I have been involved in a discussion on the IsThisJersey web site, where my blog entitled '2007 - a year in retrospect' was reproduced.
As is common on such sites the right-wing deniers crept out in force. In this case they said I had no evidence to suggest there was any corruption in Jersey and that therefore I could be dismissed for a multitude of reasons, most of which seem to revolve around the fact that I do not live there.
My response was simple. I said:
45,000 people declared tax evaded money from Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man to the UK Revenue in June 2007. See http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3889726c-2025-11dc-9eb1-000b5df10621.html
That's tax evaded in one country using just five banks. There are 170 more banks to consider as yet in the UK. The citizens of many more countries will be represented in Jersey. There is no reason to assume they are any more tax compliant.
That is systemic abuse requiring systematic assistance from the Jersey financial services industry.
Anyone who argues there is no evidence that Jersey is still riddled with tax evaded money is simply telling a lie.
And if you want a name - start with Barclays and move on to HSBC, RBS, Lloyds TSB. They held the cash now declared and did nothing to stop the evasion. Worse, they sought to prevent the disclosure of the evaded funds.
Respectfully, it is I who have all the evidence and you who are whistling in the wind.
Chris Steel, provided more evidence of how corrupt Jersey is. He listed the following:
Evidence that Jersey is a corrupt tax haven.
1. A Jersey based accountant, Philip Egglishaw who works for Strachans, is under investigation by the Australian Crime Commission for aiding his clients in avoiding $300 million tax1.
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> 2. Caversham Fiduciary Services, Caversham Trustees Limited and Nicholas Bell were fined £65,000 for failing to comply with money laundering rules2.
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3. The relatives of the late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha had at least $200 million hidden in Jersey. Although this sum was repatriated to Nigeria, the loophole that allows Jersey to facilitate bribery payments involving African countries remains, despite a promise to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development that they would close said loophole3.
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> 4. Daniel Speak whilst working for Citibank stole £350,000 from his employees and has been subsequently jailed4.
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> 5. Abbey National paid Jersey £10 million to settle a lawsuit after it had been found operating a currency transaction fund through Cater Allen Trust Company5.
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> 6. Orb, a Jersey based company is under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office regarding £30 million belonging to a dotcom firm called Izodia6.
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> 7. In 2002 British Aerospace was under investigation for their part in a money laundering fraud involving the Qatar government. At least £100 million seems to have passed through three Jersey registered trusts at ANZ Grindlay Trust Bank7.
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> 8. Money given to Russia by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) turned up in a management company in Jersey. It is argued that this was done to restructure its $150 billion overseas debt, of which $50 million was held in Jersey, and renegotiate its deal with the IMF 8.
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> 9. Paulo Maluf, the former Mayor of Sao Paulo, Brazil has had his bank accounts frozen at Citibank Jersey whilst an investigation that the $200 million in said accounts may have come from the public revenue of Sao Paulo9.
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> 10. A former energy minister from Trinidad, Finbar Gangar has been charged with failing to declare offshore bank accounts, including two in Jersey at Barclays Bank10.
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> 11. The Accident Group, a company who chased accident compensation for its clients on a no win no fee basis, collapsed in 2003 with a debt of £48 million, although they had declared a profit of £4.5 million just nine months earlier. Investigations have found that the directors of said company set up an offshore Employment Benefits Trust (EBT) for themselves two years before the collapse of the company. The EBT is held in Jersey11.
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> 12. Sonangol, Angola's state owned oil company siphoned off $1 billion of public revenue into offshore accounts including Jersey during 2000 alone. Sonangol's chief executive, Manuel Vicente, says that one of the company's offshore accounts is based at Lloyds TSB in Jersey, which has seen at least $78 million pass through its accounts. Sonagol seem to have used some of this money to make financial inducements to foreign companies that Angola needs to help with modernising its infrastructure. These payments are kept quiet and usually off the company's accounts by using offshore accounts. The British Foreign Office is supposed to be looking into the use of such inducements as a way of finding out how much of Angola's public revenue is being used in government corruption12.> Endnotes:
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> 1 www.smh.com.au/news/business/jersey-home-of-the-tax-dodge, accessed 16
> June 2006.
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> 2 www.newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk,
> accessed 16
> June 2006.
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> 3 www.business.guardian.co.uk, accessed 16 June 2006.
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> 4 www.observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story, accessed 16 June 2006
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> 5 www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main, accessed 16 June 2006.
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> 6 www.observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story, accessed 16 June 2006.
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> 7 www.observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story, accessed 16 June 2006.
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> 8 www.cnnmoney.printthis.clickability.com, accessed 16 June 2006.
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> 9 www.ipsnews.net/news.asp, accessed 16 June 2006.
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> 10 www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article, accessed 16 June 2006.
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> 11 www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news, accessed 16 June 2006.
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> 12 www.publicintegrity.org/bow/printer-friendly.aspx, accessed 4 April 2006.
Unfortunately some of Chris' end notes have lost detail in translation, but I know Chris' work and know him to be thorough.
The evidence is ample and overwhelming. But no doubt the Jersey Right will deny it. It would seem that evidence is something they have difficulty coming to terms with.
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Are you not complimenting the JFSC for taking action against these cases though? I know of a few of them and I think it shows that Jersey is taking financial crime very seriously.
If you are also making comparisions to other onshore jurisdictions I think you will find bad people everywhere!
Of course I am happy action is being taken.
But I am questioning whether enough is being done.
