Special report 2016 tax havens Selling England by the offshore pound The story so far… 2

Introduction For oligarchs, arms dealers, money launderers, kleptocrats and run-of-the- mill tax dodgers, British property is the investment of choice. But where is it and how is it owned? In 2015 Private Eye journalists Richard Brooks and Christian Eriksson set about untangling the great offshore corporate web that covers the country. The culmination of this work was the creation, with the help of software developer Anna Powell-Smith, of an easily searchable online map of properties in England and Wales owned by offshore companies. It reveals for the first time the extent of the British property interests of companies based in tax havens from Panama to Luxembourg, and from Liechtenstein to the South Pacific island of Niue. Most are held in this way for tax avoidance and often to conceal dubious wealth. Using Land Registry data released under Freedom of Information laws, and then linking around 100,000 land titles to specific addresses and geo-locations, the Eye has mapped all leasehold and freehold interests acquired by offshore companies between 2005 and 2014. We have also released a database of all properties acquired by offshore companies from 1999 to 2014, showing the address, the offshore corporate owners and in most cases the price paid. Using this and other information the Eye has published a series of exposés of the companies, arms dealers, oligarchs, money launderers and others who use offshore companies. This is a selection of those stories. Ian Hislop Click here to access the map Issue 13903 Page 31 17 April 2015 31 WHISTLEBLOWING OFFSHORE PROPERTY Reverse ferret at Barts Crown jewels ROUBLED Barts Health NHS Trust has culture of bullying identified by the watchdog. OR more than 250 years Tdramatically reinstated the union official Mrs Monro (pictured), a Unison rep and a Frevenues of the Crown and whistleblower it sacked 18 months ago moving and handling co-ordinator at Whipps Estate, the Queen’s property and against whom it has since waged a costly Cross, had been sacked because she spoke out company that is now worth legal battle. about some of those cuts – plans to axe stroke £10bn and owns vast tracts of This about-turn by the country’s largest NHS and cardiac posts. The trust claimed she acted in “super-prime” London, have trust was no doubt designed to head off what breach of confidence; MrsIssue Monro 1390 said she was been given to the Treasury in was expected to be a damning indictment of its sacked to shut her up. 17 April 2015 return for the “civil list” payments, giving behaviour by the employment tribunal judge To boost its case against her, the trust had taxpayers an important stake in the business. who had heard Charlotte resurrected convictions dating back to Mrs Yet Private Eye has identified 120 former Monro’s claim for unfair Monro’s days as a teenage activist in the 1970s, Crown Estate properties that, via sale of dismissal and was about to claiming she had failed to declare them. In leaseholds, have ended up in 14 tax havens – give a reserved judgment. reality, Mrs Monro had sought advice from most in the British Virgin Islands but also in But the climb-down the hospital and been told she “she need not Panama, Liechtenstein, Seychelles and other comes after the trust was worry”. funny-money centres. last month placed in special But now, in a spectacular reverse ferret, the While the identities of those who own the measures and its senior new Barts brooms have not only swept away leaseholds usually remain secret (that’s half the executives resigned. Care all the allegations against Mrs Monro and point), occasionally other information identifies Quality Commission inspectors had found a wiped them from her records, they also say that them. Larger deals include a leasehold on No catalogue of serious failings at one of its main “the trust values Charlotte’s long professional 3 Carlton Gardens, just off The Mall and once hospitals, Whipps Cross. contribution over many years to standards of home to MI6, sold by Crown Estates in 2013 to As Eye readers are aware, the East London patient care and to patient and staff safety”. a Jersey company, Decimus Ltd, for £65.5m. hospital suffered cuts in staff and services as What a shame so much NHS time and The buying company was a vehicle for Barts battled to meet PFI debts, culminating in taxpayers’ money was wasted trying to get rid property developer Mike Spink and private the poor care, staff shortages, poor morale and of her. equity investors Evans Randall. Both are UK-based, so why the Jersey company? The company didn’t reply to the Eye, but the c RIm INa L juSTIc E standard explanation for a Channel Island development company is that when the property is sold at a profit later – reports suggest Spink Grayling’s parting shot and his backers are looking to sell for £140m – HERE was outrage from the bench when to pay; but