UK limited partnerships have a sorry record at the forefront of international money laundering, corruption, tax evasion and other criminal activities. These corporate structures have been used in all sorts of cases – from complex financial structures used to commit fraud involving the theft of one-eighth of Moldova’s annual GDP to masking foreign investment in opaque deals in Uzbekistan.
But while investigative journalists, international organisations and academics have highlighted the misuse of limited partnerships in the UK, often referred to as LPs, now, new developments in Ireland have allowed Irish limited partnerships to be used in the same way, enabling great harm at home and abroad.
This means it’s time for real reform – not just in terms of legal disclosure requirements, restricting use of opaque corporate partners, and more active policing of LPs, but in the very ethics that are meant to guide those who set up and operate these structures, including the partners themselves, lawyers, accountants and business formation agents.
