“Full investigation” into money laundering concerns around Pensand House & Marlborough Court

Nationwide Building Society will begin a “prompt and full investigation” into concerns raised with them regarding money laundering around the initial deposit and mortgage for Pensand House & Marlborough Court.

The Nationwide Money Laundering Training transcript says Money laundering is a three-step process, each of which takes time. 

1. Placement, the first step of money laundering, is physically placing illegally obtained money (“dirty money”) into the financial system or retail economy. This is the point at which “illegally obtained money” is most vulnerable to detection and seizure, which makes this step the most threatening to a money launderer.

2. Layering is the separation of “illegally obtained money” from its source through a series of complicated financial transactions to make the money appear legitimate, thus making it difficult to trace back to its origin.

3. Integration, the final step of money laundering, is converting “illegally obtained money” into an otherwise legitimate form. A money launderer, rather than sitting on cash, is likely to put the funds to work for him/her by way of purchases, such as purchasing additional life insurance or investment products, automobiles, real estate, and other assets.

There are justifiable and proportionate concerns that money which was placed as a deposit and a mortgage raised with Nationwide to purchase Pensand House & Malborough Court.

Eight times on page 30 of the Court document, it mentions Riggs Valmet Nominess Ltd or Valmet Nominees Ltd (Gibraltar), who are shareholders in Frasertown Limited (Gibraltar), who own and control Chelsea Portfolio Ltd, who purchased Pensand House & Malborough Court way back in 1996, via a Nationwide mortgage. It also mentions fraud and embezzlement 200 times between them. This is supported by evidence in All is Clouded by Desire 

Valmet Nominees Ltd were at the time (1996 onwards) linked as a shareholder to companies in such tax haven jurisdictions as, Gibraltar, British Virgin Islands, Bahamas and Panama. This is where the layering of the companies and the origin of the money come into play

The purchase of Pensand House & Marlborough Court with a deposit on a mortgage is the intergration of the money into the system, as it now owns the asset, the property.

So that is why we believe the concerns raised are justifiable and proportionate.

On Tuesday the 25th Sept Planning Application Y17/1543/SH. Pensand House & Marlbrough Court, comes before Folkestone & Hythe District Council Planning Committee. The applicant is Chelsea Portfolio Limited

Below is a compare and contrast exercise:

No doubt the Penthouse Flats will be well out of range of your average punter or worker in the local area. We don’t say this without any supporting evidence, oh no! Houses directly looking onto the beach at the Fisherman Beach site have sold for £1,350,000. The penthouse on the promenade end of St Leonards Rd is on the market for £950,000 with CR Childs.

And they wish to do this to Marlborough Court

Meanwhile Chelsea Portfolio Limited will decant tenants – like one does Port- slowly. Sixteen tenants had by the 10th Sept agreed to move to Durham, 330 miles away, where the only appropriate accommodation could be found, according to FHDC. Some people have commented on social media this is social cleansing for the sake of gentrification.

With an ongoing “full investigation” by Nationwide regarding potential money laundering concerns, we do not believe  it would be wise and prudent for the Folkestone & Hythe District Council Planning Committee to hear the application. We would ask them to err on the side of caution and defer any decision. We have raised these concerns with the Head of Paid Service for FHDC, Dr Susan Priest (below left), Amandeep Khroud Solicitor to the Council (below centre) and Tim Madden, the Council’s Money Laundering Reporting Officer (below right)

   

We cannot say nor will not say money laundering has happened, that is to be decided by others. We are satisfied Nationwide has sensibly and openly stated they have begun a “full investigation” into the legitimate, justifiable and proportionate concerns raised with them. We now hope that Folkestone & Hythe District Council will follow suit, as it would be the most prudent and sensible decision, but we’ll have to wait and see.

We make it clear, that the Shepwayvox Team are NOT making claims of money laundering. All they have done is raise the concerns in the public domain as of 1999 about the allegations, made by others, of money laundering relating to Mr Abramovich and companies named by The Times and others.

The Shepwayvox Team Journalism for the People NOT the Powerful

There are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts. We do not intend to suggest or imply that any people, companies or other entities included in this blog post have broken the law or otherwise acted improperly, unless found so by a court of law.