it ignores the capital gains tax would not be payable. Tjustice minister Chris Grayling sneaked chaotic reality of most people Nearby is No 13-16 Carlton House Terrace, through more ill-thought out changes to the who pass through the courts. a jewel in the crown of the John Nash-designed criminal justice system just as parliament Those who are on benefit or stuccoed houses overlooking St James’s Park. packed up for the election. have low or no income, and those with mental It was sold by the Crown Estates to the Hinduja With no consultation or debate, from 13 health or addiction problems, will simply not brothers in 2006 under a 125-year lease to a April offenders will have to pay £150 court be able to pay; and lawyers fear that some Guernsey company, Villina Trading Ltd, plus charges for a quick guilty plea at a magistrate’s defendants may feel pressure to plead guilty to Prakash Hinduja, the Swiss-resident Hinduja court (or £720 if convicted after pleading not- avoid falling further into debt. sibling, and his company Sangam Ltd. Six years guilty), and up to £1,200 for being found guilty Grayling need only look at existing later large parts were sold for £150m through a at crown court. Magistrates and judges will have unpaid court fines and debts, or at his own further lease to a BVI company called Rosabella no discretion: the charges are compulsory and department’s prediction that only a fraction of Ltd, plus Prakash and Sangam, according to the same whatever the crime; and they come on the new court charges will be recovered. In the Land Registry records. top of any fine, compensation, victim surcharge meantime he (or a successor) will have to spend Other high value Crown Estate assets or legal aid contribution an offender must make. money on debt collectors to enforce the charges have disappeared offshore too. They include Grayling (pictured) says the move will and the only sanction for those who don’t pay 1 Cambridge Gate, a palatial residence on the ensure that criminals “pay their way”. This may up will be an expensive place in one of our outer circle of Regents Park. It was sold to a be so for those in work or who have the means overcrowded, understaffed prisons. UK company in 2001 but four years later was transferred to a BVI company, Killiane Ltd, for £18m. This company is the vehicle for Russian government is desperate for something to financier Vladimir Chernukhin (whose wife succeed. Lubov paid £160,000 last year to play tennis ROUBLE is mounting for French Why? Because EDF, majority-owned by with Boris Johnson and David Cameron.) By Telectricity giant EDF, would-be developer the French state, has colossal liabilities for 2010 charges were registered on the property of four new UK nuclear power plants. decommissioning and replacing its vast fleet of indicating that money had been borrowed against As predicted in Eye 1385, the coalition ageing nuclear reactors – 59 in France and 15 in it from another BVI company. Borrowing like thought better of rushing through the paperwork the UK. It needs Areva’s expertise to carry out this is a way for non-doms to bring income into needed for EDF to cash in a government offer this mind-boggling task efficiently in coming the UK tax-free (entirely legally). of 35-year electricity contracts at guaranteed, years. One of its ploys is to co-opt the European Top of the oligarch property chart is the ultra-high prices in order to get the first project Commission’s new “Energy Union” wheeze mysterious Andrey Goncharenko, a low-profile committed before the election. Construction (Eye 1388) as a vehicle for ever greater nuclear former Gazprom official whom Eye 1370 work has thus been frozen, and it will be hard subsidies. reported last year as having bought a Hampstead to persuade any incoming government to revive The monster 35-year UK electricity contracts property for £43m in 2010. His main pile, those costly deals. are vital to keep Areva alive and offset the however, was once part of the Crown Estates, EDF has another problem closer to home decommissioning liabilities on EDF’s books – again on the edge of Regents Park. In 2012 he with French nuclear engineering firm Areva, and keep them off the booksOverleaf of the French state. acquired Hanover Lodge for £120m using a EDF’s partner in most of its nukes and slated The deals, paid for by UKIssue electricity 1394 users and Gibraltar company, Green Palace Gardens Ltd, effectively underwritten by the UK government, to invest in the UK plants. Areva has serious 12 June 2015 and a loan from Barclays in Geneva. financial and legal difficulties arising primarily would amount to more than £300bn of revenue Although Crown Estates can’t control what from delays and overspends on the EPRs for EDF for four new reactors over 35 years. happens to a property once it is sold, it does sell (European pressurised reactors) it is building in Better still, they are a precedent for new EC- a high value of