UK Backs Panama Papers Crackdown On 'Dirty Money' Havens
The U.K. will force its overseas territories, including some well-known corporate secrecy havens, to reveal the names of company owners in these locations.
MAY 1, 2018
READING TIME
3 MINUTES
REPORTING BY
Simon Bowers
The United Kingdom is to force its overseas territories, including the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands and other well-known corporate secrecy havens, to reveal the names of the ultimate owners behind companies in these remote locations.
The surprise move, which until Tuesday had not been supported by prime minister Theresa May’s government, is a victory for corporate transparency campaigners who have long claimed that offshore secrecy encourages and enables corruption, tax evasion, money laundering and other crimes around the world.
It comes two years after the ICIJ’s Panama Papers investigation showed one in every two companies found in Mossack Fonseca’s files — the controversial law firm at heart of the scandal — was incorporated in the BVI. Mossack Fonseca closed down in March.
Duncan Hames, of Transparency International UK, said “these jurisdictions have long been the Achilles’ heel of our defenses against dirty money.”
More:
https://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/uk-backs-panama-papers-crackdown-dirty-money-havens/
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