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Comment by SideburnsOfDoom | Hacker News Reader

> but the boss and the guy he was bribing are both living happily in Toronto, Canada

Yep. Similar, where I am (London UK) is, depending on how you measure it, not corrupt at all, or staggeringly corrupt.

Not corrupt at all, because it's nigh-impossible to bribe your way out of speeding fine or into a planning approval.

Staggeringly corrupt because it's a huge parking lot for dirty money from secretive sources around the world, mostly stored in real estate, and thus facilitates massive global corruption.

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The UK has been relatively proactive regarding money laundering. It was actually one of the first countries to mandate a publicly accessible company registry that includes beneficial owners.

Canada is on the other end of the spectrum in terms of both transparency requirements and enforcement, so much so that the term "snow washing" has become part of the vernacular internationally, and even garnered its own Wikipedia entry. There are developing countries (e.g., Ghana) that have more robust anti-money laundering regimes.

Yeah, the UK even has Unexplained Wealth Orders specifically to combat money laundering and dirty money in general. [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unexplained_wealth_order

And luxury flats for that sit empty, and a football team owned by a Russian billionaire. Laws on the books are on thing, using them is another.

Yup, I'm originally from a country where it's a common saying between people that there are "laws that stick" and "laws that don't stick". The only value of a law is in its enforcement, watching the flow of oligarchs' money towards City of London tells me enforcement is still very subpar.

Funny enough in my country we have rules or laws "For the English to see", that exists only to look good but never really enforced.

What is the issue with a football team being owned by a Russian billionaire? Seems like a legit investment?

> Seems like a legit investment

If it's legit money, sure.

FYI:

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/chelsea-fc-roman-a...

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chelsea-abramovich-book-i...

I don't understand, would Putin ordering the purchase mage it illegit?

It's of course possible that Abramovich got his riches by illegal means. Nevertheless buying a football club seems like a normal thing to do (for rich people).

UWO’s are new and Abramovich has said he’s bailing on the UK

I don’t think his purchase would work today

Appears to be correct:

> An unexplained wealth order (UWO) is a type of court order issued by a British court to compel the target to reveal the sources of their unexplained wealth. UWOs were introduced by sections 1–2 of the Criminal Finances Act 2017

> In June 2003, Abramovich became the owner of the companies that control Chelsea Football Club in West London.

Both from Wikipedia

The UK has nothing on the US, where they managed to con the masses into believing that lobbying isn't bribery.

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