properties directly to offshore France and Finland – the latter overrunning by approved mega-subsidies for the nuclear companies itself. In the last two years for which nine years and several billion euros. It is EPRs industry. data is available, up to March 2014, such sales that EDF plans to install in the UK. Both Tories and Labour want new nukes, came to £135m. It points out that its governing EDF’s senior executives are running round so EDF will be hammering on the doors of the statute requires it to get the “best consideration like, er, têteless poulets trying to hatch a plan new government after May. It will find rather which… can reasonably be obtained”: any to save Areva. All options are being considered, less generous terms on offer next time around, question over where buyers have got their from takeover by EDF to a bail-out by Chinese however. money from is for buyers’ solicitors and estate investors. None is palatable, but the French ‘Old Sparky’ agents to worry about. 4 Issue 1394 Page 38 12 June 2015 Issue 1394 Page 39 12 June 2015 39 OFFSHORE OWNERSHIP offshore company, but the judge was satisfied address on Avenue de l’Opera in Paris and are they were controlled by Schwarzenbach said to be part of “The Jersey Settlement”. This and he could be considered the employer. fertile territory has yielded €4.3m from the EU Estate Schwarzenbach’s home, and that of his 250 over a dozen years. polo ponies, is the 1,100 Culham Court Estate Exactly what is behind all this is not clear planning on the other side of the river, itself owned by – although inheritance tax “efficiency” is a fair bet – and the current Marquess, Lord Salisbury CHUNK of England’s yet another BVI company. (a descendant of the 19th-century prime green and pleasant land A minister), is not keen on disclosure. As Tory larger than the county Foreign exchanges leader in the House of Lords in the 1990s when of Surrey is owned by Many other wealthy foreign businessmen he was the Viscount Cranborne, he opposed companies registered in not so pleasant tax have spotted British land, held through an reform of the upper chamber and left in 2001 havens, an investigation by Private Eye has offshore company, as the ideal tax-efficient complaining that new disclosure of interest established. investment and lifestyle choice. Indian rules were “so onerous I could not possibly Using freedom of information laws billionaire steel magnate and famous non-dom accept them”. and extensive data-crunching, the Eye Lakshmi Mittal owns the 300-acre Alderbrook Even more landed is true blue Lord has established that since 1999 titles to estate in Cranleigh, Surrey, through BVI Bathurst, inheritor of a peerage created early in 97,500 properties covering 490,000 acres have company Wilks Holding Ltd, while one of the 18th century and owner of the 15,000-acre been acquired by companies in tax havens England’s largest estates, the 10,000-acre Bathurst estate outside Cirencester, where from the Caribbean to the Channel Islands. Ramsbury Estate in Wiltshire, belongs to he is a leading Cotswolds Tory and holder of With much land also acquired by offshore Swedish chairman of the H&M fashion chain several worthy positions. Farms on his estate companies before then, the total area could Stefan Persson via a Luxembourg company, have benefited to the tune of €9.3m from the well be twice that. Ramsbury sarl, which didn’t stop the estate EU. But when in 2013 Bathurst wanted to The largest single owner by area is a British receiving €6.7m in EU subsidies up to 2013. develop parts of it, 1,800 acres of the land was Virgin Islands company called Gunnerside Two years ago, using the same company, transferred a company called Bathurst Trust Estates Ltd, with an expansive 27,258 acres of Persson added to this the nearby 8,700-acre PTC Ltd in the tax haven of Bermuda. the North Yorkshire moors much favoured by Savernake estate, purchased from the British Closer still to the centre of Tory power is grouse-shooting parties. Behind the company state in the form of Crown Estates (Eyes hereditary peer Lord Rotherwick, aka Herbert is American luxury duty-free shopping pioneer passim) and making the Swede’s corporate Cayzer, who last spoke in parliament more Robert Miller, reported to have acquired UK Grand Duchy vehicle one of Britain’s biggest than a year ago and who calls the 5,000-acre citizenship but to reside tax-efficiently in Hong landowners. Persson’s compatriot Eric Cornbury estate in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds Kong. As with any property owned by an Torstenson, a double-glazing businessman, home. While he declares this land in his offshore company, the precise reasons for the runs the 7,500-acre East Arkengarthdale parliamentary register of interests, what goes structure are hard to discern – and Miller didn’t grouse moor in Northumberland through a unmentioned is that the estate – which hosts the answer the Eye’s request for an