BellingcatNov 3, 2023
The UK introduced stricter sanctions on trade with Russia in September 2022, but Bellingcat’s new financial team can reveal that UK Limited Partnerships have acted as intermediaries for over 17,000 imports into Russia between 24 February 2022 and 31 March 2023. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2023/11/03/frontline-facilitators-how-secretive-uk-partnerships-supply-wartime-russia/?utm_source=mastodon
Frontline Facilitators: How Secretive UK Partnerships Supply Wartime Russia - bellingcat

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, UK Limited Partnerships (LPs) have been named as trade intermediaries in thousands of records detailing imports into the belligerent state. The UK has introduced a variety of sanctions aimed at negating Russia’s war efforts. However, experts have long argued these corporate vehicles — which are easy […]

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Show threadBellingcatNov 3, 2023
Experts have long feared that UK Limited Partnerships (LPs) have been used to easily set up unchecked illicit activity on global financial markets. None of the ones Bellingcat found in this investigation, had a controlling partner or persons of significant control in the UK.
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The widespread use of these Persons of Significant Control outside of the UK and EU and controlling partners in secrecy jurisdictions makes any meaningful attempt to identify the true beneficial owners of these partnerships all but impossible.
Nov 3, 2023 at 2:00pmWeb
Show threadBellingcatNov 3, 2023
Even more concerning was that from our findings, more than 600 of the shipments concern items flagged by the EU and its partners as "High Priority" battlefield components, potentially dual-use and sanctioned items that could assist Russia in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Show threadBellingcatNov 3, 2023
3,211 exports into Russia contained items included in the 'universe of critical components', a term the pro-Ukrainian International Working Group on Russian Sanctions uses to define components found on the battlefield. https://fsi9-prod.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-07/sanctions_working_group_-_russian_import_of_critical_components-7-9-2023_final.pdf
Show threadBellingcatNov 3, 2023
Bellingcat looked at import records of LP shipments from the start of the Russian invasion into Ukraine (24 February 2022) using the database ImportGenius https://www.importgenius.com/
International Trade Databases for Import-Export Businesses | ImportGenius

Comprehensive trade databases from ImportGenius support import-export business in finding new global opportunities, research markets, evaluate trade partners, and more.

ImportGenius
Show threadBellingcatNov 3, 2023
The EU and its international partners list a number of Harmonised System codes "High Priority". For example items "found on the battlefield in Ukraine or critical to the development, production or use of those Russian military systems".
Show threadBellingcatNov 3, 2023
These include items such as ball bearings, static converters, television cameras, aerials, plugs and sockets. Bellingcat found 678 successful exports utilising UK LPs as shippers, under these codes, during the course of the first year of war in Ukraine.
Show threadBellingcatNov 3, 2023
In one example from our analysis of HS codes we found 5,000 kilos of static converters arriving in Moscow on 28 August 2022, in a shipment facilitated by a Scottish LP whose controlling partner is based in the Seychelles, and Person of Significant Control, a Russian national.
Show threadBellingcatNov 3, 2023
L. Burke Files, an independent financial investigator, expert in illicit finance, said he found our analysis disturbing, "thermal controllers for a sauna. Great, well that's also what's used in making explosives. You have to control heat and humidity. Dual-use? Yeah.”
Show threadBellingcatNov 3, 2023
Many shipments were components for the manufacture and maintenance of vehicles. These included cylinders, gaskets, parts of combustion engines, control panels, electrical circuit parts, many of which are listed by the International Working Group on Russian Sanctions.
Show threadBellingcatNov 3, 2023
Previous reporting by Bellingcat, and other outlets has revealed that SLP numbers exploded in the mid- 2010s, with at least 71% of SLPs registered in 2015 being controlled by partners in secrecy jurisdictions. https://www.transparency.org.uk/publications/offshore-in-the-uk
Show threadBellingcatNov 3, 2023
UK Department of Business said the gov't has "the largest and most severe economic sanctions ever imposed on a major economy" and that any company found to be exporting sanctioned goods to Russia "could be in breach of sanctions law and could face a heavy fine or imprisonment."
Show threadBellingcatNov 3, 2023
The Government’s Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill reached Royal Assent on the 26th of October. Time will tell if this bill will be enough to restrict the widespread global abuse of corporate vehicles in the UK