{"id":6514,"date":"2010-04-01T18:41:02","date_gmt":"2010-04-01T16:41:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=6514"},"modified":"2010-04-01T18:41:02","modified_gmt":"2010-04-01T16:41:02","slug":"hong-kong-company-in-minutes-increase-fraud-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2010\/04\/01\/hong-kong-company-in-minutes-increase-fraud-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong company in minutes increase fraud risk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424052702304252704575156831721859718.html\">Hong Kong Plan Raises Tax Concern - WSJ.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As the Wall Street Journal notes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The Hong Kong government wants to make it faster and easier to set up a corporation, even as recent high-profile U.S. criminal cases have revealed that some tax evaders have used Hong Kong shell companies to hide their identities.<\/p>\n<p>By early 2011, Hong Kong wants to set up electronic incorporation and registration of businesses, allowing a person anywhere in the world to establish a company via the Internet in a matter of minutes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But as the paper also notes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>But the use of Hong Kong firms by some people as a front for illegal activities has raised questions about whether a shadier business segment flourishes here.<\/p>\n<p>At least three American clients of <a class=\"companyRollover link11unvisited\" href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/public\/quotes\/main.html?type=djn&amp;symbol=UBS\">UBS<\/a> AG who have entered guilty pleas in U.S. courts used Hong Kong shell companies to obscure their ownership of Swiss accounts. In December, a Hong Kong shell company was used to lease a plane that attempted to carry weapons from North Korea to Iran but was intercepted in Thailand.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Candidly - no one on earth needs a company in minutes. I stress, no one.<\/p>\n<p>This is negation of responsibility. Why don't governments have a duty to undertake fit and proper person tests on who forms companies? Surely, this is the most basic pre-requisite for tackling fraud - and this proposal flies in the face of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hong Kong Plan Raises Tax Concern &#8211; WSJ.com. As the Wall Street Journal notes: The Hong Kong government wants to make it faster and easier<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2010\/04\/01\/hong-kong-company-in-minutes-increase-fraud-risk\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/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":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corruption"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6514","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=6514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6514\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}