Follow the money? One UK firm under suspicion for involvement in the scam has listed its shareholders as two untraceable firms in Panama and Belize. Another firm, Westburn Enterprises, succeeded in claiming half a billion US dollars from a guarantor in Russia through Moldovan courts. Despite allegedly conducting such vast transactions, the firm is registered as a small accountancy company in Edinburgh called Axiano. Although Westburn Enterprises claims its director is Marios Papntoniou, he is merely the boss of the Edinburgh-based accountancy firm. Axiano is not implicated in any criminality, and ultimately has nothing to do with Westburn’s operations. Rather, the accountancy outfit is but one of many UK firms that legally sets up offshore companies, which are shrouded in secrecy to guarantee their anonymity. When probed by the Independent, Marios Papntoniou declined to comment on Westburn Enterprises’ activities on the grounds of client confidentially. Papntoniou said he could not speak on behalf of his client unless asked to do so by police officials. Another UK firm, allegedly being probed, is London-registered Valemont Properties. The address of its director, Damian James Calderbank, is listed in two Dubai office blocks and a London-based office. Calderbank is thought to be a nominee director, and utterly unaware of the firm’s activities. Calderbank reportedly holds 21 UK directorships in Britain, has resigned from a startling 333 such positions in recent times, and was formally the director of 227 UK firms that have been dissolved. He is also a director in multiple other offshore firms, the Independent’s investigation reveals. Valemont Properties’ specially appointed company secretary cannot be questioned about the firm’s suspicious activities, according to the Independent, because it happens to be a financial vehicle located in the Bahamas, under the name Hextable Limited. Two other UK firms under investigation are reportedly registered at addresses that correspond to PO Boxes in Edinburgh, Shepherd Market and London. A further three firms are registered to a space in a Birmingham building, which is estimated to house approximately 1,300 firms. Documents supplied by Moldova’s Ministry of Justice reveal one of these Birmingham firms was awarded half a billion dollars in a single court decision, the Independent reveals. ‘Silver platter to the villains’ According to financial regulation experts and campaigners, Britain has long been a favored destination for foreign fraudsters and criminals to hide their ill-gotten cash. Systemic failures make it impossible to pursue the billions laundered directly into onshore British financial organizations. In 2013, Britain’s former chief anti-money laundering officer, David Thomas, cautioned that many investigations into such scams fail to gain momentum. Thomas said the Home Office is to blame for its inadequate responses to foreign requests to track illicit funds. While Britain’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has pledged to tackle financial secrecy in the UK by forcing firms to disclose the identities of corporate figures that hold over 25 percent of any company’s shares, a concrete regulatory shift is yet to emerge. Such a move would enable UK authorities to tackle tax evasion and money laundering more effectively. David Clarke, a counter fraud expert and former chief of Britain’s fraud squad, stresses more stringent regulation is vital. “We need a proper, concerted effort between law enforcement and Companies House, because at the moment we’re still handing it on a silver platter to the villains,” Clarke recently told the Independent eclinik.wordpress/2014/10/17/queen-liz-dirty-money-under-investrigation/
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 04:56:14 +0000
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