explanation – Liechtenstein family company. trendier end of the Tory establishment at the but the American is perfectly placed to benefit Even more exotically, Khoo Kay Peng, the annual Wilderness (aka “Poshstock”) festival from the inheritance tax breaks given to a Malaysian chairman of the firm behind Laura – is shown on Land Registry records as owned “non-dom” on overseas assets and is likely to Ashley, owns the 866-acre Rossway Park Estate by IFG (Jersey) Trust Ltd, apparently as trustee have escaped stamp duty when his company in Hertfordshire via a BVI company, Central for an offshore trust. Until this groovier use, acquired the estate in 1998. None of this Point Group Ltd. In the businessman’s divorce farming on the Cornbury estate garnered €3.1m. prevented the EU paying agricultural subsidies proceedings, this and another BVI company to the estate over a decade or so of €430,000. were said to control “a very substantial Arms’ length The most expensive piece of land is property, an elegant country estate with inevitably further south, next to the Thames two substantial houses parkland, farmland, Not far away at Woodstock, Saudi arms near Henley. In 2011, Park Place and its woodland, many buildings and so on”, while deal fixer Prince Bandar (instrumental in 300-acre grounds in the village of Remenham of Peng and his estranged wife a judge said: BAE’s notorious Al Yamamah deal) owns the were bought for £120m by the former president “Neither of them currently pays any English 2,000-acre Glympton Park through a Jersey of the Bank of Moscow, Andrey Borodin, taxes whatsoever.” company. His next-door neighbour is arms but not in his own name of course. The dealer and Tory supporter Wafic Said, whose 18th-century home of Frederick, Prince of Tusmore Park is owned by a Panamanian Wales, is now owned by another BVI company, Locally sourced company, as is the company that farms it Durio Ltd. Again, the exact reason for the But it’s far from just foreign arrivistes buying and in the process has received €2.6m in structure is not known but the acquisition was up tracts of England through tax haven EU subsidies. made while Borodin was under investigation companies. Some of the country’s most historic And of course no account of the flogging by Russian authorities who are still pursuing families use the trick, too. Among them are the of British land offshore would be complete him over alleged fraud at the bank and froze Gascoyne-Cecils, who trace their ancestry to without a mention of non-dom Daily Mail hundreds of millions of dollars of his assets the court of Queen Elizabeth I and who have proprietor Lord Rothermere (aka Jonathan in Swiss banks before he received political for centuries gloried in the Marquessate of Harmsworth). BVI company Harmsworth asylum in the UK in 2013. Salisbury. The family seat, occupied by the Trust Company (PTC) Ltd, itself controlled by A mile or so down the river is the 7th Marquess, is 400-year-old Hatfield House family trusts, owns more than 300 acres of land chocolate-box village of Hambleden, in Hertfordshire, which is owned directly in Wiltshire. Up to 2005, his Ferne Park estate backdrop to Midsomer Murders and Chitty by the family. But 2,000 nearby acres have (not itself owned offshore) received €200,000 Chitty Bang Bang and generally described as been transferred to Jersey companies Samos in EU subsidies – not something that would get “quintessentially English”. But when the Investments Ltd and Syros Investments Ltd. reported in the Mail. 1,600-acre estate with its 40 brick and flint The family can also stretch their legs at These are just a few of the cases of offshore houses, pub and village stores was bought Cranborne in Wiltshire, where they own another ownership where those behind the offshore by Swiss foreign exchange dealer Urs couple of thousand acres, mostly farmed, near company can be identified. Most can’t – which Schwarzenbach in 2007, he acquired it through the similarly dated Cranborne Manor. The is often the point. And while David Cameron BVI company Hambleden Estates Ltd. At manor itself is owned and occupied by the not so long ago promised to “break down the an employment tribunal last year, where the current Marquess’s heir, the Hon. Robert Cecil, walls of corporate secrecy” that conceal such tight-wad financier (a UK resident worth £1bn Viscount Cranborne, but the land interests have details, current plans are to reveal the ultimate but almost certainly non-dom) contested that been transferred to Samos Investments Ltd and owners only of UK companies. Unless these he employed a gardener on his estate who was Mysia Investments Ltd (which also own some are changed, great tracts of Britain will remain sacked after snapping a tendon, it emerged that prime London property). Both are incorporated anonymously held in the hands of tax haven the BVI company was owned by yet another in Jersey but Land Registry records give an shell companies.

