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| BURIED TREASURE |
To
Simon Jenkins, senior journalist at The Guardian newspaper, UK. 12 October
2018.
Dear
Simon Jenkins,
UNEXPLAINED
WEALTH ORDERS (UWOs)
London
remains a safe haven for the world’s dirty cash – Simon Jenkins
I sent this note below on UWOs, last week, to concerned
persons and organisations; who might be interested to read your compelling
article of 12 Oct. It is a scandal that, as you say, “In Britain, the
revelations led to just four arrests and six interviews under caution.” More
than 250,000 UK taxpayers have been identified as hoarding tax-haven assets. In
my view the majority of VIP Brexiters are motivated by urgently back-pedalling
from EU Courts that would tax-them, where UK Courts will not. And to hell with
the UK economy. Thank heaven that we only prosecute super-rich fraudulent
foreigners.
PANAMA PAPERS - LEAK FROM TAX-HAVENS
From
1960 I specialized in defending UK Back-Duty-Tax cases – then the prosecutions
were aimed at ex-wartime black-marketeers. UWOs were the tax-collectors main
strategy. Quite simply “Where did you get the money? Is it tax-paid?”. The
clients only went to jail if they lied about the final assessments and their lists of assets three times
(e.g. Lester
Piggott 1987). One of our clients lied about his assets twice but on the third investigation he burned a suitcase full of unexplained
White-Fivers, when they were swapped by The Royal Mint for Blue-Fivers (1957) and had to be explained.
Since Prime Minister Thatcher (1979), few if any offshore-back-duty charges have been brought.
The
assets in tax-havens would pay-off the global deficits – and they explain where
for example the wealth and profits of the UK’s economy – now the 7th
largest and dating back 200 years when it was the world's wealthiest nation – have
gone. About £2.3 trillion (8 million jobs) of UK assets are frozen in tax-havens;
hence austerity; hence zero-hours jobs and pot-holes in all UK roads; hence Brexit. The global total of $32 trillion is estimated to
grow by $1 trillion per annum – So is now estimated at $38 trillion.
Why doesn't Trump collect America's share of the buried treasure - about $20 trillion - for the US Treasury - and repair the broken bridges, roads and railways?
The assets held in tax-vehicles was estimated,
in 2012, by Wall Street, McKinsey economist James Henry as $32 trillion, (80
million jobs for 10 years).
A
good article. Thank you.
Best
wishes
Noel
Hodson
******
4
October 2018
Dear
colleagues,
I
am sure you are all aware of these hopeful developments – but I think it’s
worth a summary.
Are
governments repatriating tax-evasion-capital-flight?
Extraordinary
news from the UK.
The UK Treasury have issued an Unexplained Wealth Order – the first UWO under
laws passed last year. The
wife of an unnamed banker, a man reputed to have embezzled £72 million via
a British Virgin Isle BVI company, must explain where she obtained the funds to
buy an £11.5 million house in London, and spend £16 million at Harrods. Her
assets can be confiscated.
Her husband has been convicted of fraud in his own
country; who I guess will confiscate his assets. Britain is being
diplomatically “economical with the truth” identifying the couple as Mr A and
Mrs A; presumably to reassure other international criminals that their assets
are safe in London. But in this global-society news leaks:
Unexplained
Wealth Orders in use: Here's at least 5 cases the police ... https://www.transparency.org.uk/uwo-consider-today/
31 Jan 2018
- Today, Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWOs)
come in to force. ... million mansion on Hampstead Lane, North London, belonging to the First
family of Azerbaijan. ... by Ilham Aliyev, the country's current President, and
his wife Mehriban,
who is ... According to data released as part of the Panama Papers...
“First
family of Azerbaijan are alleged by the OCCRP to have collected vast amounts of personal wealth by abusing their positions of power. Ilham Aliyev has
been the country’s President since 2003 and currently has an official
annual salary of £75,000. Although elected
officials are not yet required to publish the details of their assets, latest
estimates by the OCCRP claim the Aliyev family hold a global property portfolio
worth at least £100 million, including £41 million in London real estate.”
After
confiscating assets from foreigners, is the UK going to repatriate all UK
assets from tax-havens? On 3rd Oct 2018, Prime Minister Mrs May
promised an “end to austerity” and great-wealth ahead. The most likely source
of a major cash bonanza is the UK’s £2.3 trillion hidden in tax-havens. Her
husband, Philip
May is an executive in the world’s largest ($1.4 trillion) offshore fund –
Capital Group in LA; who no doubt advises her on where the assets are buried.
******
Russia – Putin has developed a habit of jailing oligarchs
who criticize him. My guess is that Mother Russia confiscates their wealth;
but, such an anti-capitalist remedy will be kept out of the news. Offshore
assets are mostly from tax-evasion, making them easy legal targets for
confiscation.
CNN April 2018 - This is what happened to
many in that early generation of oligarchs. Khodorkovsky -- who challenged Putin -- had much of his
wealth stripped, spent more than 10 years in jail on tax
charges
China
– Film star,
Fan Bingbing, who earns $40 million per annum, apologises for her “anti-social”
tax-evasion. She must repay $120 million in back-taxes or go to prison. The
Chinese government is currently focusing on Show-Business tax-evaders. I guess
they all have top-accountants and tax-lawyers who fiddle the books via
tax-havens. She is accused of playing the Yin-Yang game which is having two
contracts – a small one for the tax-authorities and the real, large contract
with the studios and for IP Rights (intellectual property).
USA
– Manafort & Trump. Manafort
has been caught and fined $70 million for tax-evasion and money-laundering,
and he is threatened with long prison sentences. He is currently
plea-bargaining to reduce time in prison. This month, The New York Times has
the temerity to mention that the Trump family have been tax-evading /avoiding
/cheating since Donald was six years old with a meagre income of only $100,000
a year. His income from his Dad grew to $1 million a year by the time he was 20
years old. These two cases are widely reported.
Read:
Mueller's new indictment of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates – Vox https://www.vox.com/2018/2/22/17042254/robert-mueller-paul-manafort-indictment
22 Feb 2018 - The new indictment has 32 counts of
tax, financial, and bank fraud charges
I
will not attempt to list all the recent notable cases from around the world. I
have the impression that national tax-collectors are realizing that there are
$32 trillion of tax-evaded assets in the world’s 72 tax-havens. They are
sweeping aside legal-mazes, smoke and mirrors, and legal-niceties to confiscate
the assets – to repair the large ever-growing deficits most OECD countries have
suffered since 1980 (Monetarism, Thatcher, Reagan and The Big Bang
Deregulation). These confiscations will benefit the Treasuries of large
economies and will repatriate cash and assets stolen from small-emerging
economies.
These
repatriations should be used to balance and correct the obscene wealth and
income gap.
It
is a chink of light in the dark world of unprecedented theft and corruption.
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