax relief while homeowners pay VAT on insurance premiums. We will create a tax system that is fair which is related to ability to pay."

Robert Palmer from campaign group Tax Justice UK told Panorama: "It partly doesn't look great because most people cannot do the same thing… even if what the Blairs did was perfectly legal, perfectly legitimate in the business world, it feels instinctively really unfair because they got access to an advantage, a potential advantage that the rest of us don't have."

Mrs Blair stressed that Harcourt Ventures had been formed to bring Romanstone and its building under UK tax and regulatory rules.

She said: "It is not unusual for a commercial office building to be held in a corporate vehicle or for vendors of such property not to want to dispose of the property separately."

The Blairs said "the acquisition of a company comes with different tax consequences" and they "will of course be liable for capital gains tax on resale".

Lawyers for the Al Zayani family say their companies have complied with all UK laws past and present.

The Pandora Papers is a leak of almost 12 million documents and files exposing the secret wealth and dealings of world leaders, politicians and billionaires. The data was obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in Washington DC and has led to one of the biggest ever global investigations. More than 600 journalists from 117 countries have looked at the hidden fortunes of some of the most powerful people on the planet. BBC Panorama and the Guardian have led the investigation in the UK.

Pandora Papers coverage: follow reaction on Twitter using #PandoraPapers, in the BBC News app, or watch Panorama on the BBC iPlayer (UK viewers only)

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https://indianexpress.com/article/world/pandora-papers-jordan-king-abdullah-us-uk-luxury-homes-7550079/

Pandora Papers: While foreign aid poured in, Jordan’s King Abdullah funnelled $100m through secret companies to buy luxury US, UK homes

Wealth advisers in Switzerland and the Caribbean sought to protect the identity of a client they referred to as “you know who,” leaked files show.

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Updated: October 3, 2021 11:22:00 pm

King Abdullah II, has secretly owned 14 luxury homes in the United Kingdom and the United States, purchased between 2003 and 2017 through front companies registered in tax havens.

By Will Fitzgibbon

Jordanian protesters took to the streets – again – demanding an end to corruption and poverty in the aid-dependent Middle Eastern monarchy. Masked police broke up the demonstrations and jailed critics of the country’s leaders.

Still, the people chanted for change.

Finally, in a bid to defuse the crisis, Jordanian authorities in June 2020 trumpeted a crackdown on hidden wealth, designed to help stanch the flow of an estimated $800 million a year out of the country.

Then-Prime Minister Omar al-Razzaz said the crackdown was especially needed to respond to COVID-19’s impact on the state’s finances. Jordan would track every last dinar that citizens had hidden in tax havens, the prime minister said; No offshore wealth was beyond scrutiny.
None, it seems, except the king’s.

A trove of leaked documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists shows that the country’s long-ruling monarch, King Abdullah II, has secretly owned 14 luxury homes in the United Kingdom and the United States, purchased between 2003 and 2017 through front companies registered in tax havens. Their value totals more than $106 million.

Explained |Explained: What are the Pandora Papers, and why do they matter?

The homes include a house in Ascot, one of England’s most expensive towns; multimillion-dollar apartments in central London and three luxury apartments in a complex in Washington, D.C., with panoramic views of the Potomac River.

Also included are three adjoining beachfront homes under reconstruction at Point Dume, a posh enclave near Los Angeles. One, a seven-bedroom mansion on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, was bought in 2014 through one of the king’s shell companies, Nabisco Holdings (no connection to the cookie company), for $33.5 million.

Read |Pandora Papers: PM Imran Khan promised ‘new Pakistan’ but members of his inner circle secretly moved millions offshore

Advisers to the 59-year-old monarch, who awards an annual prize for transparency in his name, spared no effort to conceal his real estate holdings, the records show. Accountants and lawyers in Switzerland and the British Virgin Islands formed shell companies on the king’s behalf and concocted plans to shield his name from public and even confidential government registries.

On two documents, BVI corporate administrators at the firm Alemán, Cordero, Galindo & Lee, better known as Alcogal, checked boxes to declare that no one connected to one of the king’s companies was involved in politics – even though the king has the power to appoint governments, dissolve Parliament and approve legislation.

