Addresses in W6 used in alleged international money laundry operation

It could be you: the mafia postcode lottery

Addresses in W6 used in alleged international money laundry operation

Wish is a small hairdressing saloon at 150 Hammersmith Road, where residents can have their hair cut for just £18. However this local hairdresser became headline news in Ghana, Africa, because of a $300 million scandal involving the government and a net of ghost companies in what seems to be an international money laundry operation.

Another Hammersmith postcode, W6 7JZ, is also among the many addresses worldwide used by ghost companies in this scheme, according to the press in Ghana. If it is really a money laundry it is unlikely to be about small fishes considering the amount of money involved. It is scary, but burglars, mobile, vehicles and street thieves are still of a more direct danger for residents.

It is a "common" practice for illegal business to provide fake addresses chosen at random like in a lottery simply because they don't want to be traced. This time 150 Hammersmith Road was the unlucky pick. Debbie Taylor, owner of Wish Hairdressers, reportedly told the press in Ghana that she will make a formal complaint to the Police in the UK and take legal action over misuse of her hair saloon's address. The problem is against whom.

The Chinese New Techniques (CNT) Construction and Investments Limited, the company which claims to be based at 150 Hammersmith Road, doesn't have a phone number in the UK, just a fax number, and the postcode provided, W6 7JZ, correspond to another address in Hammersmith (Latymer Road).

Other details of the story are also intriguing. Ghana government closed a deal with CNT for a $300 million loan with incredibly generous interest rates. The repayment of the loan covers 15 years with 0.65 per cent interest rate. Not even a country with a the highest credit rating borrows at such low rate. Ghana is classified as a Highly Indebted Poor Country and has just received $3.7 billion debt service relief because of the country's difficulty in paying creditors.

The press in Ghana is suggesting with the possibility that those millions are illegal money that would be cleared through a "legal" loan to the government, which has failed so far to explain the details and incongruences of the deal. Months before, another one billion dollar loan (in three tranches of 350 million dollars) from a company called IFC was suspended because of similar irregularities.

It seems that there is at least a billion dollars out there waiting to be cleared. Watch out for any letters addressed to Chinese New Techniques or IFC in your mailbox.

Read more details of the story in Ghana Home Page