10 Russian Oligarchs Who Used ‘Golden Visa’ Route to UK Have Since Been Sanctioned: Minister

Home Secretary Suella Braverman arrives in Downing Street, London, on Jan. 10, 2023. (Stefan Rousseau/PA Media)

Ten Russian oligarchs who were recipients of the UK’s so-called “golden visas” have since been sanctioned as a result of the invasion of Ukraine, UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman has revealed.

The Tier 1 Investor visa, launched in 2008, has often been called a “golden visa,” as it offered residency to those investing £2 million ($2.4 million) or more in the UK, and allowed their families to join them.

The UK Home Office scrapped the visa just days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine started in February 2022, citing “security concerns, including people acquiring their wealth illegitimately and being associated with wider corruption.”

The government first commissioned the review into this visa route in 2018 after the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Britain. After keeping the findings secret for years, the government released details of that investigation to Parliament on Thursday.

‘High-Risk Individuals’

In a written statement to the House of Commons, Braverman said that a small number of people who were granted the visa might have obtained their wealth through corruption or organised crime.

She said: “The review of cases identified a small minority of individuals connected to the Tier 1 (Investor) visa route that were potentially at high risk of having obtained wealth through corruption or other illicit financial activity, and/or being engaged in serious and organised crime.”

But she stressed that while these individuals potentially poses a risk of having connections to criminality, “it does not mean guilt has been proven.”

“UK law enforcement have access to this data and are taking action as appropriate under their operational remits. Information on all high-risk individuals has been discussed with the Home Office’s independent operational partners and a range of actions has and is being considered including, where appropriate, immigration action.”

She added: “Whilst unable to comment specifically due to operational sensitivity of work, as an example of the range of actions we are taking I can say that we have already sanctioned 10 oligarchs who had previously used this route as part of our extensive response to Russian aggression in the Ukraine.”

In total, more than 12,000 golden visas have been granted, including more than 2,500 to Russians, according to government data.

The programme continued even after Parliament’s Joint Intelligence and Security Committee said in 2020 that the government was “welcoming oligarchs with open arms.”

The sign outside the Home Office in Westminster, London in an undated file photo. (Yui Mok/PA)

‘Mistakes’ Won’t Be Repeated

The statement was published five years after a review of golden visas was announced by then-Home Secretary Amber Rudd in the wake of the 2018 Novichok poisonings in Salisbury.

In her statement, Braverman insisted the Home Office was “robust in refusing leave where this is appropriate,” but said it had found there were “inherent difficulties” with the scheme “both in terms of security and economic value.”

She added, “I am determined this government will ensure such mistakes are not repeated.”

The review “did not find evidence of a systemic failure across financial institutions to carry out appropriate customer due diligence checks” on visa applicants in the period in question.

But Braverman said there was evidence of “applicants seeking out and exploiting financial institutions that had the weakest customer due diligence controls,” adding that some of the organisations involved have since been fined by the Financial Conduct Authority.

The immigration system was “not as well equipped to respond” to the risks posed by the visa route and would require caseworkers to have “specialist expertise” in detecting potentially complex cases of financial crime, she said in the statement.

The home secretary said alternative visa options were being considered “carefully” and any future investment-based scheme “must not offer entry solely on the basis of the applicant’s personal wealth.”

She added: “We must ensure that kleptocracies such as Russia are not able to act with impunity overseas. That is why the UK has taken strong action since the start of the war and why we will continue to do so in the years to come.”

‘Totally Inadequate’

The main opposition Labour Party branded the response “totally inadequate.”

Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said ministers have “finally recognised and admitted that 10 of those sanctioned following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had come to the UK on golden visas” but had failed to provide answers to “basic questions” raised about the scheme, adding, “It is disgraceful for the home secretary to dodge scrutiny in this way.”

She said Braverman should come to Parliament and publish a “far more detailed report” answering the “national security questions” posed by the findings.

Layla Moran, foreign affairs spokeswoman for the Liberal Democrats, claimed the statement “stinks of a cover-up.”

She said: “We need to know to what extent the government let Kremlin-linked oligarchs treat this country as their playground. If the Conservatives have nothing to hide, then they will have nothing to fear. The review must be published in full, right away.”

PA Media and Reuters contributed to this report.