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Writing to ICIJ on the king’s behalf, attorneys denied anything improper about owning homes through offshore companies. The king is not required to pay taxes under Jordanian law, the attorneys said.

Experts familiar with the region say the timing of the purchases, if made public, would likely have alienated many Jordanians and the tribal leaders who help keep Abdullah in power. Most of the U.S. and U.K. real estate deals – and six of those for more than $5 million – took place since 2011, after Arab Spring protests that toppled governments in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia and posed the first serious threat to the Jordanian monarchy in generations.

 Pandora Papers: how much did the King of Jordan spend on property purchases in the Pandora Papers? (Source: icij.org)

Jordan is one of the poorest countries in the region. It has almost no oil of its own and precious little water. The kingdom depends on foreign aid to support its own people and to house and care for millions of refugees. Last year alone, the United States gave Jordan more than $1.5 billion in aid and military funding, and the European Union agreed to provide the kingdom with more than $218 million to soften the blow of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read |Pandora Papers: Putin image-maker’s role in billion-dollar cinema deal hidden offshore

“Jordan doesn’t have the kind of money that other Middle Eastern monarchies, like Saudi Arabia, have to allow a king to flaunt his wealth,” Dr. Annelle Sheline, an expert on religious and political authority in the Middle East, said in an interview with ICIJ. Sheline, a research fellow with the Quincy Institute in Washington, D.C., added, “If the Jordanian monarch were to display his wealth more publicly, it wouldn’t only antagonize his people, it would piss off Western donors who have given him money.”

Experts say Abdullah, whose subjects mock the way he speaks Arabic with an English accent, has little room for error.

This year, Jordanian police detained 16 people, including a member of the royal family, over an alleged plot to oust Abdullah. Prince Hamzah, the king’s younger half brother, was temporarily placed under house arrest for his alleged role in the coup attempt. In a furtive video issued after a visit from the country’s intelligence services, Hamzah denied being part of any conspiracy.

Read |After Panama, it’s Pandora: facing regulatory heat, elite Indians find new ways to ringfence wealth in secret havens

“I am not the person responsible for the breakdown in governance, for the corruption and for the incompetence that has been prevalent in our governing structure for the last 15 to 20 years and has been getting worse by the year,” Prince Hamzah said. “A ruling system has decided that its personal interests, that its financial interests, that its corruption is more important than the lives and dignity and futures of the 10 million people that live here.”

Jordanian officials accused Hamzah of a conspiracy that threatened national security. Hamzah did not accuse Abdullah of wrongdoing.

U.K. attorneys for the king said Abdullah has crucial legitimate security and privacy reasons for holding property in offshore corporations that have nothing to do with tax evasion or any other improper purpose. The king has never misused public monies or foreign aid, the attorneys wrote, adding Abdullah’s wealth comes from personal sources. Abdullah cares deeply for Jordan and its people and acts with integrity and in the best interests of his country and its citizens at all times, the attorneys said.

The attorneys said that most of the offshore companies either no longer exist or are not related to the king and that some of the properties identified by ICIJ as belonging to him did not. Attorneys declined to explain what the king considers inaccurate due to alleged privacy and security concerns for him and his family.

 

[MisterrSingh]

Mainstream media pulls stunts like these every few years when the people begin to question things; to keep the masses believing that the system isn't bent. These public people the media supposedly expose in these investigations are, ultimately, in the big picture scheme of things, nobodies; just normal personalities like us who - unlike us - have got to the pinnacle of their respective social and professional ladders. The actual pilferers of billions and trillions will remain anonymous, unnamed, and unaccountable. Even these clowns won't see the inside of a court room. In a way these are public exercises in demoralisation for those who appreciate the implications of them to make us realise how powerless the average person actually is.

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3 hours ago, MisterrSingh said:

Mainstream media pulls stunts like these every few years when the people begin to question things; to keep the masses believing that the system isn't bent. These public people the media supposedly expose in these investigations are, ultimately, in the big picture scheme of things, nobodies; just normal personalities like us who - unlike us - have got to the pinnacle of their respective social and professional ladders. The actual pilferers of billions and trillions will remain anonymous, unnamed, and unaccountable. Even these clowns won't see the inside of a court room. In a way these are public exercises in demoralisation for those who appreciate the implications of them to make us realise how powerless the average person actually is.

