Russian Oligarchs using UK fee paying schools

[Chocalata]

Is this really such a big thing as the papers make out? I quizzed friends with DC at boarding school and it really doesn't sound like there are many Russian children in their schools at all. I feel quite bad for any Russian children that are at the moment, it must be quite terrifying to be alone in a boarding school in another country, even if your parents are potentially money laundering and financially supporting an atrocious invasion.

Bromsgrove school have many Russian students.
One 13 year old had his own apartment in Moscow where he spent half term.

www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/31/vladimir-putin-eton-boys-private-audience-kremlin

I found this really disturbing at the time. Eton obviously didn't have a problem with it.It shows very poor judgement by these Eton boys. Good God ,just look at them !😨 They obviously had no issue with Putin or hiis views.

@Whenallissaid Eeek that is pretty murky. They are lounging about Rees Mogg like in the photos aren't they! Presumably a Russian school friend set the meet up? Now that they are all out in the work place (no doubt in Foreign office, banking, general civil service, politics etc) I wonder if they stay in touch with their friendly Russian contacts?

@Chocalata it's hard to believe that they did this.
The arrogance and pure stupidity are hard to believe. Imagine the parents who gave their consent to this , although at their age the boys should have known better .They look so proud of themselves! Some will no doubt be looking for a safe Tory seat on day , it does make you wonder about the education that Eton provides.

@Whenallissaid and I wonder what the other parents involved with the school thought when this was in the paper. Really not a good look.

See these sources for more if you’re interested in this topic:

www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/who-we-are/publications/486-necc-bribery-corruption-risks-to-uk-independent-schools-alert/file

www.schoolmanagementplus.com/bursars-finance/dont-let-money-laundering-land-your-school-in-trouble/

www.isc.co.uk/media/7496/isc_census_2021_final.pdf

Schools do not check the provenance of funds and they should not. The schools check visas, and that's where the family background is checked.
I don't know any oligarchs or their children personally, but I can imagine they get the money legally (unlike, say, drug dealers). They could have got to their position in a questionable manner, but their money are legally theirs. So the checks happen (or do not happen) at the time of issuing visas. And it's a political decision to let those people in.

Payments of School fees must comply with money laundering regulations like any other Transaction.
Russians had form for trying to pay £15k a term fees with a carrier bag full of bank notes.
Uk money laundering regulations now make this more difficult.

@Springium22 did you read the links shared a few posts up by @Chorimum?

@Chocalata
The link talks about general red flags. They apply to all children/fees paid. When parents pay from their personal UK bank account - this is not a red flag, and no school would have resources to check where the parents money come from. Oligarchs can pay school fees from their bank account. They get the money from dividend payments.
Tory party donors don't pay in cash or gold bars.

And yeah, not all ultra wealthy are oligarchs, and not all oligarchs have links to kremlin.

@Springium22. This was yesterday
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10562753/Private-schools-alert-fees-advised-not-money-Russian-parents.html

Or this - same story basically
www.cityam.com/uk-private-schools-told-not-to-accept-fee-payments-from-russia/

@Chocalata
That's about the sanctions, sure. That will affect very few people. I was thinking about how we came to have this problem in the first place.

It started as a political decision to let dodgy people in. Now it's a political decision to place sanctions on some people.

Just to repeat - not all very wealthy are oligarchs.
And I meant we are now looking at Russian oligarchs (likely to be linked to Putin), we should also deal with oligarchs from other countries and with off-shore tax havens and trusts generally.
My point stays - schools should look after children.

@Mummyford-sorry, I am not in a position to elucidate anyone.
Do I know very wealthy Russian people with no Kremlin connections - yes I do.
As for the oligarchs, I personally don’t know any and would not even be able to list them all and name their main assets.

And the same for Assad’s children - why do you want to give schools such a grave responsibility? They check visa validity or passport. Should they check now whether those visas should have been issued? Intelligence is better placed to do that, not schools.

@Springium22 the government is giving the schools this grave responsibility and quite rightly so. Taking donations for facilities from oligarchs is wrong in every single level.

Rotenbergs kids went to Lambrook. Yeltsin’s grandson Millfield. Port Regis is another prep with a few. Oligarchs don’t need to ‘launder’ money, school fees are just peanuts in monetary terms it’s just a matter of whether British education system should accept money with such provenance. Schools will happily accept it if given the chance. It’s the immigration department who decides who gets in and doesn’t. So it’s just a question of whether the government decides to let people with dubious surnames in

@saikungmom
But how did we get to a place where it is broadly completely accepted by parents to have our children educated in schools which happily accept money even if they are tremendously suspicious of how it was made. And to use donated money or blood money to build facilities that then out price many UK citizens who might have wanted to educate their children in those schools. How did we get here? Was it just slow change creeping up on us?

Russia is in the spotlight now,but soon it will be China,many schools have actively set up franchises in Hong Kong and the mainland and many second tier schools wouldnt survive without the pupils from China,they will all be hoping that China doesnt see the Wests response to Ukraine as a green light to go for Taiwan...

This quote from an article yesterday was alarming;

'Private schools just love their little darlings. Russians pay an estimated £48m in fees to these establishments. One acquaintance, a science teacher, left last autumn because he objected to the “sellout to oligarchs”. They made him sign an NDA.'

Many Russians at one of the schools my DC went to. But they were almost all British citizens, lived all their lives in UK, Russian very much a second language. Seems unfair to penalise them

@Chocalata it’s awful I know. There just isn’t enough due diligence and schools aren’t discerning enough. I mean it’s not that the only students that come into uk are all oligarch kids, there are plenty of smart kids whose families can afford fees and should get places that are well deserved. But yes we are due for a correction!

@VanCleefArpels what would you do then? Perhaps no more admittance from this point forwards but allow the current pupils to stay. But what if their parents can't pay the fees as the usual systems are unavailable? Will the schools ask them to leave anyway then? They are businesses first after all.

Well yes @Chocalata the (non) payment of fees may be the means by which these kids get hoofed out. But (say) half way through A levels? Most schools would try their best not to expel kids for non payment of fees if they are in crucial exam years. But sheer numbers in some schools may mean leniency is just not affordable. I don’t envy the head teachers of those (few) schools where this will become an issue. See also law firms, accountancy practices and real estate agents who will have Russian clients now finding it more difficult to pay fees