• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

London Entertainment Resort: All Discussion

DistortAMG said:
Back to seriousness for a sec. London is (as BBC Panarama uncovered recently) the money laundering capital of the world. With involvement of some of the worlds largest backs such as HSBC, Barclays and Lloyd's. It would not surprise me in the slightest if this has dirty money invested into it. Quite a good way to launder money, even with what they have done. We probably however, will never know. But filthy money is all over London in other investments, that is a fact. So why would it not pump into projects like this also?
Click to expand...

The obvious answer being that if this was a massive money laundering operation and they got caught, anyone involved would be going to prison for a very long time. Unless you’re paying the solicitors off as well, it’s actually very difficult to launder money via property purchasing as the solicitors firm has a responsibility to comply with ML regulations and verify the source of that income - if they get it wrong (even if totally innocently) they would in all likelihood also end up in prison, if you haven’t paid them off and they realise then they have a legal duty to not only report the suspect, but not to in any way inform them that they are suspected, failure to comply with this (known as tipping off) is also likely to result in criminal sanctions.

Of course it goes on in large deals and it is possible but to suggest that any big project is likely to have dirty money in it is akin to suggesting any large wholesalers is selling cocaine on the sly.
 
Pictures look nice, very smart; Going to happen?....pretty debatable. The amount of money this country has thrown in the wind due to Covid, high speed train line (apparently.)

Very skeptical.
 
Error said:
Pictures look nice, very smart; Going to happen?....pretty debatable. The amount of money this country has thrown in the wind due to Covid, high speed train line (apparently.)

Very skeptical.
Click to expand...

Its not the government paying for the theme park though?
 
Nope, it is business investors...who have had a full decade to jump on board.
It ain't just covid and the train...what about brexit, recession, and the environmentalist matters.
 
From what I have read the government are very likely to approve this application mainly due to the proposed jobs and tax it would bring to the national purse.

However.....this being approved by the government in 20 or so days time won't be the end of it. Not even close. There's at least another 4 to 5 stages where this must pass before Construction can start in 2022. Local residents will get their chance to fight this in court too remember and it sounds to me like they will have a case. The roads are apparently already shocking down there at the best of times so a tourist attraction said to be trying to attract 5m a year is hardly going to help is it?

Financing is one huge barrier for this project. I don't think 3.5bn is realistic at all. Disneyland Paris cost 5bn Euros in total by comparison and that was nearly 30 years ago. Given inflation and what they seem to be proposing I don't think 3.5bn will be anywhere near enough to fund all this.

The infrastructure needed to even get this theme park up and running sounds like a logistical nightmare. I don't think the 3.5bn proposal is anything close to what will be required come the end. Talking of new roads, new train connections and Ferry ports. 3.5bn could be spent quite easily without even laying a brick on the actual theme park.

I'm so hoping I'm wrong and this thing gets built but I'm still at a 1 or 2 out 10 chance of it happening.
 
Now, this could derail the project completely if it's true...

A wildlife protection group has lodged an application for the proposed site to be recognised as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) due to a rare species of jumping spider that is found in only one other location in the UK. This would prohibit any development on the site that would potentially harm the species. The decision is due in early 2021.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/building-uks-25bn-disney-style-23384179.amp
 
Last edited:
I think jumping spiders are the least of their worries tbh. Local residents aren't going to be happy with a estimated 5m visitors a year attraction being on their doorsteps. The roads and infrastructure can't cope as it is if you read a lot of what they are saying.

People often travel to a theme park around rush hour and go home at the evening rush hour.

3.5bn for this project seems way off to me. It could be easily double that. The new road and ferry terminals proposed alone could take up the majority of that budget.
 
Coming soon (not really) at a resort near you we have Jumping Spider: The ride brought to you by Paramount. The only one of its kind in the world.
 
Josh555 said:
The obvious answer being that if this was a massive money laundering operation and they got caught, anyone involved would be going to prison for a very long time. Unless you’re paying the solicitors off as well, it’s actually very difficult to launder money via property purchasing as the solicitors firm has a responsibility to comply with ML regulations and verify the source of that income - if they get it wrong (even if totally innocently) they would in all likelihood also end up in prison, if you haven’t paid them off and they realise then they have a legal duty to not only report the suspect, but not to in any way inform them that they are suspected, failure to comply with this (known as tipping off) is also likely to result in criminal sanctions.

Of course it goes on in large deals and it is possible but to suggest that any big project is likely to have dirty money in it is akin to suggesting any large wholesalers is selling cocaine on the sly.
Click to expand...

Big banks also have a duty to verify income of deposits into their system. As the BBC Panarama documentary exposed. British banks have been accepting billions and suspected trillions of pounds where there have been no checks. Thus turning dirty money clean, as the banks can and do then verify that money as clean.

The BBC exposed it. The banks are still doing it and as of yet no one has gone to prison or even been charged with crimes.

What is supposed to happen and what actually happens are two very different things. There are plenty and plenty of reputable articles online that point towards half of modern London's property market in particular being built on dirty money. The BBC had their hand in exposing that a few years ago also.
 
Just out of interest, is this project due to take up the land that Boris Island (Airport) was proposed to be built?
 
Sharko said:
Just out of interest, is this project due to take up the land that Boris Island (Airport) was proposed to be built?
Click to expand...
No - Boris Island was due to be built on an artificial island to the north-east of the Isle of Sheppey. London Entertainment Resort, if it happens, is planned to be just north of Swanscombe on the mainland, and a few miles west-ish of the Isle of Sheppey.
 
I don't know much about bank regulation. What's clear is that under the austerity program there have been big cut backs to various inspectorates. This includes big cuts at the Inland Revenue, which ironically means the country ends up worse off, because more tax is evaded. There have also been big cuts at the Health and Safety Executive and Trading Standards, which are largely ineffective these days. The pandemic has exposed weaknesses at both. For example Trading Standards are meant to monitor PPE to make sure it meets UK regulations, and the Health and Safety Executive are supposed to be making sure employers have safe working environments. None of that is direct evidence of money laundering, but I suspect that austerity has made money laundering easier rather than harder. These are small teams in little offices, going after multi billion pound, international organisations.
 
In other news, I did hear a rumour that planning documents are coming online on 1st February.
 
Seems like the planning has been accepted today and moves forward for examination. This isn't a surprise as what is being proposed is going to create a whole host of jobs.

The next hurdles are the toughest ones. Residents and wildlife groups will make a fuss now.
 
rob666 said:
Any sign of the fat wallet to pay for it all then?
Click to expand...

Not from what I can tell.

I think 3.5bn is a serious under estimation of the total cost for this project too. It could end up being 6 to 7bn in all truth from what they have proposed. The new road, infrastructure and Ferry terminals you're taking easily over a billion for starters.

Disneyland Paris cost 5bn and that was nearly 30 years ago just as a comparison.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top