Thread by @karolcummins

💰Bellingham & The British Virgin Islands

Sir Henry Bellingham is the former UK FCO Minister for the Overseas Territories 2010 - 2012

#PanamaPapers #BVI #TaxHavens #GlobalLandromat #TOC

2016:Bellingham in support of the British Virgin Islands Gov’t & financial corporations writes the British Virgin Islands are a 'shining example of a well-regulated, transparent jurisdiction'

#SureJan
politicshome.com/news/world/opi…

🔑Sun, Sand, and the $1.5 Trillion Dark Offshore Economy

🔑The British Virgin Islands is nominally home to 400,000 companies, and desperate to fend off the transparency movement.

bloomberg.com/news/features/…

🔑The British Virgin Islands is home to more than 400,000 companies that hold $1.5 trillion in assets #TOC

🔑One P.O. box can be the home to thousands of shell companies from around the world. #GlobalLandromat #TaxHaven
bloomberg.com/news/features/…

Hundreds of lawyers, accountants, and company agents work from buildings dotted around the main island of Tortola.

🔑In the BVI, the wealth passes through almost without a trace.

Get it?
bloomberg.com/news/features/…

BVI’s Financial Investigation Agency’s database holds details on about 600k owners who have directly/ indirectly controlled companies here.

🔑It’s thought that roughly a third of all offshore companies globally are registered in the BVI.
bloomberg.com/news/features/…

Change is coming to the BVI, though not if the politicians & bizpeople here—as well as [criminal 💰💦 networks]—can help it.

🔑Last year the UK Parliament voted to force transparency on the BVI & the 13 other British Overseas Territories. #2024Deadline
bloomberg.com/news/features/…

It was a rare moment of cross-party consensus among British members of Parliament.

🔑The crucial part of the transparency legislation is a requirement that each Overseas Territory produce something like BOSS and make it public.
bloomberg.com/news/features/…

The BVI’s place in the dark offshore economy was illuminated by the 2016 Panama Papers leak, in which 11.5 million documents from the law firm Mossack Fonseca were released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
bloomberg.com/news/features/…

In 2016 the Panama Papers leak showed how lawyers from Mossack Fonseca worked with European banks...
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

To create more than 200k offshore shell companies for rich clients, including world leaders, 140 politicians & public officials, star athletes and criminals that were used to hide wealth.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

🔑The disclosures sparked probes worldwide into money laundering, sanctions violations, and tax avoidance, and it didn’t pass without notice that MORE THAN HALF of the companies outed in the leak were registered in the BVI.
bloomberg.com/news/features/…

🔑The scandal should have been called the BVI Papers.

📌It was clear from the disclosures that BVI regulation was inadequate, and that remains a concern today:

📌Last year, BVI regulators conducted only four on-site inspections of financial firms.🤔
bloomberg.com/news/features/…

🔑The BVI is, in fact, one of the most vocal opponents of the worldwide transparency drive, which makes the success or failure of its pushback a barometer of whether the global squeeze on the offshore industry is working.

Look for UKimperialism narratives
bloomberg.com/news/features/…

🔑The EU has threatened to blacklist the BVI & other territories unless they adopt rules to prevent global corporations from avoiding taxes by shifting profits to shell companies in zero-tax offshore jurisdictions.

#TOC 💰💦 = anti EU. Get it?
bloomberg.com/news/features/…

📌Corporate profit shifting is estimated to result in $600 BILLION in lost tax revenue annually for countries around the globe, according to the International Monetary Fund.
bloomberg.com/news/features/…

The law passed by Parliament requires the gov’t to order Overseas Territories to create public registers by 2020.
bloomberg.com/news/features/…

📌However, concerned it might cause a revolt from the former colonies, the U.K. government opposed the move by MPs and interpreted the ambiguously worded legislation to mean it could give the territories until 2023.
bloomberg.com/news/features/…

“They trade under our flag, & they have to accept our values,” says MP Andrew Mitchell who pushed for the rules.

“Unless you have the transparency that open, public registers bring, you can’t join up the dots & spot clever money laundering & malfeasance.”
bloomberg.com/news/features/…

📌The standoff has put the legacy of the British Empire in stark relief. Parliament can legislate for the territories, but islanders, who are U.K. citizens, can’t vote in U.K. elections unless they live in the U.K.
bloomberg.com/news/features/…

📌Many in the BVI view the imposition of a public register as a violation of their constitutional relationship with Britain.

#WhoAreTheirClients?
bloomberg.com/news/features/…

1,000 people marched in protest last May, with placards that read “No Imperial Legislation” and “End Colonial Rule.”

📌The then-deputy premier, Kedrick Pickering, declared “open war against the U.K.” TOC vs UK

📌Watch for bots pushing these narratives
bloomberg.com/news/features/…

🔑Put a big pin in this topic as BVI appears to be at the center of the global laundromat/tax haven scandals.

📌Note: Bellingham in 2016 claimed BVI is a 'shining example of a well-regulated, transparent jurisdiction' as the former FCO Minister for the Overseas Territories.

Bellingham’s Statement post the release of the Panama Papers in support of UK Police and Intelligence Services investigations into bringing down organised crime.

henrybellingham.com/campaigns/pana…

Link to Statement: henrybellingham.com/campaigns/pana…

@threadreaderapp unroll please and thank you.

#Bellingham #PanamaPapers #BVI #TaxHavens #GlobalLandromat #TOC

^^ I am starting to knit together the strands. @PaulHanley12