Who are the bolded people , can you give one example, or is that just beyond public knowledge completely ?

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-58796553

Pandora Papers: Qatar ruling family avoided £18.5m tax on London super-mansion

By Ahmed ElShamy & Emir Nader
BBC News Arabic

Published

10 hours ago

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The Qatar ruling family bought two of the UK's most expensive houses in a deal that allowed them to avoid £18.5m in stamp duty, leaked documents show.

The family bought the properties in central London via offshore companies for over £120m and applied to make them into a 17-bedroom "super-mansion".

There is no suggestion that either the Qatari family or the sellers of the two properties acted illegally.

The Qatari government did not respond to questions about the BBC's findings.

The freehold of the properties is owned by the Crown Estate, the Queen's property empire that is managed by the Treasury and raises cash for the UK. It said "given the issues raised" it was now looking into the matter.

The leaked documents were part of the Pandora Papers. More than 600 journalists including BBC News Arabic have been trawling through the files from 14 sources for months.

• A simple guide to the Pandora Papers leak
• Secret owners hold UK property worth billions

In 2013, the British media reported Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser, wife of the then-Emir of Qatar, bought 1 Cornwall Terrace in London for £80m, making it the most expensive terraced property ever to be sold in the UK. Neighbouring 2-3 Cornwall Terrace was purchased for £40m.

Cornwall Terrace is believed to be the most expensive row of houses anywhere in the world. Facing Regent's Park, they were designed and built in the early 1800s by the renowned Georgian architects, James and Decimus Burton and John Nash, who also designed the park.

Following the purchases, the ruling family then attempted in 2015 to knock both properties into a single "super-mansion", with 17 bedrooms, 14 lounges, a cinema, a juice bar and a swimming pool.

• How world is reporting leaks on powerful leaders
• World leaders deny wrongdoing after Pandora leaks

Their application was rejected by Westminster council on the basis of a lack of residential housing in the borough, but a second application in 2020 appears to have been granted.

However, the new leaked documents reveal the properties were purchased via shell companies based in offshore tax havens and, by doing so, the ruling family avoided an estimated £18.5m Stamp Duty Land Tax when the leaseholds changed hands.

The documents show the ruling family registered a new offshore company called Golden Satalite to purchase 1 Cornwall Terrace, rather than in the name of a member of the family. As the property was already owned by a shell company, the family purchased the shares of this company and acquired the property as if it was an asset.

The Crown Estate last sold the leasehold for 1 Cornwall Terrace in 2005 for £21m. The house was subsequently sold on through an offshore company for £84m. This meant that unlike a normal house sale, neither HMRC nor the Crown Estate received any revenue or even notification of the sale.

Similarly, number 2-3 Cornwall Terrace was acquired through the purchase of a shell company created to own the leasehold.

Both shell companies are owned by Tharb, set up in Qatar and ultimately owned by the private office of the country's ruler, the Emir, Tamim Al Thani.

If the properties themselves had been purchased using the name of an individual from the Qatari royal family, it could have triggered stamp duty. Changes in UK tax law mean the properties would also now be liable to a 40% inheritance tax.

These property-owning shell companies are known as "special purpose vehicles" (SPVs) and are commonly used in tax avoidance.

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES

Image caption,Former Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and his wife Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser have attended many events with the Queen

Using company structures that fall outside of stamp duty in this manner is often a contentious issue. The HMRC says it cannot comment on identifiable taxpayers but that tax avoidance goes against "the spirit of the law".

Jonathan Benton, a former senior detective and an expert in international finance, said SPVs are frequently being used to purchase high-value properties in the UK.

"If property tax is avoided it is unfair. This type of action also contributes to the veil of secrecy offshore companies provide, and flies in the face of the broader global push for greater transparency."

Property tax experts point out there have been changes to tax laws which make it less attractive for overseas buyers to use offshore companies as they now have to pay capital gains tax and inheritance tax, as well as a tax that applies to companies that own properties.

Further analysis of the Pandora Papers by the BBC reveals there are numerous other property assets owned by the Qatar royal family in the UK through offshore companies, with an estimated value of over £650m, though it is unclear whether these purchases involved tax avoidance.

