From the Buenos Aires Herald: The total value of Argentines’ offshore assets as a result of capital flight reached US$298.891 billion in 2012, rising more than 250 percent from 1991, the latest report by the Economics and Finance Centre for Argentine Development (CEFID-AR) revealed. … [Read more...]
Capital Flight
The Offshore Wrapper: A week in tax justice
The Offshore Wrapper is written by George Turner Pfizer offshore cash pile fuels AstraZeneca bid … [Read more...]
Quote of the day: offshore London
From Britain's Telegraph newspaper, an article entitled Cool London is dead, and the rich kids are to blame: "Tax empty houses? Why, no. We wouldn’t want to upset some ex-KGB thug who looted the Kazakh treasury in the mid 1990s. We wouldn’t want to annoy a banker who “honestly” didn’t know he … [Read more...]
Tanzania: parliamentary inquiry on tax abuses, tax havens, illicit flows
Adapted from an email from Tove Maria Ryding, Eurodad: Good news from Tanzania - the Public Accounts Committee there has kicked off an inquiry on tax evasion and avoidance, amid severe concerns about illicit financial flows and capital flight. We might have some interesting times … [Read more...]
The Offshore Wrapper: a week in tax justice
The Offshore Wrapper is written by George Turner Tax avoidance in Africa – worse than we thought … [Read more...]
Swiss tax treaty policy thwarts new era of automatic information exchange
We recently wrote about a new double tax agreement (DTA) signed on March 20th with Argentina. This is the latest in a series of worrying DTAs that Switzerland has been signing with countries from the Global South, despite the OECD Global Forum’s explicit criticism of Switzerland for signing only … [Read more...]
Barclays: Behave!
Barclays bank has a long and not entirely honourable track record of involvement in Africa. … [Read more...]
London spin machine tries to rebut NYT “City betrays US” thesis
Following our widely read analysis on Russia, Ukraine, the City of London, and national security - here's another must-read article in the New York Times from the same author, Ben Judah, who wrote the original one we cited. … [Read more...]
Ukraine: how to put pressure on Russia
Following our blog yesterday looking at the national security implications of Europe's tax haven mentality, we have been drawn to this post from 2008, looking at the West's options in dealing with Russian aggression in Georgia at the time. It lists several interesting possibilities, but we found … [Read more...]
Why Russia no longer fears the West. It’s the offshore, stupid
If there's one story you read today make it this one, from Politico Magazine. It's triggered by the crisis in Ukraine, but it's been a long time coming. The point of this short story is clear: Western leaders are waking up to the fact that Russia no longer fears or even respects them. Why? … [Read more...]
Anonymous UK company owned Viktor Yanukovych’s presidential palace compound
From Global Witness - see also Daily Mail and The Independent. Update: see also this important blog, looking at the national security implications of all this corruption. Anonymous UK company owned Viktor Yanukovych’s presidential palace compound 1 March 2014 The private residence of the … [Read more...]
New report: Growth in Africa fails to curb soaring inequality
From TJN-Africa and Christian Aid: February 24 2014 GROWTH IN AFRICA FAILS TO CURB SOARING INEQUALITY, SAYS NEW REPORT Unprecedented economic growth in a number of African countries is going hand in hand with soaring inequality, which national tax systems are failing to address, according … [Read more...]
Foreign investment – smaller than you might believe
From Jesse Griffiths, Eurodad, with permission. Foreign investment – much smaller than you might believe You may have seen that foreign direct investment (FDI) was judged last month to have finally regained pre-crisis levels, and that a record percentage of all FDI – 52% - went to developing … [Read more...]
Links Feb 7
Delayed European Parliament vote crucial for corporate transparency Eurodad See also: Time for action on financial transparency euobserver Bankers take fight over U.S. anti-tax dodge rules to appeals court Reuters … [Read more...]
Links Feb 6
Global version of FATCA could be a reality in a few years, say industry officials Thomson Reuters / Compliance Complete See also: No more delays for FATCA, says IRS STEP Greek-Swiss tax deal remains elusive Reuters Is Switzerland retreating on Rubik? … [Read more...]
