The Virgin Islands’ financial services industry continues to be heavily criticized through media reports, but Executive Director of the recently formed BVI Finance, Mr Kedrick Malone believes the attacks are politically motivated, reports BVI Platinum. “I think a lot of the media you are seeing is politically motivated. It is… – Continue reading
SANTIAGO, CHILE – Prosecutors are asking a judge to charge the owners of a prominent Chilean financial company with bribery, tax evasion and illegally financing the campaign of right-wing politicians. Attorney General Sabas Chahuan is seeking formal charges against Carlos Delano and Carlos Lavin, who own the Penta Group, which… – Continue reading
New figures have revealed more than 3,000 properties in Camden and Barnet are registered in secret offshore havens – among the highest numbers in the capital. A leading anti-corruption charity released the data yesterday as it called on the government to implement tough new regulations to increase transparency over property… – Continue reading
Boris Johnson today called for a massive tax rise to stop foreign crooks using the London housing market to launder dirty money. The mayor claimed ‘international despots and criminal rings’ were using phoney companies to buy homes in the capital. More than 35,000 London properties are owned by secretive offshore… – Continue reading
UK official data show that almost 41,000 London properties owned by foreign companies 90% are based in tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands (BVI), which do not have to disclose ownership information. Transparency International, the anti-corruption organisation, used Land Registry and Metropolitan Police data to identify 40,725 properties… – Continue reading
Billions of pounds of corruptly gained money has been laundered by criminals and foreign officials buying upmarket London properties through anonymous offshore front companies – making the city arguably the world capital of money laundering. Some 36,342 properties in London have been bought through hidden companies in offshore havens and… – Continue reading
James Emejo in Abuja
 The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on Tuesday inaugurated the Anti-corruption and Transparency Monitoring Unit (ACTU) in the former to boost integrity as well as enhance transparency in its operations. Speaking at the launch in… – Continue reading
Anti-corruption groups and Met detectives say £180m worth of real estate is under investigation as being used in money laundering and stolen capital Hundreds of millions of pounds’ worth of UK properties held in secretive offshore companies have been used to launder the proceeds of international corruption, Scotland Yard investigators… – Continue reading
Criminals, tax evaders, human traffickers and drug dealers have laundered billions of pounds worth of dirty money purchasing British properties through anonymous offshore companies, Scotland Yard investigators suspect. The Metropolitan Police say more than £180 million (US$276 million) worth of British property has been subject to criminal investigation since 2004… – Continue reading
KUALA LUMPUR: Georgia is motivated to enhance economic cooperation with Malaysia, which has one of the most open economies in the world, its Charge d’Affaires ad interim (a.i.) to Malaysia Levan Machavariani said. “Malaysia is one of the world’s most open economies and fully integrated in the world’s trade and… – Continue reading
Income tax returns filed with the Inland Revenue by former PN MPs Michael Falzons and Ninu Zammit paint a modest picture of their earnings in the 1970s and 1980s, and, as expected, make no mention of the money in their Swiss bank accounts. The tax returns were obtained from the… – Continue reading
‘His failure to make more noise is odd’ says prominent tax QC His father, Nicholas, has worked for banks operating in tax havens Wife, Miriam Gonzalez Durantez’s, firm advertises ‘tax-planning services’ Lib Dems insist there is no conflict of interest involved in his position Not long ago, a law firm… – Continue reading
Making tax-transparency standards watertight will be difficult THE optimistic view of the tax-evasion scandals that have bedevilled banks since 2008 is that they can only be seen in the rear-view mirror. The incriminating files in the latest case, regarding tax-dodging personal accounts held at the Swiss arm of HSBC, date… – Continue reading
ISLAMABAD: Transparency International (TI) has urged the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to investigate evasion of tax, and call for information about the Pakistani investors who have succeeded to transfer Rs430 billion investment on the purchases of properties during the year 2013 and 2014. In a letter written to NAB chairman,… – Continue reading
As for the central message that an NRI/PIO want to hear from Modi’s most important budget of his term can be best summed by what he said during an event in central park New York “May the force be with you “Veni Vidi Vici!” he came, he saw and he… – Continue reading
Greece’s far-left government was last night thrashing out a new package of economic reforms that it claims will crack down on tax evasion and overhaul its bloated civil service. The stricken Mediterranean country has been given until today to unveil the measures after reaching an agreement with its creditors from… – Continue reading
Growing trend of chasing ‘high net worth foreign nationals’? Cooperation between HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and foreign tax authorities will only increase as more countries sign up to automatic tax information exchange agreements. This is according to Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, which obtained figures showing a… – Continue reading
