From the outside, 29 Harley Street looks like any other office block in central London. But it is an entry port to Moneyland, Oliver Bullough's term for a virtual country populated by the mega-rich and their hangers-on. The building came to prominence when Ukrainian anti-corruption campaigners investigated Mezhyhirya (pictured), the once-secret retreat of Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine's disgraced former president. The ownership of the grotesquely luxurious palace passed through this respectable London address before ending up in anonymity in Liechtenstein.
Mr Bullough and others found that 29 Harley Street was the registered office for more than 2,000 other companies. An outfit based there that provides registrations has created 10m firms in the past 16 years, in jurisdictions ranging from Britain to the Seychelles. As Mr Bullough stresses, none of this is necessarily illegal.
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