I am just about to engage a foreign national as a client who is purchasing three residential BTLs in the UK.
He is a US resident who is currently (for the last three years) working in Eastern Europe for a worldwide Gas Conglomerate. He is the FD of the eastern European division and can be publicly viewed on the internet due to his profile. So I am fairly happy he is not a "shady" character!
he has set up a Cyprus Company which will be purchasing the UK properties and I will be acting for him/it in the UK with HMRC
Apart from Certified Photo ID for him/other shareholders and Certified Incorp docs of the Cyprus co (I have asked these be certified by the lawyer/accountant who set up the company) and recent utility bills as proof of address etc, is there any additional ID checks I should be carrying out.
Thanks in advance
DingDong
Replies (4)
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Sounds like fun!
This sounds like fun! Presumably he has someone looking after any tax returns he has to make to the US tax authorities.
You are supposed to confirm that the Cyprus lawyer actually exists by looking him up in a legal dictionary. It has to be said that if I wanted a phony document 'certified' by a UK lawyer I could fairly easily cobble up some headed paper in the name of a real UK firm of solicitors and (even though their real notepaper might be totally different) my fake would pass muster!
Hopefully the solicitors dealing with the property purchases will satisfy themselves regarding the sources of funds used in the purchases - but that is not really your problem.
David Winch
You can of course go one step further....
.... and ring the purported certifying lawyer at the number shown for him in the public phone book and verify direct with him that he did in fact certify the documents. I know of at least one bank which does this as a matter of routine for all new account applicants.
Oh - I almost forgot.....
Don't forget to run the prospect's name through WorldCheck. You'd sometimes be amazed what this can turn up.