Between 2012 and 2021, U.K. authorities opened just 23 cases against bankers and other financial insiders for failing to report money laundering suspicions:^1
>Based on a leaked trove of documents from the U.S. Department of Treasury [in 2020], the FinCEN Files identified thousands of U.K. shell companies that received billions of dollars in suspicious transactions, and showed how bankers at HSBC, Barclays and other top British banks courted high value, high risk clients.
>Lawmaker Margaret Hodge, a prominent voice on anti-corruption matters from the United Kingdom’s Labour Party, told ICIJ that “just 23 criminal investigations” was an “appalling” figure that indicated a “clear reluctance from law enforcement to pursue individuals working in the banking sector.”
>
>According to an investigation by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and TaxWatch, only 11 “wealthy” people were prosecuted for tax fraud last year, despite the outsized role the U.K. and its overseas territories, including the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and Jersey, play in enabling tax dodging and financial secrecy.
>About 800,000 British taxpayers are categorized as “wealthy” — having an income above £200,000 (about $243,000) a year or £2 million (about $2.43 million) or more in assets — according to the U.K.’s tax authority, HM Revenue and Customs, but fewer than 100 have been prosecuted for tax crimes since 2017, TBIJ reported.
For every person named in the Panama papers, I don’t understand why their banks weren’t prosecuted, given Panama is on every sanctions list going.
How did the money get there, given facilitating any transactions to Panama is illegal?
I swear I remember a story once where a bank was caught for money laundering and weren’t pursued because they were a significant donor to the Tories.
This was years ago though, I don’t think I’d be able to find the thing now
Two tiered justice system strikes again, like the two tiered immigration system or the education and on, and on.
The people fucking the system are the people in control of the system.
Those same people are the ones claiming the poor are all a bunch of work shy lazy freeloading cunts, meanwhile they enjoy their final Caribbean holiday of the year.
The tax cheats one is so true. I swear they don’t even care, unless you really take the piss with huge VAT rebates, outrageous expense claims or you know, you’re on PAYE.
At one of my old firms, regarding the money laundering officer, well let’s just say they took their title a bit too literally.
It was like a conveyor belt and I have no idea how some of these accounts and corporate tax returns weren’t getting flagged by hmrc or companies house. I wanted to be like “do you need help? I feel like you guys need help.”
These were wealthy individuals and an awful lot were landlords too, just to add insult to injury. They simply refused to pay tax. Apparently you can do that, if you’re rich enough.
Eventually, when the assumption of good faith had finally been done away with, i phoned hmrc and they told me its organised fraud. So call action fraud. Action fraud said its tax evasion. So call hmrc.
Neither one even knew how to report it, let alone do anything about it. Oh, and takes an hour to get through to report, after the initial triage, the form you can fill out doesn’t work properly for reporting something like that.
I’m told that eventually a couple of clients had an enquiry with hmrc but nothing else came of it. They have a new partner at the firm now.
But you make sure you keep an eye out for those evil benefit fraudsters. I mean, neither right but we’re looking in the wrong place, by design.
7 comments
Between 2012 and 2021, U.K. authorities opened just 23 cases against bankers and other financial insiders for failing to report money laundering suspicions:^1
>Based on a leaked trove of documents from the U.S. Department of Treasury [in 2020], the FinCEN Files identified thousands of U.K. shell companies that received billions of dollars in suspicious transactions, and showed how bankers at HSBC, Barclays and other top British banks courted high value, high risk clients.
>Lawmaker Margaret Hodge, a prominent voice on anti-corruption matters from the United Kingdom’s Labour Party, told ICIJ that “just 23 criminal investigations” was an “appalling” figure that indicated a “clear reluctance from law enforcement to pursue individuals working in the banking sector.”
>
>According to an investigation by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and TaxWatch, only 11 “wealthy” people were prosecuted for tax fraud last year, despite the outsized role the U.K. and its overseas territories, including the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and Jersey, play in enabling tax dodging and financial secrecy.
>About 800,000 British taxpayers are categorized as “wealthy” — having an income above £200,000 (about $243,000) a year or £2 million (about $2.43 million) or more in assets — according to the U.K.’s tax authority, HM Revenue and Customs, but fewer than 100 have been prosecuted for tax crimes since 2017, TBIJ reported.
^1 https://www.icij.org/inside-icij/2023/10/uk-authorities-criticized-for-failing-to-prosecute-financial-crime-enablers-and-rich-tax-cheats/
But if they did that, there would be no Tory donors left
Remember this guy…
[https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/sep/27/hmrc-investigating-tax-affairs-of-one-of-tory-party-largest-donors-anthony-bamford](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/sep/27/hmrc-investigating-tax-affairs-of-one-of-tory-party-largest-donors-anthony-bamford)
For every person named in the Panama papers, I don’t understand why their banks weren’t prosecuted, given Panama is on every sanctions list going.
How did the money get there, given facilitating any transactions to Panama is illegal?
I swear I remember a story once where a bank was caught for money laundering and weren’t pursued because they were a significant donor to the Tories.
This was years ago though, I don’t think I’d be able to find the thing now
Two tiered justice system strikes again, like the two tiered immigration system or the education and on, and on.
The people fucking the system are the people in control of the system.
Those same people are the ones claiming the poor are all a bunch of work shy lazy freeloading cunts, meanwhile they enjoy their final Caribbean holiday of the year.
The tax cheats one is so true. I swear they don’t even care, unless you really take the piss with huge VAT rebates, outrageous expense claims or you know, you’re on PAYE.
At one of my old firms, regarding the money laundering officer, well let’s just say they took their title a bit too literally.
It was like a conveyor belt and I have no idea how some of these accounts and corporate tax returns weren’t getting flagged by hmrc or companies house. I wanted to be like “do you need help? I feel like you guys need help.”
These were wealthy individuals and an awful lot were landlords too, just to add insult to injury. They simply refused to pay tax. Apparently you can do that, if you’re rich enough.
Eventually, when the assumption of good faith had finally been done away with, i phoned hmrc and they told me its organised fraud. So call action fraud. Action fraud said its tax evasion. So call hmrc.
Neither one even knew how to report it, let alone do anything about it. Oh, and takes an hour to get through to report, after the initial triage, the form you can fill out doesn’t work properly for reporting something like that.
I’m told that eventually a couple of clients had an enquiry with hmrc but nothing else came of it. They have a new partner at the firm now.
But you make sure you keep an eye out for those evil benefit fraudsters. I mean, neither right but we’re looking in the wrong place, by design.