By The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
The identities of thousands of wealthy offshore clients of a major
Channel Isles private bank have been leaked to the International
Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The individuals include donors to the British government, which has
been outspoken against tax havens, and some of the most prominent people
in British life.
The ICIJ has exclusively allowed The Guardian
newspaper to analyze more than 20,000 of the names, all of whom had
dealings with a discreet Jersey, Channel Islands branch of Kleinwort
Benson, a famous London firm which specializes in “wealth management.”
In the interests of transparency, ICIJ and The Guardian will
publish some of their findings over the coming days, detailing the
offshore links of political donors; international celebrities; judges;
sportsmen; businessmen; and British aristocrats.
Names range from vacuum cleaner tycoon James Dyson to Hollywood actor Mel Gibson. Today The Guardian identifies party donors who over the years have paid more than £8m to the governing Conservative party.
One of the recipients of donations is Britain’s newly-promoted
financial services minister, Andrea Leadsom, who has run into a “Cash
for Office” allegation after she told The Guardian she was unaware of the size of large offshore donations to the Conservatives made by her own family.
The ICIJ has previously published secret internal records of offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands. ICIJ director, Gerard Ryle,
said: “We make this information available not because what we found is
illegal but because we think most people would think it unfair. Tax
havens allow some people to play by different rules.”
At a time of debate about inequalities of wealth in the UK, the data
leaks reveal how the very richest families dip in and out of British
jurisdiction as it suits them, exploiting what academic experts call
Jersey's 'fictitious space.'
British finance minister David Gauke last year called for
transparency from users of the tax haven, saying: “The time has come for
those with hidden offshore interests to come forward.”
A British government report stated: “In the past, offshore accounts
and other complex arrangements were shrouded in secrecy, so some people
felt that they could dodge their tax obligations ... Those days are
gone.”
Government
ministers launched a scheme for Jersey account-holders to make
disclosure. They claimed the big challenge the authorities face is
secret tax evasion, which is a crime.
The British Chancellor George Osborne announced in April: “If you’re evading tax offshore, there is no safe haven and we will find you.”
But The Guardian findings contradict this picture of
illegality. Many Jersey loopholes used by wealthy Britons to pass on
their fortunes appear from The Guardian’s research to have been perfectly legal.
Both the ruling Conservatives and to a lesser extent the Labour
opposition party have benefited by political donations from such
individuals.
There is no published register of trusts or offshore holdings, and
the rich appear to have often been able discreetly to avoid taxes,
particularly inheritance tax, in ways too expensive for smaller people
to use.
Children and other beneficiaries may have often had no hand in it themselves. The Earl of Guilford, for example, told The Guardian:
“I inherited money from a deceased relative that was held in an
offshore trust ...I have ... made full disclosure of this to HMRC [the
British tax authorities]. You will understand that I did not establish
an offshore account and was faced with the decision as to what to do
with this money.”
Clarification:
Sir James Dyson’s
former trust in the Channel Islands was through Orbis Trustees Guernsey
Limited rather than Kleinwort Benson, which purchased Orbis after the
trust was wound up in 1999, according to Dyson’s representatives. No
income was derived from the trust, nor was any tax avoided.
Contributors to this story: David Leigh and James Ball
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