they can't confirm the reports. thousands of residents in australia's largest city, sydney, have been ordered to evacuate their homes after torrential rain and flash flooding. the influential british theatre director, peter brook, whose career ranged from radical interpretations of shakespeare to broadway musicals, has died at the age of 97. now on bbc news — from russia with blood. are legal loopholes allowing russian criminals to launder dirty money? jim fitzpatrick follows the cash.

money is just like clothes. the dirtier it gets, the more it needs washing. and there's a lot of dirty money in the world. an estimated two trillion in us dollars gets washed each year. but money—laundering is no domestic chore. it's the economic engine of terrorism... ..the drugs trade... ..dictatorship. .. ..and war. and where do international criminals go when they need their money cleaned 7 in recent years, it's often been northern ireland. it's thanks to secret little northern ireland companies that allow criminals across the world

to make a clean killing. they're called northern ireland limited partnerships — nilps_ they can be set up in secret and in seconds from anywhere in the world. peter geoghegan runs investigative journalism project open democracy. it's quite remarkable. to set up a northern ireland limited partnership, you don't even have to find out where northern ireland is on a map. you could be thousands of miles away. you can do it online. you pay quite a small amount of money, and fairly quickly you've got yourself an nilp and you can pretty much do whatever you want with it. can we say with some certainty that these entities are being used for criminal activity? northern ireland limited partnerships were named in a huge fraud that took place from the moldovan government, one of the most famous frauds in the world,

where a seventh of the moldovan government's national budget was siphoned off. we found evidence at open democracy in our reporting of previous examples of money launderers and others using nilps, so there is a history there, and not surprising, because they're perfect for criminals who wanted to do things like that. limited partnerships can have legitimate purposes, but to prevent money—laundering, rules in the rest of the uk were tightened to make who owned them clear. but not in northern ireland, where it can still be secret. so places like belfast have seen a new boom in activity. in this south belfast street, atjust one address, there are up to 100 limited partnerships registered, and we've no easy way of knowing who owns them or what they're doing with them.

except sometimes when they turn up in legal cases. such as one limited partnership registered in elmwood avenue, belfast, but accused of being part of a massive multimillion—dollar grain fraud in ukraine. the local mp can't understand why northern ireland was left open to such abuse when rules were tightened elsewhere, such as scotland. i do find it quite curious that the scottish limited partnerships were ended and the loophole was closed there and not here in northern ireland. i understand that there was demand in scotland to close it down, because they knew that it was having negative impacts for many people and no benefits. it's an amazing trick, really. foreign criminals don't come here. but northern ireland provides the clean wrappers for their dirty money by selling them shiny little companies with northern ireland addresses and the stamp of a respected uk legal framework.

that enables the criminals to open bank accounts elsewhere in the world, where they can put their ill—gotten gains. at first glance, it's no longer criminal money, it's nilp money. the northern ireland laundromat has spun its magic. dame margaret hodge. thank you very much, mr deputy speaker. i very much support... an mp who was involved in closing the scottish loophole is also surprised that rules in northern ireland were left open for abuse... ..but is hoping a forthcoming economic crime bill in parliament will be the opportunity to stop it. i hope that my colleagues in northern ireland, from wherever they come in the political spectrum, willjoin with me in that drive to root out dirty money from the uk.

it doesn't do us any good, it doesn't do northern ireland any good, and it won't help in the long term to create prosperity and economic growth. a government spokesperson confirmed that the law on limited partnerships will be toughened in the forthcoming economic crime bill. campaigners say it's the war in ukraine that has finally prompted tough action on dirty money. wealthy russians accused of propping up the putin regime are having their assets seized... ..dirty money now synonymous with death and destruction.

to find that we're at the heart of russian dirty money i think is just unacceptable to everybody. authorities across the world, including the us, eu and uk, moved quickly to sanction the russian regime and individuals who've benefited from it. archive: the russian owner of chelsea football club, - roman abramovich, is among another seven people who've been hit with sanctions because of their suspected close links to president putin. and those laws targeting oligarchs were named in memory of a russian lawyer called sergei magnitsky, killed by putin's regime... ..and are largely due to the work of the man who had hired him.