The ruling family of Qatar

Tap to see the UK property portfolio of Qatar’s ruling Al-Thani family revealed in the Pandora Papers

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The family secretly own over 20 properties in London via offshore companies, estimated to be worth over £650m in total

Through a network of offshore companies, the Emir of Qatar acquired this property near Regents Park in London. Bought in 2013 for £80m, it was the most expensive terraced house ever sold in the UK

He also bought a neighbouring property for £40 million, in what is believed to be one of the most expensive rows of houses anywhere in the world

The ruling family secretly own a number of high value commercial properties throughout central London, including this one bought for £137m

This one was bought for £110m

This one, right in the centre of London, was purchased for £127m

 

 

The UK government has made repeated pledges to introduce legislation making it compulsory to name those owning real estate via foreign companies in a bid to stamp out money-laundering.

A spokesman for the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: "These are novel measures, and it is essential that the register strikes the right balance between improving transparency and minimising burdens on legitimate commercial activity and the government will legislate when Parliamentary time allows."

Additional reporting by Sam Piranty

The Pandora Papers is a leak of almost 12 million documents and files exposing the secret wealth and dealings of world leaders, politicians and billionaires. The data was obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in Washington DC and has led to one of the biggest ever global investigations. More than 600 journalists from 117 countries have looked at the hidden fortunes of some of the most powerful people on the planet. BBC Panorama and the Guardian have led the investigation in the UK.

Pandora Papers coverage: follow reaction on Twitter using #PandoraPapers, in the BBC News app, or watch Panorama on the BBC iPlayer (UK viewers only).

[MisterrSingh]

6 minutes ago, Premi5 said:

Who are the bolded people , can you give one example, or is that just beyond public knowledge completely ?

Probably the old ruling bloodlines. Old European royalty (and their descendants who moved around the world) who traded their power and their influence to the international bankers with the condition they weren't killed or made to lose their titles.

 

 

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58792393

 

The Greens

Sir Philip and Tina Green

Tap to see properties they bought as BHS and Arcadia hit trouble

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Sir Philip and Tina Green, former owners of BHS, Topshop, Miss Selfridge and more, spent millions on high-end London property while their companies ran into trouble

Shortly after BHS was sold for £1, the Greens bought a flat in this building in Mayfair for £4.95m

The following year they bought parts of the ground and first floor of this property in Mayfair for £15m

A flat in this building in Belgravia, worth £7m, was also bought by the Greens anonymously

And this building in Marylebone, owned offshore by the Greens, was the BHS headquarters. They sold it to their own company, Arcadia, for £53m in 2015

 

The wife of retail tycoon Sir Philip Green purchased multi-million-pound prime London real estate as BHS, the department store chain they had owned, headed for collapse.

Her identity as the buyer of properties in London was hidden because they were bought through anonymous companies based in the British Virgin Islands, a tax haven.

The purchases included a £15m apartment in Mayfair and a new home for their daughter near Buckingham Palace, bought for £10.6m in 2016.

The buying spree took place in the months after the Greens sold BHS for a token sum to a one-time bankrupt who had no retail experience. The chain collapsed, leading to the loss of 11,000 jobs and vacant sites in town centres.

The downfall also led to an outcry when it emerged the business had left a black hole of up to £571m in its pension fund.

Through their lawyers, both Sir Philip and Lady Green declined to answer detailed questions, suggesting that these were private matters.

Qatari Ruling Family

The ruling family of Qatar

Tap to see the UK property portfolio of Qatar’s ruling Al-Thani family revealed in the Pandora Papers

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The family secretly own over 20 properties in London via offshore companies, estimated to be worth over £650m in total

Through a network of offshore companies, the Emir of Qatar acquired this property near Regents Park in London. Bought in 2013 for £80m, it was the most expensive terraced house ever sold in the UK

He also bought a neighbouring property for £40 million, in what is believed to be one of the most expensive rows of houses anywhere in the world

The ruling family secretly own a number of high value commercial properties throughout central London, including this one bought for £137m

This one was bought for £110m

This one, right in the centre of London, was purchased for £127m

 

The Pandora Papers leak also reveals the property portfolio of the Qatari ruling family owned through another cross-border network of companies.

The royal Al-Thani family purchased two properties on one of the world's most expensive terraces, overlooking Regent's Park in London. They were bought through offshore companies, saving millions of pounds in tax.