Basel, Switzerland (dpa) – Swiss prosecutors searched HSBC‘s private bank in Geneva Wednesday after launching an investigation into aggravated money laundering against the financial institute. The Geneva prosecution office said it was reacting to last week‘s media reports, which alleged that the Swiss branch of the major British lender helped… – Continue reading
KUALA LUMPUR: A student movement today demanded that the government make it mandatory for top officials to publicly declare their assets in the wake of news about Malaysian public figures keeping millions of ringgit in offshore accounts. Anak Muda Harapan Malaysia (AMHM) said in a press statement that wealth declaration… – Continue reading
Madrid’s public prosecution has accused two high-level tax officials under former prime minister José Luis Zapatero’s administration of helping hundreds of suspected tax dodgers implicated in the HSBC scandal to avoid possible jail sentences, according to Spanish daily newspaper El Pais. María Dolores Bustamante, the former director of tax management… – Continue reading
Former Enemalta chairman Tancred Tabone had set up a Jersey offshore trust into which he deposited $1 million, according to the HSBC data revealed in Swiss leaks. Reporting on the matter today, The Guardian said Mr Tabone planned to transfer more funds, with the bank noting “the potential is evaluated… – Continue reading
Feb 12 (Reuters) – Brazilian Trade Minister Armando Monteiro said on Thursday he does not see much chance of agreeing on a tax treaty with the United States in the short term. In an interview during a visit to Washington, his first overseas trip as minister, Monteiro said double taxation,… – Continue reading
Documents detail customers who faced allegations including drug-running, corruption, doping and money laundering This article is the subject of a legal complaint made on behalf of Anura Perera. HSBC’s Swiss bank concealed large sums of money for people facing allegations of serious wrongdoing, including drug-running, corruption and money laundering, leaked… – Continue reading
NAMIBIANS who have Swiss bank accounts could face an Anti-Corruption Commission investigation if they evaded tax and money was transferred after the graft body was established. ACC director Paulus Noa told The Namibian yesterday that the ACC can only investigate the accounts if any Namibian holders of Swiss bank accounts… – Continue reading
NINETY nine Tanzanians own 114 million US dollars (over 200bn/-) stashed away in 286 bank accounts in just one bank in Switzerland, a cache of leaked documents from the Swiss arm of the HSBC bank shows. The findings follow a massive cache of leaked data that revealed how the Swiss… – Continue reading
Davidson Iriekpen with agency report New records obtained by the Paris-based Le Monde newspaper and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) have unveiled more details on the $182 million Halliburton bribery scandal in Nigeria that indicted several top government official, in the country who received the bribes, but for… – Continue reading
By Eugene Okumu and Lola Okulo KENYA has been ranked 58th in a global list of countries with the most dollar deposits in Swiss banks, at a whopping Sh51.18 billion ($559.8 million). This is according to a leaked report titled Swiss Leaks, compiled by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists… – Continue reading
BEIJING – Li Xiaolin, daughter of former Chinese Premier Li Peng, known for his support of the bloody military crackdown on the 1989 democracy movement in Beijing, held close to $2.5 million in a secret HSBC account in Switzerland, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has found. The revelation,… – Continue reading
A recent report detailing how Africa lost $US1-trillion in the last 50 years through illicit financial flows of money has raised questions about it’s abilities to curb fraud evasion and other means of corporate profit hiding. It has also sparked interest in holding multinational corporates, which are mainly responsible for… – Continue reading
The ultimate owners of firms would have to be listed in central registers in EU countries, accessible to people with a “legitimate interest”, such as investigative journalists and other concerned citizens, under a deal struck by Parliament and Council negotiators on a draft EU anti-money laundering directive on Tuesday. The… – Continue reading
The United Nations (UN) has plumped for greater cooperation among countries to put in place a set of safeguards and rules for tax reforms the world over in the bleak backdrop of extant rules and conditions, “particularly regarding illicit flows, as well as tax avoidance” often limiting what governments can… – Continue reading
Weak governance means Africa loses more than $50bn each year in unpaid taxes and money laundering, a new report has found. The analysis, published jointly by the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, concluded that a lack of financial transparency and difficulties in obtaining systematic data… – Continue reading
SELF-assessment is a vital element of tax policy and is employed by many countries to collect taxes as it is considered more efficient and cost-effective. Pakistan adopted universal self-assessment for all taxpayers in 2002-03 to ensure voluntary compliance. Using the technique of ordinary least square regression and quarterly data for… – Continue reading
Private companies often get away with tax evasion because they can afford better lawyers than government, former president Thabo Mbeki has said. “The problem is that private companies or large companies are able to mobilise much better skills with regards to lawyers, accountants, banking people and all that, so they… – Continue reading
