LONDON – Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has identified Pakistan asone of the countries whose politicians invest money allegedly derived fromcorruption in the UK.
Naming Pakistan in its 2018 assessment of serious and organised crime, theNCA said: “The UK is a prime destination for corrupt foreign PoliticallyExposed Persons to launder the proceeds of corruption, particularly thosefrom Russia, Nigeria and Pakistan.
“Investment in UK property, particularly in London, continues to be anattractive mechanism to launder funds. The true scale of PEPs’ investmentin the UK is not known, however the source countries that are most commonlyseen are Russia, Nigeria and Pakistan,” it added.
Under a new anti-corruption provision , the NCA is investigatingmoney-laundering linked to the assets held by an unnamed foreign politicianworth nearly £22 million. It secured two unexplained wealth orders toinvestigate in January.
Based on open source information, anti-corruption watchdog TransparencyInternational has identified assets allegedly owned by former Pakistaniprime minister Nawaz Sharif, among five major suspect properties in London.
The NCA assessment also named Pakistan over concerns of money-laundering:“The overseas jurisdictions that have the most enduring impact on the UKacross the majority of the different money laundering threats are: Russia,China, Hong Kong, Pakistan, and the UAE.
“Some of these jurisdictions have large financial sectors which also makethem attractive as destinations or transit points for the proceeds ofcrime.”
In NCA’s assessment, UK-registered companies continue to bribe overseas toimproperly secure new businesses, extend existing contracts or to obtainsensitive information about competitors.
“As the UK moves towards exiting the EU in March 2019, UK-based businessesmay look to increase the amount of trade they have with non-EU countries.We judge this will increase the likelihood that UK businesses will comeinto contact with corrupt markets, particularly in the developing world,raising the risk they will be drawn into corrupt practices,” it said.
The NCA said the scale of modern slavery and human trafficking in the UK“is continually and gradually increasing”.