ICIJ report suspicious; attack on local economy – Cromwell Smith
On the Umoja show aired last evening, April 11, 2013 Smith said, “It’s just interesting to me, how a so-called Washington based international consortium of investigative journalists could single out the BVI… as a country that sells secrecy and is a haven.”
The host was at the time referring to a report in the UK Guardian published last week which has since set the Territory in defence mode, prompting the Premier and Minister of Finance, Dr The Hon. D. Orlando Smith to offer at least two statements on the issue.
The report published by the UK Guardian, details a number of alleged leaks of financial information acquired by the Washington, D.C. based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) that is said to include a number of names of the world’s wealthy who have ‘hidden’ their financial transactions within labyrinth of the Virgin Islands. The data reportedly leaked is said to contain as much as 200Gb of information.
Edju En Ka also dismissed the report as a hatchet job that smacked of yellow journalism.
He directed the ICIJ’s corruption scope to other more notable jurisdictions, including Delaware in the United States and the even more notorious Switzerland in Europe. “If these investigative journalists are looking for corruption and illegality and wrongdoing, the state of Delaware is right up the street from Washington, D.C… they need to look there first.”
According to the host, talk of money laundering, drug dealing and other similar illicit activities in the movies often seemed to centre around jurisdictions within the Caribbean, especially the Cayman Islands. He contended, however, that Switzerland has been involved in the Financial Services sector for much longer, “people who wanted to hide money, the first thing that comes to your mind is Switzerland… I’m going to open up a Swiss account,” said Edju En Ka.
Suggesting that larger states were perhaps exhibiting some form of jealousy, he offered that it was only recently that Tax Information Agreements have begun to be introduced and this has coincided with the emergence of the successes experienced by small island states within the Caribbean.
“Nobody ever talked about going to Switzerland and starting Tax Information Agreements and having governments and illegal entities opening up accounts to see what activities are going on,” he added, “it’s only the last few years that we started hearing about developed countries wanting to check out and see what’s going on in these offshore jurisdictions… I see a pattern developing here.”
The Umoja host also denied that there was any secrecy within the Virgin Islands Financial Sector contending that the BVI is a leader in international compliance with the most Tax Information Agreements of any country.
In an apparent jab at the United States and other first world countries, he instead posited that commercial secrecy was one of the foundations of capitalism, standing right alongside private individual ownership of the means of production of goods and services.
Co-host, Natalio Wheatley aka Sowande Uhuru, noted the report’s potential impact on the Territory given the fact that the sector made up a significant percentage of the Territory’s income. “It’s only intelligent for us to be able to mitigate against any potential impacts to that particular industry… we face continued threats,” he said while pointing at the Paris based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
He also noted that many European nations did not think highly of places such as the Virgin Islands and were countries that taxed their citizens heavily in efforts to fund their numerous social programmes.
“This is certainly an attack on our economy,” stated Edju En Ka as he indicated that the sector should be included in any thoughts surrounding national security.
“Where the hell is David Cameron and Boyd McCleary?” he asked regarding a seemingly conspicuous silence from British overseers on the perceived ‘attack’.
The host said that he found the Premier’s statement reassuring but was uncertain whether the vast majority of residents fully grasped the potential fallout facing the Territory following the report.
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23 Responses to “ICIJ report suspicious; attack on local economy – Cromwell Smith”
And the white expats go down to Peebles to born them chile and up by Tattersal because they want their children to be belongers; they got a plan. Guess what, we the locals have another plan. Watch it soon. "In your face; you ole Massa Breed."
These journalists have no interest in spending time, money, reputations on destroying the little old BVI. That gains them nothing at all.
The interest they have is in finding a good story and they work for an organization that fights for public integrity, they found a clear lack of it in the BVI. Why do you people deny this? Do you seriously claim the BVI operates on rules of principle and integrity in its government and its financial sector? It is clear as day that this place is open to corruption and corruption is deeply embedded in the financial system's whole modus operandi. Why do you pretend this is not so?
Switzerland, Delaware etc - they all come under attack for the same things every now and again, but these t leaks were about the BVI, that's why they focused on it.
No sense pretending we are the victims. How about we look at this pillar of the economy and ask ourselves - is this something we really want to be involved with? Creating rabbit holes down which so much money can just disappear from the world's tax and other authorities? Are we proud to be mercenaries working on behalf of the rich and greedy? Do we have principles and integrity, or are those just for outsiders?
the people have legitimate companies. BVI doesn't do offshore banking on that scale, it is done in Swizerland, UK, US, EUR. Nowhere has it been proven that anything wrong was done. It's just like the usual bull$h1t investment club conspiracies around here. A set of talk but nothing concrete in the end. It's all about making headlines and stirring emotions. by next week this done. they hacked two companies. yippee..