Beneficial owner

The ultimate beneficial owner is the natural person who, in the final analysis, owns or controls a company. The reference threshold is holding more than 25% of the capital or the voting rights, but control may also arise by other means, for example a shareholders' agreement or the power to appoint directors. Where no such person can be identified, the law designates the legal representative. Identifying them is mandatory under anti-money laundering rules. The real difficulty is tracing ownership chains rather than stopping at the first level: stacking holding companies, sometimes abroad, is precisely how a fraudulent arrangement conceals who controls the business.