Lucy Komisar interviews BOB ROACH, Chief Investigator of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the U.S. Senate
MIAMI, Inter Press Service (IPS), July 14, 2009 – At a recent conference in Miami organised by Offshore Alert, a specialised media organisation focused on financial crime, IPS correspondent Lucy Komisar sat down with veteran investigator Bob Roach to discuss the hurdles facing regulators trying to crack down on tax havens, which cost the U.S. alone an estimated 100 billion dollars annually.
Worldwide, financial centres with bank secrecy laws are blamed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which represents 30 developed economies, for hiding some 5 to 7 trillion dollars offshore so the profits they produce evade taxes.
The Miami conference dealt with these offshore financial centres, and the significance and global impact of the myriad of business transactions that is conducted in and through them."
Excerpts of the interview follow. He is speaking not on behalf of the committee, but rather expressing his own views.
IPS: You said at the conference that information received by the Permanent Subcommittee of Investigations of the Senate about the activities of some institutions pointed to structures that were created for one reason: to avoid tax liability. What institutions were you talking about?
BOB ROACH: I was specifically referencing the hearings that took place in July last year and lasted until this year, which focused on activities of UBS in Switzerland and the LGT Group, an asset management company in Lichtenstein.
IPS: One of the issues raised by the G20 in April was the need to have country-country agreements to deal with tax-information sharing about clients of banks and companies set up in offshore jurisdictions. How effective are they?
BR: The fact that you have agreements in place doesn't really mean or help a lot if jurisdictions won't comply with them. And this is a problem in a country when we try to seek information. Often the government (that requests the information) has to prove the case before it gets the information it needs to prove the case.
So while countries can say they have exchange agreements, it's about the details. Agreements are written in such nebulous language, there are such strict requirements (to comply with in order to get information), that it's impossible. These really are not effective agreements that increase transparency.
IPS: Most people don't know that the U.S. has its own tax havens: Delaware, Nevada and Wyoming. How serious is this problem and what are the U.S. agencies doing about them?
BR: It is a very serious problem. Certain investigations as early as 2000-01 (showed that) the incorporation procedures in those states are very weak. Most states will incorporate entities without really having any kind of understanding of who the true controlling persons or beneficial owners are. This is a weakness that has become exploited by many interests, particularly overseas, to facilitate the kind of activity that we worry about. And it is something that really has to be ended.
On a couple of occasions now, Senator (Carl) Levin has introduced legislation to stop this type of activity by requiring states to collect more information on the ownership, on who is behind entities that are being incorporated in these states.
Recently, Senator Levin, Senator (Charles) Grassley, and Senator (Claire) McCaskill introduced the incorporation transparency and law enforcement act that requires states to collect the kind of information that will allow the identification of true parties behind the entities that are established in these states.
IPS: How are these states different from offshore tax havens?
rest at http://thekomisarscoop.com/2009/07/qa-tax-havens-bank-secrecy-and-tricks/
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