Shadowy Tech Goons Want to Build a New City in California. What Could Go Wrong?
When rich people start buying up land, it’s always fairly disturbing. If and when those same people start telling you that they’re going to use the land to make the world a better place, it’d only be natural to feel certifiably creeped out. Unfortunately, this is what’s been happening in...
gizmodo.com.au
Mystery group buying land near Air Force base is suing farmers
A mysterious group that bought more than 50,000 acres of land around an Air Force base in California is suing farmers for conspiring to sell it at inflated prices.
www.dailymail.co.uk
Sources of funding include foreign investors operating under English Limited Partnerships.
Thomas Mather, according to article, appears to be the frontman. He also seems to have disappeared. British/South African dual national.
“In 2016 and 2017, the government introduced measures that forced almost all UK companies to identify their real owners. ELPs were not covered by these new transparency laws.
Since then, more than 4,500 of them have been set up.
The BBC has worked with Finance Uncovered to analyze leaked documents and thousands of company records that show how ELPs have become a route to dodge anti-money laundering laws requiring the real owners, or persons of significant control, of UK companies to be disclosed.
ELPs are legitimately used in real estate, investment and pension funds - they have tax advantages, for example, and the amount investors risk is limited.
Unlike most companies, ELPs do not have a separate legal identity. The government says that means they cannot own assets, do not have a beneficial owner, and cannot legally open bank accounts in their own right.
But our investigation has found documents identifying beneficial owners of ELPs, and evidence of their use to open bank accounts and to facilitate financial crime.”
