Did Qatar bribe its way to host World Cup 2022? The UK’s Sunday Times is filled with explosive allegations that Qatar bought the right to host the 2022 World Cup through a series of bribes to FIFA officials. The reports are based on a leak of a database to the paper. … [Read more...]
Corruption
Brazilians will pay heavily for FIFA’s “obscene” tax abuses
Four years ago we wrote about FIFA's so-called African "tax bubble" where FIFA was forcing a poor African country to forego its potential football tax revenues in order to funnel yet more money into FIFA's gilded Zürich headquarters and its lucrative empire. We quoted Professor Han Kogels of … [Read more...]
On the non-perils of information exchange
Update: see TJN writer Nicholas Shaxson's Five Myths about Tax Havens, in the Washington Post, April 2016. Back in 2009 we wrote a long blog looking at tax havens' arguments that if they give up information to countries with poor governance, all sorts of disasters will ensue. We think it's … [Read more...]
Credit Suisse: most of its victims haven’t seen any justice at all
There's been a lot of debate about the $2.6 billion (possibly tax-deductible, despite claims to the contrary) fine that Credit Suisse has paid for its systematic policies of attacking the U.S. tax system and fostering and, by implication, encouraging, criminal behaviour by thousands of U.S. … [Read more...]
Tax haven operators hope to persuade China to block global transparency moves
From the BVI Beacon in the British Virgin Islands, a Special Report entitled Under pressure, BVI fears big impact on financial services. The BVI, and particularly a number of mostly white, male expatriate workers, have made a living out of secrecy. They don't like all this transparency stuff that … [Read more...]
Human Rights Policy Brief: a Post-2015 Fiscal Revolution
The New York-based Center for Economic and Social Research (CESR) and Christian Aid have just published an important new paper entitled A Post-2015 Fiscal Revolution: Human Rights Policy Brief. It is a most useful contribution to the fast-growing community of researchers and research on the … [Read more...]
How Putin’s comrades washed their money in Switzerland and the UK
This is about an excellent Reuters investigation into a Russian state scheme to buy expensive medical equipment - and send money to Swiss bank accounts. It is worth reading in its entirety, but we will hone in on this bit: … [Read more...]
The Offshore Wrapper: a week in tax justice
The Offshore Wrapper is written by George Turner Credit Swindle? "We were running a criminal enterprise, but we didn't know," is what reportedly Credit Suisse will soon admit in its long running dispute with the United States Justice Department over alleged involvement in assisting US … [Read more...]
“Western tax havens have resulted in Ukrainian deaths”
Here's something for the weekend. The American Interest has just published this article by Ben Judah, whose previous article on why Russia no longer fears the West caused such a stir earlier this year. The title says it all: How Offshore Finance Sank Western Soft Power. … [Read more...]
How Glencore made its money
From an excellent new article in Foreign Affairs, by Ken Silverstein. It concerns the commodity trading giant Glencore, which Reuters once called "the biggest company you never heard of," and which went public in May 2011. "What the IPO filing did not make clear was just how Glencore, founded four … [Read more...]
The Offshore Wrapper: A week in Tax Justice
The Offshore Wrapper is written by George Turner "In Formula One, everyone cheats. The trick is not to get caught." … [Read more...]
Russia and Ukraine: how secrecy jurisdictions undermine international sanctions
From the Financial Times: "Wealthy Russians and Ukrainians are trying to shift more cash into London property, say estate agents, amid indications that eastern European oligarchs are using the capital’s housing market to conceal their assets from international sanctions." … [Read more...]
Quote of the day: William Browder, Russia and Ukraine
In an interview with The American Interest, looking at Ukraine and the looting of the former Soviet Union, the co-founder of Hermitage Capital speaks out - all guns blazing. There are any number of Quotes of the Day we could highlight - but we thought we'd choose this one, prompted by the … [Read more...]
The Offshore Wrapper: A week in tax justice
The Offshore Wrapper is written by George Turner Nigeria – failed state? Recently Nigeria almost doubled its GDP in a day, showing that strong growth in a time of global economic malaise is still possible - on paper at least. … [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...]