in my opinion, any rich russian is only rich because they're allowed to be rich under the permission of vladimir putin. and anyone who's challenged him has found themselves injail, poor or dead. and so i don't believe that there is any such thing as a good oligarch. at one time, bill browder�*s hermitage capital fund was the biggest foreign investor in russia, but he made powerful enemies. he was expelled from the country in 2005. his remaining companies were later raided by police and key documents stolen. his lawyer in moscow, sergei magnitsky, discovered the raiders had used the documents to steal bill browder�*s companies and then claim a bogus $230 million tax refund, a record theft ultimately from the russian people.

i went to the newspapers, tv, radio. sergei went and gave sworn witness statements. and we sat back and waited for the good guys to get the bad guys. it turns out, in putin's russia, there are no good guys. the officials sergei magnitsky had testified against returned and arrested him. they put him in pre—trial detention and then he was tortured to withdraw his testimony. they put him in cells with no heat, no windowpanes, in december in moscow, where he nearly froze to death, put him in cells with no toilet, just a hole in the floor where sewage would bubble up. they moved him from cell to cell to cell in the middle of the night, and they wanted to get him to withdraw his testimony against the corrupt police officers.

and they wanted to get him to sign a false confession to say that he stole the $230 million and did so on my instructions. and sergei was a man of incredible integrity. and for him, the idea of perjuring himself and bearing false witness was more unpleasant than the physical pain they were subjecting him to. and he refused. and theyjust ratcheted up and up and up the torture and the pressure until his health started to fail. after a year of torture in a maximum security prison, his health went into a critical condition. again, medical treatment was denied. instead of putting him in an emergency room, they put him in an isolation cell. they chained him to a bed and eight riot guards with rubber batons beat sergei magnitsky to death. november 16, 2009, 12 years ago, he died at the age of 37,

leaving a wife and two children. the russian government has claimed sergei magnitsky died of heart failure. bill browder believes it was murder and is out forjustice. for the last 12 years, i've put aside my life as a businessman, and i have devoted all of my time, all of my energy and all my resources to going after the people who killed sergei. over the last decade, bill browder has tracked the $230 million stolen from the russian people his friend sergei had exposed. it's laid out in meticulous detail in thousands of pages of documents he has shared with spotlight. how confident can we be that what you've got is real?

so, we've taken the information that we've received through courts, through whistle—blowers, through criminal investigations, and we have used it to initiate criminal cases in 16 different countries. and i think five of those countries have submitted these documents in court, and the courts acknowledge them as real and as actionable. and in some cases, the money has been seized and apartments and real estate have been seized by different governments. and so it's as real as you're ever going to get. in 2018, he provided a dossier of evidence to the irish authorities. it revealed a trail connecting three irish bank accounts with money from the fraud tied to sergei magnitsky�*s death. a trail of russian blood money into ireland. what response did you get when you presented that evidence to the irish authorities? they did nothing.

did you have some hope that they would take action? well, for example, we presented the evidence to the us authorities. they took massive action. the department ofjustice came down on the russian crooks like a ton of bricks. the french authorities froze massive assets and there's a major case going on there. switzerland froze $20 million of assets, a case going on there. spain, poland, lithuania and latvia, i mean, all sorts of places, big action. irish authorities? nothing. in a statement to spotlight, an garda siochana told us that their national economic crime bureau did open an investigation in ireland but no evidence of criminality was identified. yet the bank statements tell us that millions of the magnitsky money was laundered through ireland. and there's one payment thatjumps out.

it comes wrapped in the secrecy of a uk limited liability partnership but from a bank account in estonia linked to one of the most notorious organised crime gangs in russia, the one that masterminded the fraud sergei magnitsky exposed. 275,000 euro leaves the gangs account in estonia and lands into an account of a private banking customer in aib in ireland. aib declined to comment. the bank statement references what appears to be a company, celtic properties d00, and there's an intriguing note. "for apartment noj64 in blue horizon." so where is blue horizon and apartmentj64?

