Закон об экономических преступлениях (прозрачность и правоприменение) 2022 года (« Закон ») получил королевскую санкцию 15 марта 2022 года. Закон вводит реестр иностранных организаций и их бенефициарных владельцев, владеющих землей и имуществом в Великобритании («Зарубежный реестр» ) . а также включает реформы британских приказов о необъяснимом богатстве и режимов экономических санкций.
Эти меры являются частью более широких реформ прозрачности и корпоративного соответствия, которые продолжаются и потенциально могут повлиять на компании и частных лиц, ведущих бизнес в Великобритании.
Реестр бенефициарных владельцев недвижимости
Режим регистрации бенефициарного владения в отношении имущества обсуждается в течение некоторого времени после введения в 2016 году реестра лиц со значительным контролем (« PSCs ») для британских компаний и других организаций. Новый импульс для этих мер возникла в результате военных действий России на Украине и желания правительства Великобритании ввести пакет санкций и других мер, направленных против правительства России и связанных с ним лиц.
Раскрытие информации о собственности на сегодняшний день было относительно ограниченным, поскольку в реестре собственности Ее Величества Земельный кадастр указан только законный владелец земли. В некоторых случаях в реестр вносится ограничение, указывающее на наличие траста (и, следовательно, разделение юридического и бенефициарного владения, требующее дальнейшего расследования), но это не является обязательным. Закон меняет это положение путем пересмотра процесса регистрации и введения обязательного ретроспективного требования о регистрации бенефициарного владения землей.
Требование к регистрации
По сути, в соответствии с Зарубежным реестром, иностранные организации должны будут зарегистрировать сведения о своих бенефициарных владельцах в Зарубежном реестре, если у них есть какие-либо существенные доли участия в земле (за исключением исключений).
Зарубежные юридические лица – это любые юридические лица, деятельность которых регулируется законодательством за пределами Великобритании. Государственный секретарь может освободить лицо от требования о регистрации, но только в том случае, если это необходимо в интересах национальной безопасности или для предотвращения или выявления серьезных преступлений. Таким образом, подавляющее большинство зарубежных организаций должны будут зарегистрироваться и предоставить полную информацию о своих регистрируемых бенефициарных владельцах, если они владеют соответствующей землей. Существуют также некоторые другие исключения из регистрации для бенефициарных собственников, но в целом они касаются только дублирования, т. е. когда заинтересованность является косвенной и уже существуют требования о раскрытии информации для этих промежуточных субъектов.
Соответствующие права на землю в Англии и Уэльсе в целом совпадают с правами на землю, которые подлежат регистрации в Земельном реестре Ее Величества, включая право собственности и аренду на срок более семи лет. Аналогичные положения действуют в отношении имущественных интересов в остальной части Великобритании.
Определение бенефициарного права очень похоже на то, что применяется для реестра PSC. Как таковые, бенефициарные доли будут подлежать регистрации, если прямо или косвенно владеют более чем 25 процентами акций или прав голоса юридического лица, если имеется возможность назначать или смещать большинство членов совета директоров, или в других случаях. существуют права и отношения, предоставляющие владельцу (владельцам) значительное влияние или контроль над организацией.
Once in force, the Act, including the requirement to register on the Overseas Register, will apply with retrospective effect as from 1 January 1999. Any entity that has registered property since that date will be required to register on the Overseas Register, provided that the property interest is still subsisting.
Consequences of Non Compliance
Contraventions of the registration requirements under the Act are a criminal offence by both the entity and its officers, punishable by up to five years imprisonment and/or a fine.
Entities with existing qualifying land interests have six months from the date of the Act coming into force to register on the Overseas Register before these sanctions will apply. It is therefore important for overseas entities to ensure that they have registered prior to the end of this transitional period.
In addition, a restriction is to be entered onto all titles of property held by a registered overseas entity preventing the disposal of that property unless the proprietor is still registered on the Overseas Register or is exempt, or the property is being sold due to enforcement of a charge, as a result of insolvency or pursuant to a court order.
Applications to HM Land Registry to register land interests of overseas entities that are not on the Overseas Register will be refused unless the entity is exempt. The Overseas Register will be held by Companies House, working with support from the UK Land Registries.
All overseas entities should check their UK property holdings, and confirm whether they have any qualifying land interests, as soon as possible. Once the Act is in force they should apply to be included on the Overseas Register before entering into agreements in respect of any additional qualifying UK land, and, in any event, before the end of the transitional period if they already hold qualifying interests.
