The Saguier family, majority shareholder in the La Nación newspaper since the 1990s, is the subject of numerous court cases which are trying to determine the legality of the origen of those funds used in the transaction which left the Mitres outside of the management of the media outlet founded… – Continue reading
Attorney General Eric Holder will leave office with a perfect record of not having busted a single senior banker The bank, HSBC, has been involved in criminal enterprises from dealing with terrorists and drug dealers to advising clients how to escape paying taxes. Yet no HSBC banker has gone to… – Continue reading
Juan Ovelar made a quick decision when he heard the US government had accused his Andorran bank of money-laundering, and immediately withdrew most of his funds, reports Bloomberg. “I’m worried that everyone will do the same as I did and there will be a knock-on effect that could affect other… – Continue reading
Seven Caribbean countries find themselves on the US “Major Money Laundering List for 2015”. The United States Government published its “2015 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report” on Wednesday, and the Cayman Islands is on the list, reports CNS News. The other six Caribbean countries listed are Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas,… – Continue reading
CARACAS, VENEZUELA – Venezuela is launching a probe into large offshore bank deposits amid a spate of reports that at least $2 billion was siphoned off by corrupt, top-level officials at state-run oil company PDVSA. Chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega Diaz’s announcement Tuesday was the socialist government’s first response to the… – Continue reading
As part of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill which Parliament is expected to approve today, the government is attempting to implement a public register showing who really owns companies. The bill is a good example of how UK legislation can affect countries around the world, especially those in… – Continue reading
According to news reports, Gibraltar’s government isn’t going to take being called a ‘tax haven’ lying down. The little British Overseas Territory at the tip of Spain is suing ABC—not the TV network, the Spanish newspaper—for defamation. Gibraltarians may live in what many call a tax haven, but their government… – Continue reading
ZURICH, March 23 (Reuters) – Liechtenstein’s biggest bank LGT does not expect to suffer any fallout from assets it bought from HSBC’s private bank months before that business was embroiled in a scandal over allegedly helping clients to dodge taxes. Vaduz-based LGT, owned by the principality’s royal family, snapped up… – Continue reading
Blackmoney stashed abroad will entail a 10 year rigorous imprisonment and a whopping 90% tax under the proposed stringent law that provides for a limited window of opportunity to offenders to disclose illicit wealth and escape prosecution. Blackmoney stashed abroad will entail a 10 year rigorous imprisonment and a whopping… – Continue reading
Compliance departments are feeling increasingly challenged by higher regulatory expectations, coupled with staff shortages and technology concerns, according to a joint Dow Jones Risk & Compliance and Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) global survey. “This year’s survey once again highlights the issues and emerging trends that are shaping… – Continue reading
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has welcomed Switzerland’s recent moves towards greater tax transparency, admitting the country to phase 2 of the peer review process. Jacques de Watteville, head of Switzerland’s State Secretariat for International Financial Matters, said: “We are delighted about this decision. It is the… – Continue reading
The UK government will press ahead with plans to create a new ‘strict liability’ criminal offence for the “worst cases” of offshore tax evasion, among a package of new measures targeting those who illegally evade tax and their advisers. Details of the plans, which include two new criminal offences and… – Continue reading
1.GENERAL QUESTIONS 1.1 Why is the Commission presenting a Tax Transparency Package? The Commission has made the fight against tax evasion and corporate tax avoidance a political priority, with a view to creating a socially and economically more efficient Single Market. While much has been done to advance this agenda… – Continue reading
(Bloomberg) — Switzerland has frozen $400 million of assets in more than 30 banks as the country’s attorney general probes money laundering related to Petroleo Brasileiro SA’s widening corruption scandal. Nine investigations have been opened since last April based on allegations of corruption involving eight Brazilian citizens, the Bern-based Federal… – Continue reading
Communist Party’s anti-graft agency reveals how hundreds of suspects and their offshore assets were brought back to the mainland A powerful mainland task force has revealed in detail for the first time how it tracked down allegedly corrupt fugitives abroad, bringing the suspects and their assets back to China even… – Continue reading
Two Calgary men have been convicted of defrauding the federal government of $14.1 million in taxes that should have been paid on registered retirement plans, in which the money was used for offshore investments. Steven Kendall and Christopher Houston were found guilty on Wednesday on one of four charges by… – Continue reading
Tax Regulation Number PER-01/PJ/2015, which is supposed to be effective starting this year, has triggered controversy within the banking industry. This is mainly due to the new obligation for banks to disclose details on every customer’s tax payments on deposits or savings interest. The Finance Minister needed to postpone indefinitely… – Continue reading
