The United Kingdom Prime Minister, David Cameron, on Thursday announced plans to assist foreign nations in the recovery of stolen assets.
Cameron announced the
plan at the opening session of the Anti-Corruption Summit at the Lancaster
House in London which had President Muhammadu Buhari in attendance.
The British Prime
Minister said the Global Forum for Asset Recovery will bring together
governments and law enforcement agencies to discuss on how to return stolen
assets to Nigeria, Ukraine, Sri Lanka and Tunisia.
He said foreign firms
with properties in the UK will be compelled to declare their assets publicly in
a bid to stamp out money-laundering, adding that a register will be opened for
foreign companies owning UK property and those seeking to buy.
Cameron said the
register would mean “corrupt individuals and countries will no longer be able
to move, launder and hide illicit funds through London’s property market, and
will not benefit from our public funds.”
He said foreign
companies owned about 100,000 propertyu in England and Wales and that more than
44,000 of these were in London.
The Prime Minister
further stated that people in developing countries wanted justice as much as
they needed clean water and health care.
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