11,500 companies struck off Companies House register after crackdown
Thousands of UK companies have been removed from the Companies House register over the last year, following a crackdown on corporate entities believed to be enabling criminality in the UK and overseas.
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As part of the crackdown, officers visited 11 addresses where 30 high risk trust and company service providers operated.
They identified that no real business activity was taking place, and that company formation agents had failed to comply with relevant requirements under the Companies Act.
In one example, a company registered between 4,000 and 5,000 businesses at an address in London. The businesses, however, were based in other parts of the UK and, in some cases, overseas.
As a result of the multi-agency effort, key individuals involved in company formation have been barred from making further registrations.
Criminal referrals have also been made to the Insolvency Service, three high risk trust and company service providers are to be closed, with a further 27 facing enforcement action, and significant criminal property has been identified for law enforcement civil recovery action.
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The activity forms a part of wider cross-government efforts to prevent the abuse of UK corporations by criminal actors.
Rachael Herbert, Director of the National Economic Crime Centre, said: “Money laundering amplifies harm from serious and organised crime, including organised immigration crime and fraud, by funding further criminality and undermining confidence in our financial sector.
“We estimate that over £100 billion is laundered through and within this country each year, a significant proportion of which is facilitated by UK-registered corporate structures.
“Projects like this one reveal the results we achieve when law enforcement, public and private organisations come together to tackle it – harnessing their collective expertise to identify vulnerabilities, strengthen controls and crack down on those who abuse them.”
Director of Intelligence and Law Enforcement Engagement at Companies House, Martin Swain, said: “We recognise that many third-party agents provide legitimate services and play an active role in the creation and management of UK companies.
“However, we also know that some agents are complicit in various forms of criminality by wilfully abusing and exploiting the system.
“I am pleased that Companies House is playing a much greater role in helping to disrupt this type of activity and reduce economic crime – as our role here shows.
“We will continue to support our law enforcement and regulatory partners in identifying, targeting and stopping abuse of the company register.”