A recent House of Commons debate on the Criminal
Finances Bill included discussion about whether the Crown
Dependencies should be forced to create public registries of
beneficial ownership information. Setting aside the constitutional
aspects of whether such a debate was even justified, it once again
revealed the lack of understanding amongst some MPs about
Jersey's role as an IFC.
Whether they feign misunderstanding because it suits their
political purpose or whether there is a genuine lack of knowledge
is difficult to know, but the general tenor of the criticism
reflected another of those 'myths' that we hear so often
about the Crown Dependencies that Jersey helps wealthy Britons and
companies stash their money out of sight of the taxman. References
to 'trading in secrecy' and suggestions that 'we aid
and abet financial crimes' because we permit secretive
companies to place their funds here, were liberally sprinkled
amongst the comments.
