As reported by BBC, journalists from the Sunday Times and Channel 4 secretly filmed how legal and financial consultants boasted about how easily they can fool Home Office employees when it comes to so-called 'golden visas', and how they can effortlessly conceal the ties of a visa applicant either to Vladimir Putin's circle or to the Chinese army.
These consultants told reporters, who posed as people connected to foreign millionaires, how they managed to arrange a 'golden visa' for a family member of Muammar Gaddafi, the son of a corruption-tainted minister in the Thai government, an Eritrean official suspected of illegally selling weapons to Angola, as well as citizens of Iran and Iraq whose businesses were under international sanctions.
One of these consultants said that bypassing the source-of-funds check is extremely easy, because, in his words, the Home Office employs people who have barely finished school and rely only on Google for information.
In December 2018, the Sunday Times notes, the Home Secretary temporarily suspended the issuance of 'golden visas' because many feared they were being obtained by members of criminal gangs and money launderers. But just a few days later, the practice was resumed.
This scheme is called the 'investor visa'. Since 2008, 11,000 people have become its holders, thereby gaining the right to live in the UK and subsequently obtain British citizenship.
Unlike other countries that offer investor visas and residency permits, the UK does not require either direct payment of these funds into the treasury or direct investment. The money simply has to sit in a bank, and once a person obtains permanent residency, they can freely transfer it out of the country to an offshore account where it will not be taxed.
According to the newspaper, the results of this investigation give the impression that the Home Office does not check the origin of money and expects such checks to be done by banks and investment funds.
The Sunday Times quotes a Home Office statement saying that the process for issuing such visas has been completely overhauled and now involves a rigorous check of the origin of capital.