The UK has imposed “dirty money” sanctions on 22 people tied to corruption in South Africa, Russia, and Latin America 12 years after the Magnitsky scandal.
These sanctions will prevent individuals linked to the attack from entering the UK and using their “dirty money”.
Sanctions include those involved in bribery, embezzlement, drug trafficking, and terrorism.
This initiative comes after the death of Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, who died in suspicious circumstances at a Moscow prison in 2009 after publicising a fraud case perpetrated by high-ranking Russian officials.
The UK’s Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, said the UK’s Government has “significant concerns about the recent Russian military build-up of forces on Ukraine’s border” and the UK is working alongside allies “to de-escalate the situation.”
Dominic Raab continued: “We will not tolerate you or your dirty money in our country.”
Amongst these 22 individuals, 14 have been tied to this fraud case.
He added: “Corruption has a corrosive effective as it slows development, drains the wealth of poorer nations, and keeps their people trapped in poverty.
“It poisons the well of democracy.”
The United States secretary of state, Antony Blinken, supported this initiative, stating: “The United States commends the United Kingdom on the establishment of a global anti-corruption sanctions regime, which reinforces the US-UK partnership in the fight against corruption and illicit finance.”
The Labour Party’s Shadow Foreign Secretary, Lisa Nandy, welcomed the measures but said: “He [Raab] needs to put his money where his mouth is and make sure that agencies like the National Crime Agency have the resources that they need.”
In light of the recent Downing Street scandal, she continued: “The mass of revelations that have come to light in the last few days alone have shown a tangled network of financial interests and cosy relationships at the hear of Government that appear to send a green light to many of the very regimes that he mentioned in his statement today.
“We need to know that this announcement isn’t just a gloss on the surface of a grubby system which underneath signals business as usual.”
“Up to half of all the money that is laundered out of Russia comes through the United Kingdom,” she continued, “and in three years since the Salisbury attacks it is still not illegal to be a foreign agent in this country.”
New sanctions will be imposed through the Global Anti-Corruption Sanctions Regulations 2021.
Madeleine Raine
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