The Virgin Islands was thrust into the international spotlight last week when three major news organisations began publishing a series of reports critical of the offshore financial services industry.
The three organisations — the BBC current affairs television programme Panorama, The Guardian newspaper, and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists — collaborated on the series.
The Guardian described the groups’ efforts on its website as “A worldwide investigation aimed at stripping away the anonymity that binds together one of the most shadowy aspects of Britain’s financial industry: the offshore company.”
Among the series’ findings, which are displayed on The Guardian’s website under the title “Offshore secrets,” are claims that reporters identified an international network of 28 “nominee directors,” who, on paper, appear to control more than 21,500 companies with which they may have no actual involvement. Some of the companies are reportedly registered in the VI on behalf of other people.
The secrecy that the “sham company directors” provide, the newspaper asserts, “leaves the way open for both tax avoidance and the concealment of assets.”
Though the “nominee directors” portrayed in the articles and in the Panorama programme are not alleged to be VI residents, some of the companies established by United Kingdom-based corporate service providers are reportedly registered here.
See the Nov. 29, 2012 edition for full coverage.
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