bad money likes to hide in beautiful places. the money we're following landed in an irish bank account — celtic properties d00. "celtic" suggests an irish company. but the "d00" is what takes us here. "d00" is a common abbreviation used in countries with slavic languages. it means "limited company".

and this one is in montenegro. a montenegrin property development company with irish owners. it's surprising to find irish developers building apartments on the adriatic coast in this small balkan country. but montenegro — populationjust 700,000 — is a surprising place. it's a member of nato but has strong political ties to russia. it's not in the eu, but it wants in and uses the euro as currency. and it's laundered euro, 275,000, that bought one apartment from irish property developers here, that's the focus as i follow the sergei magnitsky blood money trail. i want to find out more about celtic properties d00 and i also want to find out

who is behind the purchase of apartmentj61i. is it russian money? jovo, how are you? jim, good to see you. thanks for taking the time. i'm meeting journalist jovo martinovic, a specialist in reporting the region's politics and crime. montenegro is known for, uh, weak rule of law, lousy regulations when it comes to money—laundering. since montenegro became independent, with the russian help, a lot of money came from russia. we're talking about billions. and, of course, with russian money came political influence and everything else — i mean, organised crime, intelligence services, and so on. his work as a journalist has, at times, cost him his liberty. he's been jailed twice and is waiting for the supreme court to clear his name on drugs charges

he believes were politically motivated. his case has been supported by many internationaljournalist and human rights organisations. if you investigate corruption in this country, then you can end up in prison. and, uh, that is what happened to me. so, we're looking at money that flowed from the magnitsky case. are you surprised that some of it landed here? not at all, not at all. i mean, we have a good track record of other dirty money. and montenegro is known for hosting russian oligarchs and helping them with their businesses. the bank statements we have from bill browder suggest the russian gang used a uk limited liability partnership to wrap their blood money in respectable secrecy, then laundered it through estonia before paying it into the aib bank account in ireland in return for montenegrin property.

so far, so confusing. and that's the point — to hide true ownership. but if we can establish who bought apartmentj61i, we'll be able to put a name and a face to the transaction. the answer should lie in documents held at the montenegrin property registry. with assistance from jovo martinovic, we manage to navigate the bureaucracy and get hold of some important paperwork on the owner. we have their name, their date of birth, their home city and even their passport details. and this is him. dmitry samokhalov. 52 years old. and yes, he's russian,

born in moscow. and what the documents also reveal is that he was no ordinary russian holiday—maker in montenegro, because in 2008 he didn't just buy apartment j64. in fact, he spent more than 1.4 million euro buying seven apartments from the irish developers. the money to buy apartmentj6a came directly into a bank account in ireland from a bank account linked to one of russia's most dangerous organised crime gangs. a gang that has robbed the russian people of hundreds of millions, yet enjoys protection from the highest levels it's time to see what some of this blood money has bought.

stairs from the road take us up to the blue horizon development. it's actually a very nice, well—kept apartment block. nice swimming pool. people are enjoying the sun. let's see if we can find apartmentj6a. that's block m. after a few wrong turns, we find blockj. the money trail has taken us from russia to ireland to montenegro and ultimately it's led us to this door. a husband and father in russia was arrested,

tortured and killed so that ultimately someone could own this place in the sun. mr samokhalov was not at home when we called at apartmentj6a but i do have his phone number, and to check if it was active, i put it into whatsapp and what i've now also got is a new picture. we whatsapped a series of questions in russian to dmitry samokhalov, asking him to explain the source of his money and the evidence we have connecting it to organised crime in russia. we can see they were read but he failed to respond. celtic properties d00 seems to have sold millions' worth

of property, but the company is now in bankruptcy. across the border in croatia, i've some time to reflect on what we've uncovered and the remaining questions we have for the irish developers. the accounts filed in montenegro tell us little about what went on and how the irish property developers did business. you have to ask, did they do any basic checks on the person who was handing them 1.4 million euro for seven apartments? ireland has sophisticated money—laundering laws, and checks on property buyers are routine. but maybe not in montenegro. the developers marketed the properties in montenegro through an irish—registered partnership called baltimore holdings. it had a website.

