About John Christensen
The Offshore Wrapper: a week in tax justice #33
America is haunted by phantoms An anonymous company is a brilliant way of hiding wealth and covering up all kinds of dodgy business. They are hugely popular in the more sophisticated circles of the criminal world. TweetShare
The Price We Pay “near miraculous”
Harold Crooks’ documentary film about tax avoidance has been selected as one of the six best documentaries submitted this year to the Toronto International Film Festival. In his review, critic Jason Gorber cites the balanced arguments, the “flawless” editing, and describes Crooks, ability to make tax law engaging as “near miraculous”. TweetShare
The Offshore Wrapper: a week in tax justice #32
Ali Baba and the Chinese princelings Alibaba, the Chinese online business, last week raised $25bn in what is now the world’s largest ever stock market flotation. This values the company at more than Amazon and Facebook. TweetShare
Cayman Compass: Public registers would foil tax criminals
Cayman Compass has just published the following letter from TJN and Transparency International in response to an article by Carlyle Roger: TweetShare
BEPS – minor victories but we risk losing the war
The following are detailed thoughts on the OECD BEPS year one outcomes prepared by friends and colleagues at Eurodad (the European Network on Debt and Development). TweetShare
The Offshore Wrapper: a week in tax justice #31
Offshore deals worth £80bn sealed in just three months New data from Appleby shows that offshore deals jumped in the last quarter making the three months to June one of the highest value quarters for offshore deals in the last ten years. In total US$80bn of mergers and acquisitions were completed offshore. This means that the value of offshore mergers
Read the full article…The Offshore Wrapper: a week in tax justice #30
Fifa ate my hamster There has been much media coverage of the many millions allegedly paid in bribes to secure the rights to hold the 2022 Football World Cup in Qatar. These include evidence of an alleged $1.2m payment from a Qatari company involved in the bid to Jack Warner a Fifa executive member from Trinidad and Tobago and alleged
Read the full article…The Price We Pay — more praise for Harold Crooks’ film documentary
“It’s not often that something as dry as tax theory can result in an engrossing night at the movies, but credit Harold Crooks and his team for providing an exceptional articulation about the vagaries of “off shoring” in an accessible, engaging way with The Price We Pay.” TweetShare
Academics Stand Against Poverty report on illicit financial flows
Academics Stand Against Poverty have published the results of a survey of experts views on how to tackle illicit financial flows. TJN took part in this survey and we are pleased (though not surprised) that so many of our core campaign demands rank high on the list of policy recommendations listed below. The study used the Delphi
Read the full article…The Price We Pay – Variety review
“Director Harold Crooks’ well-crafted documentary offers a concise, engrossing and occasionally infuriating overview of the ways multinationals avoid taxes by stashing profits in offshore havens.” TweetShare
The Offshore Wrapper: a week in tax justice #29
Scotland to become Europe’s latest tax haven? People in Scotland have already started voting in the referendum on whether to separate from the United Kingdom and become a separate country. But as well as becoming Europe’s newest country, could Scotland also become Europe’s newest tax haven? TweetShare
The nonsense of shareholder ownership
Neoliberals claim that shareholders are the owners of companies. This is nonsense, argues Austin Mitchell MP and Prem Sikka, Professor of Accounting, University of Essex in this joint paper published in Left Foot Forward. TweetShare
A Law Unto Themselves – Eva Joly discusses her fight against high level corrupt practices
In this half-hour BBC interview with renowned lawyer Helena Kennedy, investigative judge Eva Joly (a great friend of TJN) talks about her life fighting corrupt activities at the highest echelons of business and politics. TweetShare
The Boys Who Won’t Say No
Are tax barristers enriching themselves by signing-off on dodgy legal opinions relating to tax avoidance? Surely not. The legal profession is a bastion of probity and wouldn’t tolerate such shenanigans. Or maybe they would. TweetShare
Quote of the day – on trusts and public registries
Both G8 and G20 have committed to tackling tax haven secrecy. In the past 18 months they have made specific commitments to create registers of beneficial ownership of companies, though we are far from convinced they are prepared to take every necessary step to prevent crooks from hiding behind offshore legal structures. TweetShare