HSBC is closing all accounts on Jersey belonging to customers living in the UK. It is part of a move by UK banks carrying out checks on the identity and addresses of thousands of their customers on the Channel Islands. HSBC is among those carrying out the move, according to… – Continue reading
Switzerland has made further progress on meeting international tax compliance standards after being upgraded to phase 2 of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) tax transparency review process. However, Switzerland faces a potentially tougher examination in the coming months, particularly regarding the use of stolen bank data by… – Continue reading
The ongoing global initiatives around exchange of tax information and publication of beneficial ownership information, while ostensibly in pursuit of transparency, have their origins in the need for the larger, richer countries to increase tax revenues, and the perception that taxpayers are hiding assets abroad and out of the tax… – Continue reading
Switzerland is moving towards “greater transparency” in providing administrative assistance on tax matters, a global body today said amid India making efforts to bring back illicit funds stashed by its citizens in Swiss banks. Long perceived as a safe haven for unaccounted wealth, Switzerland has been facing international pressure to… – Continue reading
THE Gibraltar government is suing a Spanish daily national over a front page story which pictured the Rock as an iceberg of dirty money. The article, which appeared in ABC newspaper, labelled Gibraltar a ‘tax haven’ and alleged it is home to ‘15 organised crime gangs’ connected to drug smuggling,… – Continue reading
Tocqueville Asset Management founder Francois Sicart warns that hiding from the taxman is futile, but postponing taxes is profitable You can’t escape taxes, but you can gain an advantage by legally delaying their payment. That is a model that legendary investor Warren Buffet exemplifies, and it is one of several… – Continue reading
Senators and members of the House of Representatives under the auspices of Anti-Money Laundering and Cyber Security Coalition (AMLCSC) are working with the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), to prosecute about 115 tax offenders. The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Pensions, Senator Aloysius Etok, said… – Continue reading
Things just got worse for HSBC. Its private banking arm faces new criminal charges after a French magistrate officially requested that the Swiss bank be brought to trial over a suspected tax-dodging scheme for wealthy customers, the Guardian reports. The request for trial comes after a series of allegations against… – Continue reading
Senators and members of the House of Representatives under the auspices of Anti- Money Laundering and Cyber Security Coalition are working with the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission to prosecute about 115 tax offenders. The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Pensions, Senator Aloysius Etok, (PDP-Akwa Ibom),… – Continue reading
The call for tax transparency is being echoed around the globe, with ‘midshore’ centres like Bahrain and the UAE emerging as reputable, regulated and tax efficient jurisdictions A 2012 book entitled Offshore Apocalypse – The Collapse of the Tax Haven Industry, written by a team of tax-law academics, auditors, compliance… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – The Andorra government dismissed the board of Banca Privada d’Andorra (BPA) on Thursday, two days after taking control of the lender to investigate U.S. allegations of money laundering. Three managers at privately-owned BPA, the fourth biggest of Andorra’s five banks by assets, have also been sacked, a spokeswoman… – Continue reading
Ever since the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) was enacted in 2010 by the US Congress to target non-compliance by taxpayers using foreign accounts, the hallucination effect has come into force. Banks and financial intuitions are related with US treasury accounts in some way or the other just like… – Continue reading
NEIL CHENOWETH The raids unfolded across the city at 8.40 on a Tuesday evening. Squads of federal police descended on Point Piper, Chatswood, city offices and the departure lounge of Sydney International Airport. Accountant Vanda Gould was up when police arrived to arrest him. Across town officers scooped up his… – Continue reading
*BELIZE HITS NEW MILESTONE IN AML/CFT COMPLIANCE The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) recognizes the tremendous strides Belize has made in strengthening its regime for anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) and concluded that Belize no longer poses a risk to the international financial system. At… – Continue reading
The Government of the Virgin Islands enhanced relations with the Portuguese Republic by concluding a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) this week bringing the total signed TIEAs to 19. Deputy Premier and Minister of Health and Social Development, Honourable Dancia Penn, OBE, QC, and Secretary of State for Tax Affairs… – Continue reading
The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) recognizes the tremendous strides Belize has made in strengthening its regime for anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) and concluded that Belize no longer poses a risk to the international financial system. At the recently concluded CFATF Plenary, member countries… – Continue reading