Park Place Hambleden Ramsbury Rossway Park Glympton Park 5

Issue 1395 26 June 2015

Issue 1395 Page 37 26 June 2015 37 Issue 1395 Page 38 26 June 2015 ONE HYDE PARK IN THE BACK Candy cash saga DRAFT promotional video for the REVOLVING DOORS A “super-prime” One Hyde Park development of brothers Nick and Christian Harrison Candy, filmed in 2010 and leaked to the accountants KPMG and was head of its tax Guardian last week, poses some serious practice in the 1990s and early 2000s, when it questions about the brothers’ tax affairs. flogged hundreds of aggressive tax-avoidance fraud? It could be equally embarrassing too for schemes, including one that involved a trust ONFIRMATION that chancellor George the Candy & Candy director at the time – supposedly moving round the world several COsborne’s closest special adviser, who now chairs the board of HM Revenue times in a single tax year that was dismissed Rupert Harrison, is off to work for the & Customs! by a court as “a charade”. Another was world’s largest asset management company, Unguarded comments by the brothers and labelled by judges as “entirely artificial” BlackRock, just after designing the pensions contractors on the project including architect Lord even though it was “a preferred strategy for reforms on which the company is cashing in (Richard) Rogers and the boss of builders Laing KPMG’s [ie Barlow’s] clients”; and only (see Eye 1393), again exposes the pisspoor O’Rourke, Ray O’Rourke, prompted a concerned two weeks ago the Supreme Court ruled that system for approving such appointments. memo from the finance director of Christian a 2001 KPMG scheme to enable car dealers The prime minister’s advisory committee Candy’s Guernsey-based CPC property group, to avoid very large payments of VAT was on business appointments Steven Smith, demanding changes to “improve an abuse of the law and it therefore struck it said it had taken into account the tax profile”. Hence even mentioning one down. “that Mr Harrison has been meeting, wrote Smith, “gives us HUGE issues”. Barlow told the Eye his “involvement was involved in the development of The difficulties appear to stem from the need as non-executive director of Candy & Candy the government’s approach to for the Guernsey company that has developed Ltd and its immediate parent company Candy regulation of the banking sector” One Hyde Park, Project Grande (Guernsey) Ltd, & Candy Holdings Ltd, both UK resident but that this “did not specifically to be tax resident outside the UK, which means companies”, that he had “no involvement in relate to asset management.” its main business decisions have to be seen to the tax arrangements of Candy & Candy Ltd… There was no mention of his be taken offshore and not in the UK. nor of any other companies associated with the dealings with BlackRock or work on any policy The tape and memo and detailed warnings Candy brothers” and that he had been unaware that would affect it. from the brothers’ finance director should of the video. This looks odd given Harrison’s hospitality prompt an inquiry by HM Revenue & Customs. A report in 2009 by Bloomberg, to whom register. It shows that on 1 March 2013 he But that’s where things could get difficult for Barlow commented that a valuable property was taken to lunch by the asset managers. the current chairman of HMRC, Ian Barlow. sale in 2008 “was a key milestone” and that In the 2013 budget less than three weeks In July 2008 he was brought in as a director “they [the brothers] have very significant cash later, Osborne exempted funds from stamp of Candy & Candy Ltd and its holding company reserves”, suggests that Barlow’s involvement duty when savers redeem their holdings. The (itself owned by a British Virgin Islands went a bit further than just the design and following day BlackRock’s UK retail boss was company controlled by the pair) and sat on the management business of Candy & Candy Ltd. reported in Financial Planner magazine as board alongside Steven Smith, Nick Candy He oddly omits his substantial spell with the “wholeheartedly” welcoming changes that “will and his Monaco-resident brother Christian. Candys from an otherwise comprehensive help Brits to help themselves build a bigger He resigned in October 2011, less than a year LinkedIn profile, and there is no mention of retirement pot”. before getting the HMRC job. it in his biography on HMRC’s website or the Six months later, in his 2013 autumn Barlow spent most of his career at other chairmanships he has. Why so shy? statement, Osborne exempted “exchange traded funds” from stamp duty on share purchases, again welcomed by BlackRock as of benefit to COURT FEES “a wide range of investors from retail through to pension funds [of which BlackRock manages over £200bn]…” Licence to make money Harrison’s starring