After a fêted introduction, UWOs have had a stop-start beginning. But are things about to change, ask Simon Davenport QC & Helen Pugh
- There are various grounds of challenge to UWOs including disputing the ownership, value, income and PEP requirements and disputing non-compliance.
- A trap for the unsuspecting lies in the wide use to which UWO information and documents can be put.
In the last couple of weeks unexplained wealth orders (UWOs) have once again been making a splash in the news. The few details released by the National Crime Agency (NCA) about the latest UWOs are sufficiently headline grabbing: ‘a politically exposed person believed to be involved in serious crime’; ‘three residential properties in prime locations’; and ‘bought for more than £80m and held by offshore properties’. The current anonymity of the subject of the UWOs—and their nationality—merely adds to the interest.
Russia and CIS states, and their citizens resident in London, have been a particular target of recent political and media attention on corruption (and other matters). Yet it is perhaps a misconception that individual Russians’