BBC analysis found numerous other properties owned by members of the family through these structures, estimated to be worth over £650m.

The Qatari government did not respond to questions about the BBC's findings.

Gennadiy Bogolyubov

Gennadiy Bogolyubov

Tap to see his London property portfolio worth over £400m

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Bogolyubov is a Ukrainian oligarch under investigation by the FBI for alleged money laundering. Via offshore companies he owns multiple properties in the UK, which were frozen in a court case

This commercial building he owns in Trafalgar Square was valued at £275m. It now contains a Prezzo and a Waterstones

This property in London’s Belgravia, home to numerous foreign embassies, was valued at £62.5m in 2016

The property also contains two addresses down this mews

He also owns a large block of offices in Knightsbridge valued at £75m near Hyde Park

 

Gennadiy Bogolyubov is a Ukrainian billionaire who is under investigation by the FBI for money laundering.

He and his business partner are accused of defrauding the bank they founded of more than £1bn.

Court documents included in the Pandora Papers reveal him to be the ultimate owner of a collection of UK properties likely to be worth over £400m, including a building on Trafalgar Square.

They are held via a network of companies, some offshore, that hide the identity of the owners.

Mr Bogolyubov is the co-founder of PrivatBank, Ukraine's largest lender.

The bank was nationalised in 2016 after regulators found a $5.5bn hole in its balance sheets.

PrivatBank has been pursuing Mr Bogolyubov and his business partner Igor Kolomoisky through court action in England and the US, trying to reclaim more than $3bn relating to the money lost during their leadership.

In 2020 the US Department of Justice sought to seize commercial properties in Texas, Ohio and Kentucky from the pair, suspecting that they were "acquired using funds misappropriated from Privatbank". The court cases are ongoing.

Mr Bogolyubov's assets are currently subject to a worldwide freeze, secured in court by PrivatBank in 2017.

In 2016 he decided to leave the country and settle in Switzerland, partly for "tax reasons".

Lawyers for Mr Bogolyubov declined to comment as legal action is ongoing.

Mikhail Gutseriev

Mikhail Gutseriev is a Russian oligarch who was sanctioned by the UK in August for his close relationship with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko. The Pandora Papers reveal that his son owns a multi-million pound office block through a secret offshore company, purchased for more than £40m.

Mr Gutseriev is the founder of Safmar Group, a Russian conglomerate with interests in oil, coal, property and retail.

Following the crackdown on human rights and democracy in Belarus in 2020, the UK and EU have recently brought in sanctions against President Lukashenko, along with Mr Gutseriev and other close associates.

The British government has accused the Belarusian regime of continuing to "crush democracy and violate human rights".

It described Mr Gutseriev as "a prominent Russian businessman who is one of the main private investors in Belarus and a longstanding associate of Alexander Lukashenko". It added that he had "provided support for the government of Belarus, including through use of his business interests".

Mr Gutseriev is no longer involved in Safmar, which is now part-owned by his son, Said, a British citizen.

Said Gutseriev's representatives told the BBC he did not have "any business links with his father".His lavish wedding made headlines in 2016 - it featured performances by Jennifer Lopez and Enrique Iglesias and was reported to have cost $1bn.

What is the UK government doing?

Plans for a register of foreign companies owning UK property were first announced in 2016 by then Prime Minister David Cameron, so that "corrupt individuals and countries will no longer be able to move, launder and hide illicit funds through London's property market, and will not benefit from our public funds".

Draft legislation was published two years later and "progress" on changing the law was promised in the 2019 Queen's Speech.

Earlier this year, following the G7 summit, the government reiterated its commitment to create a public register of overseas entities who own UK real estate.

However, the law has still not been introduced to Parliament and was not listed as one of the government's legislative priorities at this year's Queen's Speech.

Labour MP Margaret Hodge told the BBC that when in government David Cameron and his Chancellor George Osborne "promised us that they would create a public register of beneficial ownership here in the UK... but we've been waiting since 2016 for that promise to be enacted".

She added: "It's ready, it's sitting there, it's not complicated... but it has yet to emerge... so it's a scandal that that's not happened."

The government says it is cracking down on money laundering with tougher laws and enforcement, and that it will introduce a register of offshore companies owning UK property when parliamentary time allows.

