Britain’s newly appointed anti-corruption czar is “biased” against the Virgin Islands, Premier Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley said last week when asked to respond to her recent criticisms of the territory.
In a bruising assessment of Baroness Margaret Hodge, Mr. Wheatley told the Beacon that the woman charged with fighting money crime in the United Kingdom and overseas territories “lacks some balance” even though he acknowledged that they share goals in common.
Before being appointed as “Anti-Corruption Champion” by United Kingdom Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer last month, Baroness Hodge made stinging claims about financial transparency in the territory.
“We know all too well that the overseas territories and crown dependencies play a pivotal role in helping crooks and tax dodgers launder their dirty money,” she and former Tory deputy foreign minister Andrew Mitchell alleged last November in a joint letter to The Guardian newspaper in the UK.
They went on to claim that the VI and the Cayman Islands have the “worst track record” of all the OTs in this regard.
Premier’s view
Mr. Wheatley, who assumed the role of financial services minister after firing at-large representative Lorna Smith from the position last October, took issue with such claims last week in an interview with the Beacon.
“She’s biased,” he said. “She’s presented a warped view of what’s happening in the Virgin Islands. She’s created a caricature of the Virgin Islands that doesn’t reflect reality.”
Mr. Wheatley added that Baroness Hodge has been uneven in her approach.
“I think she lacks some balance,” he said. “I think she can be a little bit more balanced in her views. And in her presentation, for instance, she should acknowledge all the work that the Virgin Islands has done in transparency.”
The premier insisted that the territory is a leader in the push against money crime.
“We should be considered best practice as it pertains to sharing information in a responsible way,” he said.
Accordingly, he added that Baroness Hodge should change her approach.
“I think she also needs to speak a little bit more to the standard setters as opposed to trying to single out overseas territories: talk to the standard setters and try to see if you can encourage them to put pressure on having global standards — a level playing field — as opposed to, you know, picking on overseas territories,” he said.
Despite their different perspectives, Mr. Wheatley added that he and Baroness Hodge share common ground.
“You know, we have the same goals,” he said. “We want to fight against corruption. We want to fight against financial crime.”
Beyond Britain
When Baroness Hodge was given the anti-corruption role, UK security minister Dan Jarvis made it clear her role would extend beyond Britain.
Before being elevated to the House of Lords following Labour’s commanding victory in the July general election, Baroness Hodge served as a member of the UK Parliament for 30 years, and she was chair of the influential House of Commons Public Accounts Committee from 2010 to 2015.
Her office did not respond to a request for comment, and a spokesperson for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office told the Beacon, “We have nothing to comment on this.”
