IGNORATA JURIS NON EXCUSAT Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
Your two 15 July 2013 articles “Negligent
directors may be forced to compensate creditors” and “Ex-Goldman Sachs banker
‘Fabulous Fab' goes on trial", alongside the monotonous media mantras - the ridiculous “Tax avoidance –
which is of course perfectly legal” and latterly the even more ridiculous “Electronic Trading is
Different” - are part of massive City and Wall Street PR campaigns to convince
the public that financial crimes since 1980 broke no laws and that to charge the
culprits and get our money back needs new laws or new international agreements. This is nonsense, pedaled by organized crime.
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| KENNETH LAY - PRESIDENT'S FRIEND, BUT JAILED FOR ENRON'S FRAUDS |
Directors
“by whatever name called” (the influential managers) have always been and are legally liable for irresponsible, dangerous, fraudulent, misleading, dishonest, false
actions. The “It Is Perfectly Legal” campaign is a powerful and desperate ploy
to let the criminals keep their loot and let the creditors go hang. Creditors
include small suppliers, redundant workers and most OECD national treasuries,
which share the loss of $32 trillion tax-evasion-capital-flight and are wracked
with debt, such as the $16 trillion US fiscal deficit (35 million jobs). We are all victims and
creditors of the super rich criminals who have scuttled away with society's money - their
ill-gotten gains – and who hope we will turn a blind forgiving eye; and leave
their fortunes intact.
On the contrary - this should be the decade of arrest, recovery and repatriation of funds. The bluffing, blustering, bullying, posturing, publicity and obfuscation by the immensely influential 0.1% offshore asset strippers and their battalions of politicians, judges, lawyers and accountants ($32 trillion buys a lot of protection) can be swept aside by determined prosecutors. Ask Bernie Madoff, ENRON's Jeffrey Skilling, Kenneth Lay and Arthur Andersen - or newspaper Canadian baron, Lord Conrad Black.
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A EUROPEAN UNION VIEW - JUNE 2013 - http://eurodad.org/1545767/
European companies in the paradise of lost taxes
A new report by Eurodad member organisation CCFD-Terre Solidaire and the institute CERAS concluded that the 50 biggest companies by turnover in Europe all have a presence in tax havens around the world. The results of this investigation are timely as the fight against tax havens is now high on the political agenda at the EU, G8 and G20 levels. Thanks to increasing political mobilisation behind the issue and politicians’ recognition of the need for change, civil society’s proposals in this area are starting to be taken into account. However, this new report highlights that more ambitious measures are needed.
The report uses various different definitions of what a tax haven is. However, whichever definition is used, the authors reach the same conclusion: Europe’s top company groups are heavily present in tax havens. Through an analysis of corporate documents, the report looks more specifically at the degree of information available on companies’ subsidiaries, including those related to their presence in tax havens and the extent to which companies used country-by-country reporting.
Key findings:
Presence of the 50 largest companies in Europe in tax havens:
- All of the largest 50 companies in Europe by turnover are present in tax havens; their subsidiaries in tax havens account for 29% of their overall subsidiaries abroad.
- 63% of the companies’ offshore subsidiaries are located in the EU.
- The banking and insurance sector has the most presence in tax havens, with 12 banks only accounting for half of the most opaque offshore subsidiaries.
- Information available in corporate activity reports about companies’ subsidiaries is scarce, with only 60% of the companies providing a full list of their subsidiaries online.
- None of the 50 companies is providing proper country-by-country reporting, including at a minimum information on the activity, turnover, subsidies received and taxes paid, either per subsidiary or per country.
- The online publication of a full list of subsidiaries and related information on their location and activities should be made compulsory.
- National beneficial owner registries should be introduced.
- Country-by-country reporting should be extended to all economic sectors, as well as to all G8 and G20 countries.
Read the full report (available in French only).
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