The British Virgin Islands (BVI) face mounting criticism from Westminster over controversial plans to limit transparency on company possession, prompting accusations of a “shameful” effort to protect the jurisdiction’s function in cash laundering and tax evasion.
A newly launched session paper, proposing to restrict public entry to firm registers and grant house owners an advance warning of investigations, has infuriated MPs and anti-corruption campaigners who say it undermines the UK authorities’s push to fight “dirty money”.
Former growth minister Andrew Mitchell has sharply condemned the BVI’s draft measures, arguing they show “total contempt” for Parliament’s demand for abroad territories to undertake publicly accessible registers of useful possession (PARBOs). Mitchell and fellow MPs warn that the proposals would create an early alert system for “bad actors”, permitting them to liquidate property and thwart investigations earlier than regulation enforcement businesses can act. As well as, journalists scrutinising delicate monetary dealings could be uncovered to potential authorized threats and intimidation.
The row has heightened requires the UK authorities to difficulty an “order in council”, a not often used legislative device that will compel the BVI to adjust to transparency requirements. The International Workplace, in the meantime, has voiced disappointment with the proposals, indicating it would press the territory’s authorities to revise its strategy. Ought to the standoff escalate, it dangers making a constitutional conflict between London and the BVI over the long run governance of monetary secrecy guidelines within the territory.