Unexplained Wealth Orders
The Act also reforms the unexplained wealth order (“UWO”) regime, which was introduced by the Criminal Finances Act 2017.
Where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that a politically exposed person or a person involved in serious crime holds property valued over £50,000, which appears disproportionate to their known lawful income, a UK law enforcement agency can apply to the High Court for a UWO. A UWO requires the respondent to provide information about their interest in the property specified in the UWO and explain how they obtained it (including how they paid for it). Most UWOs will be accompanied by an interim freezing order to prevent the respondent disposing of the property before providing the requested information. If a respondent fails to comply with the UWO, an enforcement authority can apply to seize the relevant property.
Following their introduction in January 2018, UWOs were expected to be a potent weapon for UK enforcement authorities in their fight against organised crime. Indeed, to secure a UWO, a law enforcement authority only needs to satisfy the civil burden of proof (on the balance of probabilities), rather than the more onerous criminal burden (beyond reasonable doubt).
However, in practice, law enforcement authorities have secured only nine UWOs in four cases to-date, and have suffered some high-profile setbacks. No UWOs have been obtained since the end of 2019 and, in June 2020, in the Baker case, the National Crime Agency (“NCA”) was denied permission to appeal the discharge of UWOs over three London properties, which the NCA alleged had been acquired as a means of laundering criminal proceeds. The NCA was liable for costs of £1.5 million.
The Act seeks to enhance the UWO regime by:
- Expanding the pool of individuals who may be issued with a UWO to include a corporate respondent’s “responsible officers”, such as its directors, managers, officers, and trustees. This amendment will enable enforcement authorities to pursue UWOs in cases where property is held through complex corporate structures.
- Allowing authorities more time to review and consider material provided by a UWO respondent before the interim freezing order over the relevant property is discharged (this period can now be extended from 60 days to 186 days by court order).
- Protecting law enforcement authorities that seek UWOs from adverse costs orders—authorities will now only be required to bear a respondent’s costs where the authority has acted unreasonably, dishonestly, or improperly.
- Extending the grounds for applying for a UWO to include cases where the property has been obtained through unlawful conduct.
Law enforcement authorities will welcome these enhancements to the regime and will undoubtedly be encouraged to make full use of UWOs in future investigations. However, whether we will see a significant deployment of UWOs in the coming months and years remains to be seen. The main constraint for UK law enforcement authorities in investigating and prosecuting criminal actors in recent years has not been a scarcity of effective investigative powers, but rather a scarcity of resources.
Reforms to UK Sanctions Rules
The Act also includes provisions that amend rules concerning the rules governing the UK’s economic sanctions regime to strengthen the enforcement powers of the UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (“OFSI”) by granting it the power to impose civil financial penalties for sanctions breaches on a strict liability basis; and, to allow for persons to be designated as sanctioned under UK sanctions legislation more quickly where they have already been sanctioned by the U.S., EU, Australia or Canada. Further details on these and all other recent UK, EU and U.S. sanctions and trade controls developments relating to Russian military action in Ukraine can be found among Covington’s Ukraine Crisis Resources.
Further Corporate Transparency Reforms
The Act is expected to be followed by further measures concerning the holding of assets and doing business in the UK. Since 2020, the UK Government has been developing and consulting upon proposals to expand the operations and powers of Companies House, the UK’s corporate registry. On 28 February 2022, the UK Government published a White Paper on Corporate Transparency and Register Reform, providing a more fulsome outline of its proposals which, when implemented, are expected to be the most significant update to UK company law in more than a decade.
The White Paper proposals indicate that the role of Companies House will be changed, from repository for corporate records towards holding powers akin to a regulator, at least in some respects. In particular, Companies House is expected to be given new powers to challenge, and where appropriate remove, information on a company’s register that appears incorrect, based upon anomalies or through discrepancy with other public records. This power of enquiry is intended to improve the quality of information appearing on a company’s register and as available to the UK business community as a whole, and comes with new obligation for the registrar to promote and maintain the integrity of the companies register. Companies House will also be empowered to engage in greater information sharing with other UK bodies and agencies regarding the information it holds about companies.
For those persons setting up and running companies in the UK, as directors, secretaries and/or PSCs, a new requirement is proposed under which such individuals will have to verify their identity with Companies House as part of holding those positions. There will also be improved rules for protecting personal information about such individuals appearing on the register, including sensitive addresses. The reforms to UK company law will also update the requirements for the filing of company accounts, which will need to be submitted in Inline Extensible Business Reporting Language (iXBRL) format and fully tagged.
Covington will be monitoring these developments and providing updates as changes to the UK corporate landscape are taken forward.
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