The UK government suspects that Russian citizens used loopholes in the legislation on company registry checks to launder proceeds from the Russian war in Ukraine. Bloomberg writes about it..

It is noted that British law enforcement officers have discovered a large number of fictitious companies registered in the UK by citizens of a number of countries in recent years.. The goal could be money laundering, as well as tax evasion.

It turned out that some Russian-controlled companies are trying to use the war in Ukraine for financial gain.. In particular, the Russians are leading the way in using soft regulation, which allows them to hide their assets without much control..

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Thousands of criminals have registered firms in the UK in recent years. Because it's cheap to set up a company here, there's little background checks they have to provide, and having a UK address gives them respectability..

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 report to Companies House or submit fraudulent data that does not reveal the actual assets the company owns..

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The British government is in the process of tightening laws to reform Companies House and stop financial crime. The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill was introduced in Parliament in September last year and aims to give the company registry more powers to identify company starters and to investigate crimes..