Imran Khan, the newly elected Pakistan PM, has said Britain must return looted money to his country which is allegedly being stashed by corrupt Pakistani politicians in London.
The former international cricketer used his first meeting with British officials since his election win, to tell the UK that he wants to secure the return his nation’s laundered money.
Khan swept to power on a populist anti-corruption ticket and did not hold back in attacking Pakistan’s establishment. He has been scathing of the political class for siphoning off money from key public sector institutions and contracts before whittling away their wealth overseas.
The issue of extracting wealth and sending it abroad has dominated Pakistan’s politics since the infamous Panama Papers leak that linked former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s family to offshore companies and four high-end London flats.
Sharif has subsequently been sentenced to 10 years in jail on corruption charges relating to the purchase of the London flats.
Expensive property acquired through shell companies in weakly regulated jurisdictions has long been a favorite way to hide ill-gotten wealth for the likes of kleptocrats and mafia members.
New UK anti-corruption legislation, created to target oligarchs and international criminals, could be utilized to freeze or seize property and assets if there is evidence it was bought with illegal or unidentified wealth.
It’s amazing to me how many western chauvinists truly believe their precious Neo-colonial system benefits the colonized. It’s the logic of the “white man’s burden” all over again in the 21st century.
There is no way the UK economy can be sustained without stolen money from poor countries by criminal leaders. The UK has never been weaned off money from the colonies.
RT.com / ABC Flash Point Money Laundering News 2018.
ZEmpty those London vaults, filled with lute stolen from the former colonies?
And from almost all the countries in the world.