Tax avoidance costs developing countries billions every year. So this week 16 domestic and internationally focused organisations have joined forces to launch a campaign for a Tax Dodging Bill. When I mention in the course of a conversation that I work for an international development charity, I often get an… – Continue reading
The news that the government was considering to include fiscal offences like serious tax crimes/tax evasion into the ambit of money laundering under the proposed Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) would appear to be quite strange for the business community and other taxpayers. This surprising piece of information was disclosed by… – Continue reading
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Chinese property companies are having to turn to more expensive sources of finance as problems at developer Kaisa Group make it increasingly difficult for them to get credit in the offshore market. Kaisa’s failure this month to make an interest payment on a dollar bond has… – Continue reading
He was known to authorities as Brazil’s black-market central banker, a career criminal who smuggled cash for the rich and powerful by private jet and armored car. Now Alberto Youssef — a rum-runner turned money-launderer turned reputed billionaire — has emerged as a principal player in the biggest corruption scandal… – Continue reading
While Chinese officials aren’t required to disclose their assets publicly, citizens have remained largely in the dark about the parallel economy that can allow the powerful and well-connected to avoid taxes and keep their dealings secret. By some estimates, between $US1 trillion and $US4 trillion in untraced assets have left… – Continue reading
* Bonds up around seven points * Kaisa missed bond coupon payment last week * Case could be test of China’s bankruptcy law (Adds comments, updates price) By Umesh Desai HONG KONG, Jan 13 (Reuters) – Bonds issued by Kaisa Group rose sharply on Tuesday after the embattled Chinese property… – Continue reading
RAMALLAH, January 12, 2015 (WAFA) – Premier Rami Hamdallah slammed Monday Israel’s ongoing withholding of Palestinian tax revenues as illegal. “Israel’s ongoing withholding of Palestinian tax revenues is illegal and stands in violation with international laws and norms,” said Hamdallah during a meeting with Representative of India to Palestine Mahesh… – Continue reading
A senior Indian Revenue Services (IRS) officer attached to the investigation wing of the Income Tax department here is under the scanner of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which is probing a multi-city income tax evasion scam involving senior Income Tax (I-T) officials, chartered accountants and businessmen, The Hindu… – Continue reading
Bonds issued by Kaisa Group rose sharply on Tuesday after the embattled Chinese property developer said it had received a waiver from HSBC Holdings on a loan it failed to repay in late December 2014. Kaisa, which is struggling with the sudden departure of senior executives, government officials blocking sales… – Continue reading
(ATHENS) – Greece’s new anti-corruption tsar Panagiotis Nikoloudis has been tasked with recovering 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion) for the debt-strapped government’s coffers through a ruthless crackdown on tax evasion. The former Supreme Court deputy prosecutor and Greece’s first ever anti-corruption minister told AFP he was itching to tackle the… – Continue reading
Two Australian mining companies will be forced to disclose how much tax they pay in every country around the world by new transparency laws introduced in Canada. Paladin Energy and OceanaGold, both dual-listed in Australia and Canada, will have to comply with new Canadian laws requiring all oil, gas and… – Continue reading
More leaked documents relating to tax avoidance schemes involving Luxembourg’s government under the leadership of Jean-Claude Juncker, now President of the European Union (EU) Commission, have intensified the political crisis surrounding the EU. It comes at a time of growing opposition to the pro-business EU and the vicious austerity cuts… – Continue reading
Coalition plan for stripping ‘cloak of secrecy’ from shell firms that leaves housing loophole slated by politicians and other critics Business minister Matthew Hancock unveiled ‘the first UK anti-corruption plan bringing action across the government’. Photograph: Jack Taylor/Barcroft Media Government plans to rip “the cloak of secrecy” from corrupt officials… – Continue reading
Companies will be forced to disclose their ultimate owners on national registers in European Union nations as the bloc seeks to clamp down on tax dodging, money laundering and terrorism financing. European Parliament legislators and representatives of 28 EU national governments struck a deal late yesterday to upgrade the bloc’s… – Continue reading
The ultimate owners of companies would have to be listed in central registers in EU countries, accessible to people with a “legitimate interest”, such as investigative journalists and other concerned citizens, under a deal struck by Parliament and Council negotiators on a draft EU anti-money laundering directive on Tuesday. The… – Continue reading
Last March MEPs voted overwhelmingly to introduce a new transparency disclosure rule that would compel all 28 European states to make publicly accessible the real owners of companies and trusts. The decision was hailed as a major breakthrough by anti-corruption campaigners fighting financial crime and tax abuse. Lawyers working for… – Continue reading