So are others, and rightly so.
Financial fraud will always be a headache world wide, and long after you and I have moved on.
I just think these cases are being used against Jersey when actually they should be congratulated for the work they are doing in prosecuting these people. It sends out a message.
A couple of individuals involved were “qualified criminals”. The Police can only do the best they can.
Dean
I am sure there is a message in these prosecutions, which is that you can expect to get away with almost anything in Jersey.
Put simply, we know Jersey is not putting anything like the resources needed to manage the financial services industry or financial crime. That’s even been in the Jersey press.
So even if the police are doing the best they’re doing so without the goodwill of the politicians in Jersey.
There is no excuse for that.
Richard
I think you are just being complacent Richard. The UK is riddled with financial crime so make some excuses for that?
I understand that an employee in Jersey can go to prison for helping a client with fraud or tax evasion or tipping off.
What extra should be done?
Dean
That is an absurd argument and I presume you know it.
We are discussing Jersey here. The fact that the situation is not perfect in the UK (and it is not) does not mean Jersey can be as complacent as it is.
Nor does the existence of legislation benefit anyone if there is no intent to use it, and there is little evidence that Jersey has that willingness.
Your argument is akin to suggesting that any crime can be exhonerated becaise some people get away with it.
Can we now raise the level to one where some ethics might be included in the discussion?
Richard
You are not answering the question, what else can be done? Are you actually saying that the staff in Jersey Finance are corrupt?
Do you actually have any evidence of this?
In all fairness, Dean, Richard’s been remarkably straight forward about what he’s saying – and has provided his evidence numerous times on this blog. Given the fairly compelling evidence that there is at least some (where some may equal an awfully large number) money in Jersey accounts which is the product of tax evasion, that money will at some point have been handledd (although not necessarily literally) by someone in the accountancy and/or banking profession on the island. At that point, if the funds are not reported as possibly being the proceeds of crime, you have to wonder whether it’s because the people handling them are so poor at their jobs that they don’t notice a suspicious transaction when they see one, or whether it’s for some other reason.
Nobody’s saying (or at least I don’t think they are) that everybody in the Jersey finance industry is corrupt, or criminal. But somewhere, some people in that industry are facilitating – and whether it’s through incompetance, negligence or deliberate intent is largely irrelevant, tax evasion. If they weren’t, the recent Off-Shore Disclosure facility wouldn;n’t have resulted in so many returns.
Dean
1) All Jersey banks can report all people who are refusing information exchnage under the EU STD – there are reasonable grounds for presuming them all to be tax evading
2) The Jersey police can be given the resources they need
3) All FS firms who have never filed a suspiscious transaction report can be asked why not – and this is the majority. I have to say that in Jersey I would find it hard to believe that any cannot have come across someone tax evading
4) Those who handled the Abache money could be prosecuted
5) Jersey could opt for automatic information exchange under the EU STD
I could keep going
But my point is simple. I’m not saying the staff in Jersey Finance are corrupt. Jersey Finance is, in any event, simply a marketing exercise so I presume you are referring to the JFSC anyway. But I am saying there is a lack of will amongst those staff and the political leadership in Jersey to tackle this issue which means people are not reporting as they should.
All this could be changed.
To argue no more could be done is ludicrous. To have been unable to see this is an indication of lack of will – and an openness to see the world as it really is. That’s Jersey’s problem.
Richard
Gareth
Thanks – I do try to provide evidence and am grateful that someone has noticed. It is baffling that the industry seems quite unable to read or comprehend it.
And I agree with you that somewhere, some people in that industry are facilitating – and whether it’s through incompetance, negligence or deliberate intent is largely irrelevant, tax evasion.
Richard
I think you have to work in the Jersey Finance Industry to get a better perspective of what is actually going on within, because many of these allegations are so way off the mark it is fascicle.
No critics on this forum show that they have that practical experience and can only prance around with guess work.
But this has been mentioned time and time again.
JTM is ‘Jason the Maverick’.
He’s lost this debate elsewhere and is trying again here.
His argument is ludicrous. It’s akin to ‘you can’t understand that criminality is wrong unless you’ve been a criminal’. But actually, we do, because we can see the consequences.
And so far JTM has not answered one question put to him or provided any evidence at all to refute the claims made here or by others.
In which case it is reaonable to assume that he is at that stage of the debate where he thinks abusing the messenger works. He’s wrong. The debate has progressed well beyond that stage.
Which is why he has been ridiculed elsewhere too.
JTM
I’d be curious to know which of the “allegations” made are “fascicle”. Do you deny that there’s money in the Channel Islands that is the product of tax e evasion? Or just that there’s anyone there who knows about it?
All of them. I work within the industry and I have also worked in banking. We question every client who we believe to be evading tax.
Richard claims that “I lost the argument”. But there was never any “argument” because we do everything you claim we don’t do. So the accusations are fascicle.
End of.
And despite that a large part of the 45,000 people who admitted evasion to HM Revenue & Customs last year used Jersey to do so.
That was one country. Let’s say 25,000 used Jersey. Let’s say the UK supplies 10% of Jerssy’s business. So that’s 250,000 tax evaders in the place. And not one report of money laundering in 2006 to the Jersey police.
What are you? Gullible, stupid or just turning a blind eye?
We have talked about this before and the Police have had reports. Your estimates of cases are again blown completely out of proportion. In anycase I think the “onshore” case in France of a recent £3.7 Billion rogue trader makes our internal regulation look shiny.