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/

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

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…

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)

💥🔎 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.

https://twitter.com/ICIJorg/status/1307364121986334721

https://twitter.com/i/status/1307377543843115011

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 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

Hmm. Last Friday was supposed to mark the end of corporate secrecy in Europe🎉

EU countries should all now have publicly-accessible registers showing the true owners of companies #AMLD5

But there was no champagne. No trumpets🎺🍾

Why @TimmermansEU? @VDombrovskis?🤷‍♀️
THREAD1/8 @TimmermansEU @VDombrovskis 4 yrs ago, after @ICIJorg, @SZ & other media published #panamapapers🏝️, the EU admitted its efforts to catch those using anonymous companies to commit crimes🕵️‍♀️ & hide assets👑💍🏆💰 (AMLD4) were not working.
2/8

AN UPDATE THREAD: 5yrs ago, whistleblower @AmjadOmarRihan, exposed glaring failures at the heart of Dubai's massive gold market. A multi-billion dollar story of suspected laundering, secrecy and greed /1
theguardian.com/business/2014/… @AmjadOmarRihan .@AmjadOmarRihan’s evidence showed that huge shipments of gold arriving in Dubai were highly suspect. For example, silver plating used to hide smuggled gold from Morocco; or gold sold for cash to little-known customers, with no paperwork. /2

#ImplantFiles update: I missed this yesterday... CR Bard, one of the biggest manufacturers of vaginal mesh, is "voluntarily removing" mesh products, including Avaulta & Align, from European markets (h/t @MeshCampaign) 1/6
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5c7fef30… In its statement, Bard (now part of @BDandCo) refers to a “product removal”. Says it's “initiating a cease in production & distribution …with immediate effect”. Does not use the word “recall”. 👇

Also says “This product removal has not resulted from any safety concerns” 2/6

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👇...

Remember how cross-party UK politicians @margarethodge & Andrew Mitchell last year won a famous victory over gov’t, forcing through a corporate transparency amendment that’ll compel BVI & other UK Overseas Territories to reveal shell company owners? 1/6 icij.org/investigations… Well, what about UK Crown Dependencies (Jersey/Guernsey/Isle of Man)? Somehow they lobbied not to be caught by the same transparency rules as Overseas Ts.

Here's a tweet from Jersey's chief minister paying tribute to the lobbying skill of @JerseyDiplo aka Philip Bailhache👇 2/6

Impact💥: EU has opened a state aid investigation into tax deals NL🇳🇱 gave to Nike... tax avoidance deals that were exposed in @ICIJorg's #ParadisePapers investigation. I am *so proud* of the work @ICIJorg partners did to expose these structures!
europa.eu/rapid/press-re… Our @ICIJorg investigation into Nike's tax affairs started with a scrap of leaked data from Bermuda...
...and this receipt for these running shoes 👇

THREAD 1/ Today is the one-year anniversary of President Trump's signing into law the U.S. Tax Cuts & Jobs Act (TCJA).

So how's that going? 2/ TCJA has resulted in a towering U.S. deficit that is now poised to invert the Treasury yield curve — a heavy signal of impending recession.

reuters.com/article/us-mar…

After @ICIJorg #implantfiles, the U.S. FDA promises reforms to the way it authorizes new medical devices, many of which escape full scrutiny, waved through on claims they are “substantially equivalent” to existing products. This fast-track clearance is "510(k)". THREAD (1/10) This is shocking news. Eight years ago the FDA commissioned the Institute of Medicine to carry out a detailed review of 510(k). The IoM reported back that 510(k) was “fatally flawed” and should be scrapped. (2/10)

THREAD /1 Some reflections after Nike’s evidence to the EU TAXE3 parliamentary committee: First, hats off to chief tax officer Patti Johnson for turning up & speaking for Nike on tax avoidance practices stretching back 13 yrs (she's been at Nike 12 months) europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/… /2 I was surprised, though, to hear her say “Nike’s tax structure reflects our business structure”. Does it? Take a look at the Swoosh trademark, which Nike says is among its "most valuable assets”. Where is this trademark (for Europe) held?

Apple brags of record-breaking repatriation tax payment. In truth, it's getting a MASSIVE govt giveaway, retroactively rewarding years of tax avoidance. New law means foreign earnings(previously taxed35%,but on which Apple took deferrals)now taxed15.5% /1 nr.apple.com/dE0z8p9M3g Apple's balance sheet already contains provisions of $36bn for deferred tax liabilities that will now be subject to HUGE windfall write-backs —underlining the fact that this IS a retroactive govt giveaway (to the world's most profitable corporation) /2 sec.gov/Archives/edgar…