Herbert Wigwe, the deceased Access Bank group chief executive officer, who perished alongside his wife and son in a 2024 helicopter crash, is among the top 10 foreign landlords of luxury properties in London, United Kingdom, with over 100 land assets in his name.
The properties are strategically positioned in highbrow areas, such as Oxford Street, Canary Wharf, Greenwich Peninsula, and other parts of the UK.
A report by The Londoner, a UK-based newspaper, on Thursday revealed that foreigners like Nigeria’s Wigwe, Thai billionaire Rit Thirakomen, with 120 properties; Simon Reuben, with 129 properties; and Saudi prince make up the list of top ten property owners in the British capital.
With 106 properties, Mr Wigwe is the seventh highest foreign landlord on British soil. He died on February 9, 2024, near the Los Angeles-Nevada border, and his unprecedented demise triggered a bitter legal dispute among his associates and extended family members who sought ownership of his assets.
According to The Londoner, foreigners and their companies have long used tax havens in Jersey, as well as shell companies, as a cover to acquire properties in London and obfuscate any paper trail that will link them to the assets.
For tax havens in Jersey, where company owners are allowed to remain unknown, foreign billionaires have leveraged the anonymity to purchase tens to hundreds of properties in the UK.
The use of such offshore structures allowed beneficial owners to remain anonymous for years. But this changed in 2022 when the UK government introduced reforms requiring foreign property owners and entities to disclose their identities in a public register.
“That disclosure allowed Dan Neidle and the Tax Policy Associates to create a database of all of those properties that they released in January,” The Londoner said in a report.
The database ranked John Corless first with 246 properties, followed by Sarah Bard with 130. Simon Reuben placed third with 129 properties, while Alexander Bard ranked fourth with 122. Mr Wigwe, with 106 properties, was placed seventh.