New figures have revealed more than 3,000 properties in Camden and Barnet are registered in secret offshore havens – among the highest numbers in the capital. A leading anti-corruption charity released the data yesterday as it called on the government to implement tough new regulations to increase transparency over property… – Continue reading
Boris Johnson today called for a massive tax rise to stop foreign crooks using the London housing market to launder dirty money. The mayor claimed ‘international despots and criminal rings’ were using phoney companies to buy homes in the capital. More than 35,000 London properties are owned by secretive offshore… – Continue reading
India has made a major breakthrough with Swiss tax authorities, who have agreed to provide information in respect of cases independently investigated by IT department whereas first round of talks have reportedly taken place between Pakistan and Swiss government on revision of Convention for the Avoidance of Double Taxation agreement…. – Continue reading
Billions of pounds of corruptly gained money has been laundered by criminals and foreign officials buying upmarket London properties through anonymous offshore front companies – making the city arguably the world capital of money laundering. Some 36,342 properties in London have been bought through hidden companies in offshore havens and… – Continue reading
James Emejo in Abuja
 The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on Tuesday inaugurated the Anti-corruption and Transparency Monitoring Unit (ACTU) in the former to boost integrity as well as enhance transparency in its operations. Speaking at the launch in… – Continue reading
LAHORE: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has raided Shah Alam area of Lahore and booked a person involved in money laundering. According to Federal Investigation Agency spokesman a raid was conducted by FIA team headed by Sub Inspector Sarwar Asghar at shop no 28 UK Centre Azam cloth market Lahore. FIA… – Continue reading
Anti-corruption groups and Met detectives say £180m worth of real estate is under investigation as being used in money laundering and stolen capital Hundreds of millions of pounds’ worth of UK properties held in secretive offshore companies have been used to launder the proceeds of international corruption, Scotland Yard investigators… – Continue reading
Criminals, tax evaders, human traffickers and drug dealers have laundered billions of pounds worth of dirty money purchasing British properties through anonymous offshore companies, Scotland Yard investigators suspect. The Metropolitan Police say more than £180 million (US$276 million) worth of British property has been subject to criminal investigation since 2004… – Continue reading
Helping tax cheats or money launderers has never been an integral strategy of the Swiss financial centre, Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) chief executive Claude-Alain Margelisch tells swissinfo.ch as the HSBC ‘Swiss Leaks’ scandal continues. The unsavoury activities of HSBC, UBS AG (NYSE:UBS) and others, brought into the public domain by… – Continue reading
Tax investigators and police have raided commercial offices in Germany as they looked into allegations of large-scale tax evasion with regard to profits made in Luxembourg. Commerzbank was at the center of the searches. Media reports said police had raided scores of office premises across Germany on Tuesday as investigators… – Continue reading
Anti-Money laundering rules are hurting British trade by making it unreasonably difficult for honest firms to access finance, business group the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said today, reports City AM. The rules are designed to deny crooks the ability to clean their dirty money through the banking system. But… – Continue reading
New Delhi: The announcement by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley categorising tax evasion in relation to holding of illegal foreign assets as a “predicate offence” under anti-money laundering laws has, for the first time, made concealment of income a criminal offence in India. At present, tax evasion is a civil offence… – Continue reading
Making tax-transparency standards watertight will be difficult THE optimistic view of the tax-evasion scandals that have bedevilled banks since 2008 is that they can only be seen in the rear-view mirror. The incriminating files in the latest case, regarding tax-dodging personal accounts held at the Swiss arm of HSBC, date… – Continue reading
Al Tamimi & Company – Advocates and Legal Consultants Surabhi Singhi Kataria Tax planning has always been a topic of international debate and adjudication. The borderlines between permitted tax planning/avoidance and unlawful tax evasion have occupied the centre stage across the globe with several modern economies emphasizing the need for… – Continue reading
MCC interviews three attorneys from Mourant Ozannes. Hayden Isbister is a partner and head of the Corporate practice in the Cayman firm. He specializes in investment funds, general corporate and commercial work. James Burch is a partner and leads the Structured Finance/Banks practice in the Cayman Islands, and Tim Dawson… – Continue reading
[NEW YORK] Citigroup Inc said additional government authorities have started probes of possible breaches of anti-money laundering laws at its Banamex USA unit. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a unit of the US Treasury, and the California Department of Business Oversight have asked the company for information on its compliance… – Continue reading
First there was money laundering, then foreign-exchange rigging and now tax evasion. Politicians and analysts are asking if big banks became too big to manage from being too large to be allowed to fail HSBC Europe’s biggest bank, has endured a string of scandals and paid millions in penalties to… – Continue reading
