{"id":41566,"date":"2018-04-29T12:08:30","date_gmt":"2018-04-29T11:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=41566"},"modified":"2018-04-29T12:08:30","modified_gmt":"2018-04-29T11:08:30","slug":"the-uk-government-is-defending-the-tax-haven-secrecy-that-helps-russian-criminals-launder-billions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2018\/04\/29\/the-uk-government-is-defending-the-tax-haven-secrecy-that-helps-russian-criminals-launder-billions\/","title":{"rendered":"The UK government is defending the tax haven secrecy that helps Russian criminals launder billions"},"content":{"rendered":"

I thought I might share this press release, from Christian Aid, out this morning:<\/em><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s revelations<\/a>\u00a0that British Virgin Islands companies helped Russian mobsters launder tens of billions put the UK Government in a highly embarrassing position, Christian Aid is warning.<\/p>\n

The revelations \u2014 from\u00a0Global Witness<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 come before an MPs\u2019 vote on Tuesday about secrecy in UK Overseas Territories such as the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands.<\/p>\n

Ministers face a Parliamentary rebellion as cross-party support gathers for a reform that would help end secrecy in the such tax havens, amid the growing evidence that it enables serious crime globally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe latest revelations about Russian mobsters using the\u00a0British Virgin Islands<\/a>\u00a0to launder billions put ministers in a highly embarrassing position. Are they really going to keep defending the system that enabled this, in the face of powerful, cross-party demand for change?\u201d asked Simon Kirkland, Christian Aid\u2019s UK Parliamentary and Political Advisor.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if UK tax havens are washing money for the Russian mafia, who else are they doing it for?\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s Parliamentary rebellion is being\u00a0led by Dame Margaret Hodge MP, former Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, and supported by Andrew Mitchell MP, former International Development Secretary. Supporting it so far are 18 Conservative MPs, eight serving Select Committee Chairs and 14 former Cabinet Ministers.<\/p>\n

Simon Kirkland added: \u201cOver the years, a clear and shameful pattern has emerged, in which UK tax haven secrecy has helped the corrupt to\u00a0steal vast sums from poor countries<\/a>\u00a0and to launder cash generated through\u00a0horrific crimes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile ministers\u00a0persistently obstruct reforms<\/a>\u00a0that would help clean up our tax havens, it is hard not to conclude they are on the wrong side, despite their\u00a0warm words<\/a>\u00a0about the rule of law and justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christian Aid has campaigned for years for UK tax havens to have to publicly reveal the real owners of the myriad companies they host, because of the evidence that secrecy harms people in developing countries.<\/p>\n

The UK itself has already introduced a public register of companies\u2019 real owners and former Prime Minister\u00a0David Cameron tried and failed<\/a>\u00a0to persuade UK tax havens to follow suit. The current government, however, has been more ready to defend the status quo.<\/p>\n

Christian Aid strongly supports the cross-party MPs who have said they will vote for transparency in the UK\u2019s Overseas Territories in Tuesday\u2019s vote on the\u00a0Sanctions Bill<\/a>. The vote is on an amendment which would require UK Overseas Territories to introduce public registers of companies\u2019 real owners by 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are delighted to see how senior MPs of all parties have stood up to support this welcome amendment and we urge many more to join them,\u201d added Mr Kirkland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe British Virgin Islands claims that its existing private, non-centralised register of companies\u2019 real owners is adequate but a recent\u00a0review of the evidence<\/a>\u00a0by Christian Aid suggests otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne acute problem is that because it\u2019s a private register, developing countries cannot see the information in it. Furthermore, because it\u2019s not a centralised register, information may take a long time to reach the authorities that need it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I thought I might share this press release, from Christian Aid, out this morning: Today\u2019s revelations\u00a0that British Virgin Islands companies helped Russian mobsters launder tens
 Read the full article…<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,14,80,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bvi","category-corruption","category-secrecy-jurisdictions","category-tax-havens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41566\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}