when we look at the website we learn some things. this is an archive of how it would have looked injune 2008. so we see baltimore holdings there. "a smarter investment." a nice picture. but we also see that the website is offered in two languages, english and russian. and when we look at the contact addresses, there's a postal address in cork but sales offices notjust in montenegro but also in russia. the russian market, a key focus for the sales. it's not entirely clear who was really running celtic properties d00 at the time. we contacted the surviving people who were listed as shareholders. they either declined to comment or denied they were personally involved in, or gained from, any property sales. bill browder had identified one apartment linked to the russian blood money. spotlight has uncovered a name behind that purchase and six other deals totalling 1.4 million euro.

so you haven't received any feedback on the evidence that you provided. if we add the evidence that we now have on top of that to the irish authorities, what would you say to them? i would say to them you have a fully baked case here to investigate. if you don't investigate, then it raises serious questions about your capability or your motivation for doing yourjob. i think they should act and act quickly. money—laundering is not a victimless crime. we know the names of some, such as sergei magnitsky. we've seen its victims in ukraine. the uk, ireland, northern ireland — each play their part

in laundering blood money from russia and elsewhere. are those attitudes changing, or will the laundromat continue its bloody business? hello there. temperatures are set to rise through the coming week, particularly across the south and south east. but, first of all, through today, we are looking at a mixture of sunny spells and showers. the weather watcher photos show the contrast in conditions nicely. this photo sent in from the highlands, blue sky and sunshine overhead in this photo sent in earlier from east sussex. now we take a look at the pressure chart. we have low pressure the north, so quite blustery breezy conditions

across scotland through today. and high pressure building into the south so we have got a scattering of showers and a north north westerly flow through this afternoon, particularly for eastern areas, temperatures generally sitting in the high teens, low 20s. as we go through tonight, it will stay fairly blustery across the far north of scotland in particular. we will see a feed of showers and rain pushing in across scotland, northern ireland, eventually getting into northern england and northern wales. elsewhere, a largely dry picture with patchy cloud and clear spells. temperatures fairly similar to where they have been of late, sitting at around eight to 13 celsius. tomorrow we start off with this band of cloud which could bring one or two showers across northern england and northern wales. it slips fairly quickly southwards through the morning. sunny spells following on behind. sunny spells and showers for scotland, northern ireland and northern england, but fewer showers than today, but it does remain fairly blustery. across the far north. temperatures at a maximum of 23 celsius. high pressure continues to edge its way fairly slowly in as we move into tuesday. but we have that weather

front still toppling around the top of it. so tuesday, some early brightness but it will turn cloudy as we go through the day. the best of the brightness to be found in eastern and southern areas. showers or spells of rain, drizzle for north and western areas. temperatures generally in the high teens, low 20s, a maximum of 23 celsius. as the week continues, you can see high pressure continues to gradually edge its way in but weather fronts never too far away from the far north. always breezy conditions and the greater chance of seeing wet weather here. if we take a look at temperatures, how close to average they are, temperatures dropping off across europe but picking up above average across the uk. so if we take a look at the outlook temperatures picking up across the south, getting up to 26 celsius on saturday. around average further north. bye— bye.

this is bbc news. the headlines at 4pm: six new claims of inappropriate behaviour by former deputy chief whip chris pincher have emerged, days after he was suspended as a tory mp after allegations he groped two men. russia says it now controls the whole of the luhansk region in eastern ukraine, but ukrainian officials say they can't confirm the reports. thousands of residents in australia's largest city sydney have been ordered to evacuate their homes after torrential rain and flash flooding. the influential british theatre director peter brook, whose career ranged from radical interpretations of shakespeare to broadway musicals, has died at the age of 97. and coming up at 4:30, the bbc�*s sophie long spends three weeks at a family planning service in arkansas, looking at the supreme court's abortion ruling.