Inside the Secretive World of Irish Limited Partnerships
A fascinating story from Bellingcat No limits, open story for all to read.
What Exactly is an Irish Limited Partnership?
ILPs came into existence as part of the United Kingdoms 1907 Limited Partnerships Act. At this time, Ireland was still a part of the UK.
The same act brought into existence Scottish Limited Partnerships (SLPs), a corporate vehicle exclusive to Scotland. Bellingcat has previously produced a number of reports concerning the alleged misuse of SLPs after a series of high-profile money laundering schemes came to light.
These include a fraud that was estimated to have illegally extracted US $1 billion from banks in Moldova in 2014. In 2017, two SLPs were used to funnel billions out of Azerbaijan to be spent on luxury goods and to peddle political influence in Europe. SLPs played a major role in the Russian Laundromat scandal, where $20.8 billion was moved out of Russia through a network of banks worldwide.
SLPs, like ILPs, had limited filing requirements and did not require the ultimate beneficial owner (UBO) of the partnership the person who ultimately controls a business to be named.