role in government was HE injustice of former justice secretary charges on 13 April, without consultation or dreaming up the pensions revolution which TChris Grayling’s ill-thought-through debate, just beating the parliamentary cut-off allows savers complete freedom with their automatic court fees (Eye 1390) is nowhere point in his determination to ensure criminals pots. Osborne announced this in his budget more evident than when they are imposed “pay their way”. on 19 March last year; and two weeks later on the thousands who appear each week This may be possible for those in Harrison was again lunching with BlackRock. before the bench for failing to make a TV employment or with other means, but not for So did Harrison’s application to the licence payment. those on low income, with learning difficulties, appointments committee give a full account Around 95 percent of TV licence defaulters mental health or addiction problems. As of his dealings with BlackRock and its areas are there not because they are wilful non-payers Grayling’s own department predicted, only a of interest, as required? If it did, there is no but because they are struggling to meet bills on fraction of the new court charges will actually indication of it in the committee letter approving low income or benefits. But now, unlike those be recovered: costs are incurred for bailiffs the position, which makes no mention of who fail to pay a utility bill, for example, they to enforce the charges, and the only sanction them. This is strange since approvals for other are not only criminalised but typically face fines available for those who don’t cough up is, er, appointments do address such disclosures. and costs in excess of £300. That sum is made an expensive cell in an overcrowded prison. In a malodorous recent bunch, Harrison’s up of a £55 fine plus £20 victim surcharge and Moves to decriminalise licence default appointment is particularly smelly and the £120 prosecution costs, which is then almost because of concerns about injustice have committee’s behaviour especially inept-looking. doubled by the new £150 court charge. unfortunately fallen by the wayside: the issue If Osborne’s right hand man’s involvement in If anyone dares believe they have a good has been hijacked by the highly politicised policy really did “not specifically relate to asset excuse for non-payment and pleads not guilty, debate over future funding of the BBC. management”, as the committee says, what did the court charge fee rises to £520 if magistrates he discuss over lunch with the world’s largest reject their plea. The same surcharges and asset manager? charges are imposed on violent offenders. Even BlackRock’s comment on the According to Stockport justice of the appointment shows how influential he was in peace Jeff Waters, the only part of the penalty its line of work. “Given his experience shaping magistrates can reduce is the prosecution fee. A 100 Clinics Cherie Blair’s Mee the recent pensions reforms in the UK,” it said, JP for the past 12 years, he told the Eye: “I used Healthcare, financed through a tax “he is uniquely placed to help develop our to be proud of being part of the justice system, haven, claimed it would open in retirement proposition.” but we are now being forced to inflict grossly first five years The appointments approval process’s unjust and disproportionate punishments.” 11 Number it actually opened in biggest flaw is secrecy. Only the applicant, Manchester handles about 6,000 TV licence three years the department he or she is leaving and the cases a year. Waters said his court gets through committee know of a proposed job until it is a list of about 100 licence breaches in a little 0 Cash it says is available to fulfil approved. So nobody who might point out over an hour, generating around £15,000. orders, refund deposits or pay staff conflicts of interest can raise them until the job Eye readers will remember that Grayling after ceasing trading last week is in the bag. sneaked through the new criminal court Issue 1395 Page 39 26 June 2015 39 NHS PLC Yet the phobia in Westminster for borrowing consultancy companies which will total at least Unhealthy or taxation means it is to such companies that £235m by 2018 – more than enough to build a the NHS must turn for extra “capacity”. And the substantial hospital or employ thousands of nurses. finances private firms can stumble on only by being given It was management consultant McKinsey’s yet more work that will have to be expensively 2009 report to the then Labour government, HOUGH private health firms are lobbying priced because of their extra costs, while regularly designed to save the NHS £20bn, that kicked Ta Tory government for more NHS work offloading services to scramble some cash. off the “Shaping a Healthier