NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE
There’s an interesting article in the German magazine ‘Business Insider’ which says that the Isle of Man is 9 out of 10 on a list of favoured locations for criminal money laundering (link):
https://www.businessinsider.de/britains-international-money-laundering-hotspots-according-to-the-treasury-2015-11?r=UK&IR=T
Now for years the Isle of Man has been passing tracts of anti-money laundering legislation. It has, I’m reliably informed a Financial Crime Unit, which seems to have a lower profile than MI6. The Island meets OECD standards. It has in place ‘know your customer’ legislation – though that didn’t seem to stop that NAMA linked business. It’s on ‘white lists’ (whatever they are presumably the opposite of black lists. So money laundering wise you would think this place would be sewn up tighter than…well you know!
So what’s this German article? More lazy journalism identifying the Isle of Man with its guilty past, a past it has long since left behind or is there more to it?
Well I have no doubt the usual suspects Bell, Teare etc will surface to issue denials and ‘pooh-pooh’ the whole thing but there is just one problem.
The article cites a UK government source for these allegations. It says:
“Often people will take money abroad to do this, hoping that the cross-border aspect will make it harder to trace. A recent report from the UK government identified the top 10 countries British criminals turn to when they want to clean their cash, based on 5 years worth of criminal assets recovered from abroad.”
The link is here – it’s a UK Home Office Report:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/468210/UK_NRA_October_2015_final_web.pdf
There’s just one reference to Mann but it is there in the ‘naughty list’ of top ten favoured locations on page 86.
So why with all this legislation and financial regulation are we still there – over to you Allan!
BERNARD MOFFATT
Issued by: The Celtic News
25/11/15
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