I note that Nick Shaxson has re-christened the Channel Islands the Selfish Isles on the TJN blog, and ne’er was a name so well chosen.
I’m afraid there’s another Selfish Isles story from this weekend to illustrate the point, this time from the Guernsey Evening Post, the partner to Jersey’s Evening Post. Peter Body, the editor [...]
The Jersey Evening Post had an article in its pages on Friday with the title:
Any truth in Murphy’s Law?
The Murphy is question turned out to be:
arch enemy of tax havens Richard Murphy.
I know that’s me because they referred to my blog from last Monday on the Isle of Man failing to secure EU approval for [...]
The Guardian has reported that:
The Serious Fraud Office has begun a new investigation into British links with one of the biggest corruption inquiries in Africa. UK firms won huge contracts from the Kenyan governments of presidents Daniel arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki, but anti-corruption investigators have discovered that many were fictitious and amounted to state-sponsored [...]
There’s wide coverage this morning of the purchase of Telent (the last rump of the old GE / Marconi empire) to the Guernsey based Pension Corporation. As the Times reports it:
Telent agreed to a £400 million takeover by a subsidiary of Pension Corporation, a Guernsey-based retirement fund consolidator that is run by the private equity [...]
Why is Ed Balls on the Channel Islands all-party parliamentary group for the Channel Islands?
I’d really likely to know.
According to Yahoo:
Indonesia plans to reopen a corruption investigation into the youngest son of former dictator Suharto, the attorney general’s office said Monday.
Tommy Suharto has so far escaped trial over allegations that he corruptly amassed millions of dollars during the three decades that his father ruled Indonesia with an iron fist.
Where are the millions stashed? [...]
This week Jersey has tried to be all thing to all people. First it tells the US Senate how compliant its finance industry. Then it bangs it’s drum about winning the ‘Offshore Finance Centre of the Year Award’. Look at this stuff from the associated press release:
In winning the prestigious award, Jersey beat off competition [...]
Accountancy Age report that UK accountants PKF have seen evidence that the banks who have made disclosure of offshore bank accounts held by UK resident individuals have also made disclsoure of UK based offshore trusts and companies.
It has been believed until now that the orders issued against the banks excluded this information. However, since money [...]
It’s a bit like asking is the Pope a Catholic really, isn’t it?
Some of the latest evidence is available here.
And note who was doing the dirty work - some lawyers.
It’s fascinating to read the response to the UK’s ‘tax amnesty’ in the Channel Islands. Remember, the information the Revenue have got on half a million or more accounts only comes from there and the Isle of Man, with Jersey having more cash than the others by some way on deposit with its banks.
Geoff Cook [...]
