{"id":31061,"date":"2015-10-30T06:52:21","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T06:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=31061"},"modified":"2015-10-30T06:52:21","modified_gmt":"2015-10-30T06:52:21","slug":"the-uk-offering-companies-as-abusive-and-unaccountable-as-those-in-any-tax-haven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2015\/10\/30\/the-uk-offering-companies-as-abusive-and-unaccountable-as-those-in-any-tax-haven\/","title":{"rendered":"The UK: offering companies as abusive and unaccountable as those in any tax haven"},"content":{"rendered":"

The FT has noted this morning that<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Moldova\u2019s government collapsed on Thursday as the fallout from a $1bn theft from the country\u2019s banks dragged Europe\u2019s poorest nation deeper into political crisis.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s lawmakers strongly backed a no-confidence motion against the pro-EU government amid public outrage at its role in the missing $1bn, heralding weeks of political instability and weakening the country\u2019s EU integration efforts.<\/p>\n

The vote came a fortnight after the arrest of the country\u2019s former prime minister<\/a>, who was alleged to have been part of a fraud in which 13.5bn Moldovan lei, equivalent to almost one-fifth of the country\u2019s GDP, was stolen from three of the country\u2019s banks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And how was that money stolen? In part as a consequence of using the anonymity provided by the UK's unaccountable system of corporate law and company registration. This is from the\u00a0Tax Justice Network website<\/a>, pointing out that part of this fraud was supposedly managed from s Scottish flat:<\/p>\n

From the BBC<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe UK is one of the easiest countries in the world to set up a company in, and some agents offer to do it in an hour, for as little as \u00a325.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In standard\u00a0parlance, this makes the UK an \u2018efficient\u2019 place to set up a company, reassuringly free of that pesky \u2018red tape.\u2019\u00a0All good stuff.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

But wait a moment.\u00a0This quote comes\u00a0from a story that also contains this:<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe loss of the money \u2014 equivalent to an eighth of Moldova\u2019s entire GDP \u2014 has thrown the country into economic and political chaos.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And this money seems to have disappeared via this Scottish ex-council flat in our picture. More precisely, as the report notes:<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cOne of the companies registered at the address is Fortuna United LP, the UK partnership named in a leaked report by Moldova\u2019s central bank as the firm with the rights to the billion dollars which disappeared last year from three of the country\u2019s main banks.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

See the story for the full details \u2014 but to cut a long story short, a\u00a0result of all this looks like this<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

UK lax \u00a0regulation is long overdue for reform, as I have often argued<\/a>. When it is serious enough to help bring down governments something is very wrong. And it certainly shows that we operate structures as abusive and as unaccountable as those in any tax haven.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The FT has noted this morning that: Moldova\u2019s government collapsed on Thursday as the fallout from a $1bn theft from the country\u2019s banks dragged Europe\u2019s
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