For decades, London’s property market has offered sanctuary to fortunes of murky origins, its red-brick mansions and gleaming office blocks standing as monuments to global impunity.
Now, as anti-corruption watchdogs from Malaysia to Bangladesh demand justice, Britain is once again forced to reckon with its role as the world’s premier laundromat for kleptocrats.
Malaysia’s investigators revealed earlier this month that they were investigating the alleged London-based assets of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad. He has denied the claims, but the announcement has revived scrutiny of Britain’s role as a safe haven for wealth derived from suspected corruption across Southeast Asia and the wider region.
In June, British authorities froze property assets worth US$180 million at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s request as part of an investigation into the fortune of late Malaysian tycoon Daim Zainuddin, a close confidant of Mahathir.
The holdings include two commercial buildings in the City of London and luxury homes and apartments in Marylebone and Bayswater.