The myth of the #offshore, by Khadija Sharife | ANCIR
▻https://panamapapers.investigativecenters.org/myth-offshore
jurisdictions like Mauritius, much like Panama, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and Bermuda are also vulnerable and impoverished countries that are often coerced or incentivized by the “onshore” powers. These range from the financial muscle of multinationals including accounting and banking firms as well as the political prowess of the UK, US and Switzerland, wishing to maintain ring-fenced financial sectors. This is because the “offshore” is being used to facilitate activities that the better regulated “onshore” cannot do.
No wonder, then, that the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) called the City of London, at one point, a “head office” to the majority of the world’s tax havens that also comprise the UK’s foreign territories, including Anguilla, BVI Channel Islands, Jersey and a dozen others. But the UK’s influence and reach is not limited to its own territories. From Hong Kong to Mauritius, the UK has played a critical role in the historical development of global tax havens that have “commercialised sovereignty” in exchange for a small fee. The myth of the offshore blankets the lethal truth of the matter: more than 80% of the world’s international finance activities are conducted through offshore financial markets indirectly or directly connected to UK secrecy jurisdictions.
#panama_papers #banque #secret #UK
