The Dirty Money Capital of The World?

Russian oligarchs have kept their money in London for twenty years, encouraged by British bankers' lawyers and politicians. Critics say that the 'London laundromat' cleans dirty money from kleptocrats all over the world. This video looks at where dirty money comes from, how money laundering works and why it took Russia's invasion of Ukraine to put this issue in the spotlight.

From One Hyde Park to Bishops Avenue. Where is oligarch money kept in London?

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[MrZoomZone]

As a british peasant I get scruitinised for money laundering when I open accounts. Meanwhile the rich foreign money buys all the priviledge it desires.

[AC-idow]

The sad thing is the UK isn’t a decentralised country. London is often the only place for many careers. The affect money laundering has on ordinary workers is detrimental, even to those on very high salaries.

[RoachChaddjr]

In the midst of a housing crisis this tolerance of empty houses is absolutely criminal. Thank you for covering this major issue Patrick.

[mllie_]

In an age where content consumption is increasingly geared toward the idea that people don't have an attention span any more, with apps like Instagram and TikTok making fortunes out of short-form content, and YouTube copying them with "shorts", it says a lot about the quality of your content that you can consistently keep people interested and engaged through 20+ minutes of little more than you sitting in front of a camera talking calmly about finance and economics.

I hope you overtake and outlast every single prank channel and lifestyle vlogger on this entire platform.

[jobeblogs]

The biggest stock wins I've made in UK markets have been from companies who have strong connections to Parliament or other governments and the City of London. I look for it in my research now!!

[Dan-dgpi]

Patrick, very interesting analysis. One quibble: I would not trust a single word of any Heritage Foundation report. Heritage knows the answer to every policy question before they have done the analysis or indeed collected any data. To use the example you mentioned, criminal law always operates by prosecuting people it catches in hopes of deterring many others. If you only measure the number of tickets produced by a speed camera, you would miss the thousands of cars that weren't ticketed because most people slow down once they realize there is a camera. The same is true for AML laws. The regulations raise the price of money laundering so we get less of it. That is Econ 101.

[AutomotiveEvangelist]

As an American living in the UK, I can tell you that this has been extraordinarily damaging to UK citizens. The primary result of all these foreigners buying property in London (and elsewhere) is that even mediocre properties are inflated beyond the reach of all but the wealthiest Brits. I live in Henley-on-Thames, a wealthy town about 35 miles west of London. Not a day goes by when literally 10% of the conversations that I hear walking down the street, are in Russian. And 1, 500 sq foot homes sell for £1 Million or more in most parts of town.

[maestrovso]

This is pure gold on a subject that has been seeing very little reporting, let alone in such great depth and breadth. Thank you Patrick with such great presentation as always. I never miss an episode of your videos. You put shames to most financial media for how pitiful jobs they do. Financial Times did one recently on this subject.

[entropyachieved]

Rapidly becoming one of my favourite channel.
When you use a little humour in the analysis the channel becomes priceless

[Mojo-IRE]

Take this anecdote as you will - One of my trading mentors who spent years working in the heart of the square mile described it as "the biggest fuckin money laundering racket on the planet".

[Papawcanner]

Being raised in Chicago I can spot a money laundry operation from a block away . The small western Tennessee city I live had an obvious scheme in failed real estate and restaurants going on a few years back . When I explained this to locals they thought I was crazy and dismissed the assertion . Oh well

[ruthradford]

Thanks! So glad I found your channel, I've learned a lot, had a few good laughs, and continue to decrypt the hidden meaning of your 'office' decor.

[stevemanjowski]

Fantastic video for the most part, however I'd argue the Heritage Foundation is a less than stellar source to cite. The foundation has repeatedly lobbied for the dismantlement or mismanagement of US financial regulators and then points to that mismanagement/dismantling to be a reason for further de-regulation. In short it's an engineered self fulfilling prophecy.

[cecilia]

I didn't know that, poor Rushdie! Forced to live in hiding in such a place. What a horrible experience.

[benjamindover]

Kleptocracy, or as we call in the states, the banking industry.

[kgsphinx]

Lots of great information! It's always great to watch your timely and well presented videos.

[YT]

Solid overview.
The City has been addicted to shady money forever and brexit made it worse.
Cheers!

[qwerty]

The noone is home basically describes the entirety of London's ultra exlusive areas. Walk around the residential streets of Mayfair of a weekend and it's like a ghost town. You can hardly spot any building that appears to have living souls in it.

[danielschein]

When I hear about empty apartment buildings the thing that comes to mind before money laundering is real estate bubble. Real estate is meant to be occupied and used. Something is off when it sits vacant and there is no attempt to sell or lease it. If I owned property in London a video like this would make me worry that a money laundering crackdown might spark a real estate crash.

[lindsayk.]

Love your new set up! Also just wanted to thank you for your videos. I love how clearly you explain complex subjects.