Such folk may want to keep money away from soon-to-be ex-wives, dodge sanctions, launder money or evade taxes. According to Transparency International 113 SLPs played key roles in a money laundering scheme that moved between $20bn and $80bn out of Russia in just four years. The secrets of the SLP’s success are that it is a vehicle with a legal personality (so it can hold assets, borrow money from banks and enter into contracts), has minimal filing requirements, pays no tax on non-UK profits and, while registered in Scotland, can be governed by “members”, or partners, in offshore tax havens. Almost three-quarters of all SLPs registered in 2016 were controlled by anonymous companies based in tax havens. The SLPs then use bank accounts in a EU jurisdiction to transfer large sums of money.