Nearly 40% of the world’s dirty money is laundered in London and in the UK’s Crown Dependencies – autonomous territories that belong to the Crown but are not part of the state – the UK Under-Secretary of State, Andrew Mitchell, admitted.
Mitchell said in statements to the Bright Blue Research Center that “the Crown States (the Channel Islands, Jersey, Genesee and the Isle of Man) and the overseas territories have not yet done everything they should do” in this regard. guardianHe urged the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands to implement UK law requiring public records of funds.
“If these Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies want to have our King and our Flag, they must also accept our values, which is why we are so determined to ensure that dirty money doesn’t get in and out of there,” he launched the campaign. Official.
The official noted that according to some estimates, up to 40 percent of the money laundered in the world passes through his jurisdiction, and that it is money that is often stolen from Africa and from Africans by corrupt businessmen and politicians.
This is despite the legislation being approved in the House of Commons in 2016, as the UK has faced evasion from overseas territories, which are reluctant to create public records to find out the ultimate owners of assets in tax havens.
Instead, the BVI and Cayman Islands cite rulings by the European Court of Justice to impose restrictions on who can access the records.
According to Mitchell, with David Cameron as Foreign Secretary, the UK will need to see “a greater focus on delivering these open records of beneficial ownership”.