Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

You can paste full URL like: https://x.com/threadreaderapp/status/1644127596119195649
or just the ID like: 1644127596119195649

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

  1. On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
  2. Click again on or Share Via icon
  3. Click on Copy Link to Tweet
  4. Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
  5. More info at Twitter Help
Simon Bowers Profile picture
@sbowers00
Mar 7, 2019 • 5 tweets • 4 min read • Read on X
IMPACT: Finally! Almost five years after @ICIJorg & our brilliant media partners exposed the #LuxLeaks tax avoidance scandal, @vestager at the European Commission has opened an investigation into suspected illegal state aid europa.eu/rapid/press-re…
...OK, not many have heard of Finnish firm Huhtamäki - the €3.4bn maker of egg box and Burger King drink cups. But the tax ruling they received from Luxembourg, thanks to @PwC, was shocking, as @EU_Competition explains👇... Image
...only last month, @ICIJorg asked why the @vestager had not yet opened a single case against LuxLeaks tax rulings - especially given some cases involved fictitious interest payments👇...
icij.org/investigations… Image
...This is the 2nd tax investigation the European Commission has opened this year in response to reporting by @ICIJorg and its media partners (Nike is the other👇)....
...Reporting that probes the secret activities of powerful, global corporations takes a lot of journalistic effort. It you appreciate the work we're doing, please consider supporting @ICIJorg. Thank you. (End of thread) icij.org/donate/

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Simon Bowers

Simon Bowers Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @sbowers00

Simon Bowers Profile picture
Mar 8
Exactly 2yrs ago, the UK promised "new legislation to tackle economic crime following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”
“...Reforms to bear down on the use of 🇬🇧LIMITED PARTNERSHIPS for money laundering, including ILLICIT RUSSIAN FINANCE”
But it's *not* working ⛔️Why?
( 🧵 1/)
To recap: Boris Johnson promised the UK would “open up the matryoshka dolls🪆of Russian-owned entities to find the ultimate beneficiaries within.”
(He’s right: it's often Russians who hide beneath layers of anonymity inside 🇬🇧PARTNERSHIPS)
2/
In truth, 🇬🇧's corporate register has been an enabler platform for Russia-linked kleptocracy, corruption, foreign influence, disinformation & organised crime since the 2000s. Thousands of anonymous PARTNERSHIPS were set up —including 💯s involved in laundering mega-scandals👇3/
Read 15 tweets
Simon Bowers Profile picture
Oct 23, 2020
Thank you 🙏 to UK's Treasury Select Committee @CommonsTreasury for today launching a parliamentary inquiry into the UK's role in international money laundering in the wake of #FinCENFiles
@ICIJorg @BuzzFeedNews @BBCPanorama @PrivateEyeNews THREAD 1/7
#FinCENFiles showed 3,267 UK shell companies🇬🇧🐚 linked to suspicious bank transactions🕵️‍💰 — far more than companies from better known secrecy havens

@ICIJorg analyzed them and found 75% had been set up & maintained by just nine company formation agencies
2/7
When we looked closer at company formation agencies, we found:

▶️ Financial statements being signed without any checks
▶️ False financial statements omitting $$ 💯s millions (a criminal offense)
▶️ Allegations of forgery
▶️ Straw men/women controlled by overseas puppeteers
3/7
Read 7 tweets
Simon Bowers Profile picture
Sep 23, 2020
6⃣signatures✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️

⏩1⃣belongs to a Belgian dentist 🦷
⏩5⃣, the dentist says, to an imposter🥸

The "fake 5" are a sample from 💯s of annual financial statements filed by UK shell companies, bearing the dentist/imposter's signature

#FinCENFiles THREAD 1/13🧵
This thread gives some highlights from our #FinCENFiles reporting on shell-company formation agencies, their close ties to Baltic banks & the role they play in money laundering schemes.

You can continue on the thread (2/13)

Or get the full story here: icij.org/investigations…
The dentist/imposter is "Ali Moulaye", a straw man paid to front UK shell companies for IOS

IOS is a shell-company factory🏭🐚, creating anonymous firms loved by crooks

In the #FinCENFiles, we found 646 UK shells🐚 created by IOS that were linked to suspicious payments
(3/13)
Read 13 tweets
Simon Bowers Profile picture
Sep 20, 2020
Ta-da: #FinCENFiles - a major collaborative journalism investigation!📢📢📢

“Wait, the FinCEN what?”

OK, here’s a quick bit of context….
(THREAD 🧵1/8)
The Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, forced U.S. banks - much against their will - to secretly rat on their own customers, and on those with whom their customers did business, when they thought they were up to no good. (2/8)
By 1996, this mandatory snitching had become a vital intelligence-gathering tool (not least in the "war on drugs") and was formalized into Suspicious Activity Reports. After 9/11, SARs were firmly part of the "war on terror", too. (3/8)
Read 9 tweets
Simon Bowers Profile picture
Sep 20, 2020
💥🔎 Big investigation breaking today 💥 6pm (UK/Ire), 7pm (Paris/Berlin), 1pm (NY)

Log on, tune in, listen up: Find out WHAT THE BANKS *REALLY* KNOW about crooks & their dirty money 💰

@ICIJorg, @BuzzFeedNews & >100 other media outlets #FinCENFiles.
Read 4 tweets
Simon Bowers Profile picture
Apr 18, 2020
ICYMI: Whistleblower Amjad Rihan has won $10.8m damages from his former employer EY 6yrs after being pushed out for exposing a multi-billion-dollar cover-up in EY’s audit of Dubai gold refiner Kaloti.

Here's some highlights from the judgment ⚖️👇🔥THREAD - 1/8 Image
The 133-page decision is a HUGE victory for whistleblowing. 😇🍾🎺🎉

Perhaps EY imagined dragging Rihan & his family through a miserable legal claim would placate powerful figures in Dubai, or serve as a warning to other potential WBs.

If so, the plan has backfired 2/8
In court, EY claimed Rihan was a liar and a fantasist, a self-publicist and a paranoid conspiracy theorist.

The judge did not agree. ⚖️🎉 He found that the more Rihan was attacked, the clearer it became that the whistleblower was “truthful and honest”. 3/8 Image
Read 8 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

Send Email!

:(