KIEV: Unidentified individuals who appear to be based in Ukraine have set up a Scottish limited partnership or SLP to hire armed guards for merchant ships in the world’s most dangerous waters. The firm, Sea Force Group, late last year advertised in Russian for former soldiers and police officers willing to take to the high seas to fight pirates for just £650 a month.
Its owners have failed to comply with anti-money laundering rules under which they had until August to identify themselves or face daily fines of up to £500.
However, Sea Force Group has been trading since August, placing online recruitment ads in Ukraine as recently as October 2017. The Herald wrote to Sea Force Group its supposed “head office” is a mail drop in Edinburgh with no telephone number to ask why it had not complied with rules under which it has to name a “person of significant control” or PSC if it has one. We received no reply.
Ukraine has become a major centre providing private military services, especially in the third world. The country also has an ongoing conflict in its own east where its government forces are fighting Russian-backed separatists. Back in 2016 The Herald reported that another Edinburgh SLP, Childwall Systems, was providing armed guards for a steel mill close to that conflict zone. It did so despite being officially dissolved. Sea Force Group LP was set up in 2016. Its website, registered in Ukraine in that same year, says the business has been trading since 2011.