World leaders

UK properties owned offshore by foreign leaders

Tap to see the UK offshore properties of foreign heads of state

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The King of Jordan owns eight properties in London and south-east England, through offshore companies

These include multi-million pound properties near Buckingham Palace. He bought the building on the left and three flats in the building on the right

Azerbaijan’s ruling Aliyev family, long accused of corruption, were, with close associates, involved in property deals in the UK worth over £400m

This includes a £33m property in central London bought for the president’s 11-year-old son

Ukraine’s President Zelensky and close associates invested in offshore firms that purchased London property

These include two apartments near London's Regent's Park. In total, they cost £3.7m

The files show that the family of Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta secretly owned offshore companies for decades

One of these firms, set up by the president's mother and two sisters, bought a central London flat just a short walk from Westminster Abbey

 

The UK property holdings of the King of Jordan and the ruling family of Azerbaijan were exposed by BBC Panorama on Sunday.

Lawyers for King Abdullah said he used his personal wealth to buy the homes and there was nothing improper about him using offshore firms to do so.

Other revelations from the Pandora Papers highlight further links between foreign leaders and offshore ownership of UK property.

The family of Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta, which has dominated the country's politics since independence, secretly owned offshore companies for decades.

One of these firms bought an apartment in central London, according to Land Registry records.

The company was set up by Ngina Kenyatta, the president's mother, and her two daughters Kristina and Anna.

In 2018, Mr Kenyatta told the BBC Hardtalk programme that his family's wealth was known to the public, and as president he had declared his assets as required by law.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky participated in a network of offshore companies, co-owned with his long-time friends and TV business partners, the Guardian revealed on Sunday.

These firms held assets including apartments near London's Regent's Park.

A number of world leaders have released statements denying wrongdoing after featuring in the leak.

Tory donors

Closer to home, major political donors to the Conservatives have invested in properties through offshore companies.

Conservative donors

Tap to see the UK property owned by major Tory donors through offshore firms

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Lubov Chernukhin is one of the biggest female donors in British political history, but concerns have been raised about her political contributions

Lubov’s husband Vladimir is behind an offshore company that owns this home near London’s Regent's Park

Their country estate in Oxfordshire, bought for £10m, is held via an offshore firm

Mohammed Amersi is a prominent Tory donor, but documents reveal he was involved in one of Europe's biggest corruption scandals

As the controller of a series of offshore companies, he owned a grand 12-bedroom, 10-bathroom country house in the Cotswolds

He currently owns this property in London’s affluent Mayfair district

Victor Fedotov, a businessman whose companies backed 34 Conservative MPs, benefited from one of Russia’s largest fraud scandals, the Pandora Papers show

The evidence suggests money from that fraud may have been used to buy this country house in Hampshire via an offshore firm

 

Mohammed Amersi, bought two properties using offshore companies: a Mayfair townhouse and a country home in Gloucestershire. He was revealed by Panorama to have been involved in one of Europe's biggest corruption scandals. He denies any wrongdoing.

Lubov Chernukhin has given more than £1.8m to the party since 2012. The Pandora Papers leak revealed the scale of the secret offshore wealth she shares with her husband, a former Russian minister. It includes a house near Regent's Park in London now worth about £38m, and a mansion in Oxfordshire bought for £10m. The properties were secretly acquired through a network of offshore companies. Mrs Chernukhin's lawyers say she is a British citizen and is entitled to do as she wishes with her money

Russian businessman Victor Fedotov's companies have given £900,000 to MPs. He purchased a Hampshire manor house through a network of offshore companies. Files in the Pandora Papers suggest he made millions from a project that became mired in allegations of corruption. Mr Fedotov's lawyers said "there is no evidence whatsoever" he behaved improperly.

The BBC searched for information about donors to all of the political parties among the Pandora Papers documents but the stories that emerged from the files were about Conservative donors.

The Pandora Papers is a leak of almost 12 million documents and files exposing the secret wealth and dealings of world leaders, politicians and billionaires. The data was obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in Washington DC and has led to one of the biggest ever global investigations. More than 600 journalists from 117 countries have looked at the hidden fortunes of some of the most powerful people on the planet. BBC Panorama and the Guardian have led the investigation in the UK.

Images from: BBC, London News Pictures, Central News, Shutterstock