Future” (geddit?) with renewed optimism, more evidence is Care UK has recently raised funds by selling reconfiguration project. But five years on, there emerging that financial crises are a far bigger its mental health services, a learning disabilities is still no “business case” or detailed plan for problem for them than for the NHS, to whose business, and is looking to flog its Care at Home services which will replace the 1,000 hospital beds rescue they are supposedly riding. business too and has terminated an out-of-hours and A&E services destined to go – even though The largest private combined health and GP contract. the closures of A&E units in Hammersmith and care provider in Britain is Care UK, owned by PS: Care UK’s MD of healthcare, Jim Central Middlesex hospitals have already taken the Bridgepoint private equity group. It has Easton, joined the company in 2013 after place and the projected capital cost of the scheme just published results showing yet more losses, being in charge of “transformation” at the NHS has rocketed from £190m to £1bn. stemming partly from costs of services but, more Commissioning Board (now NHS England) In the last two years alone, the bill for external significantly, from paying interest. – the main transformation being to drive more management consultants was £33m – more 6 On income of £600m a year, it is losing about health services into the red-ink-stained hands of than a third to McKinsey and a quarter to PA £50m annually, of which £30m goes on debt private health companies. Consulting. Beancounter PwC pocketed £3m and interest. This expense is so large because until PR spinners M&C Saatchi received £300,000. last year Care UK was paying 9.75 percent on l GOVERNMENT cuts may be causing havoc The figures and projected £235m overall £325m of loans, replacing them last year with in hospitals, but they are very profitable for the costs have been unearthed by the researchers bonds paying Libor (the inter-bank lending rate management consultants and PR companies for the Independent Commission on Healthcare that is currently around 0.6 percent) plus between spinning the plans through. in West London, chaired by Michael Mansfield 5 and 7.5 percent. The main slug of bonds is The west London hospital “reconfigurations” QC. However, they believe the total could be trading on the market at a price that yields (ie cuts) have seen unprecedented chaos in A&E Issue 1395 much larger, because they have so far been investors 7.2 percent. departments and a spate of critical Care Quality unable to unearth the costs run up by the now These rates are far higher than26 Junethe government 2015 Commission reports. An independent study has defunct primary care trusts in west London. would have to pay to fund the NHS, with 20-year found that the project to close Charing Cross and As costs spiral and services descend into gilts paying around 2.6 percent. In other words, it Ealing hospitals, as well as A&E units at Central crisis, the commission is asking why the likes of costs around three times as much to fund healthcare Middlesex and Hammersmith, is running up McKinsey, PwC and PA Consulting seem to be through private firms as it does publicly. costs for admin, NHS management and private the only winners.

LAND OWNERSHIP Highlands and (offshore) islands FTER a long and controversial history, Panama. Major Christopher Hanbury, an aide Estate Ltd, registered in A Scottish land must become “an asset to the Sultan of Brunei, also has an interest in the Turks and Caicos and that benefits the many, not the few”, says the estate on the edge of the Cairngorms, as controlled by George Ivar first minister Nicola Sturgeon as she consults does the Swiss foreign exchange dealer, Urs Louis Mountbatten, the 4th on land reform. It will take some reform to Schwarzenbach, through a Guernsey company Marquess of Milford Haven make the 750,000 acres north of the border called Agro Invest Overseas Ltd (readers of the who bought it in 2008. – more than the whole of Ayrshire – that are last Eye will recall that he also owns extensive The tax authorities have been exercised owned by tax haven-registered companies estates on the Thames near Henley using BVI by Scotland’s offshore expanses for decades. work for the people rather than for the companies). Prince Jefri, the sultan’s brother, is When in 2002 Mohamed Fayed took the Inland lairds who enjoy the tax breaks and other reported by locals to be a frequent visitor. Revenue to court over termination of a favourable advantages of the offshore world. Nearby, a reclusive Malaysian businessman tax deal, it emerged that the Revenue was already Scotland has a hugely concentrated pattern reported to have close links to the sultan has investigating offshore ownership of Scottish land of private land ownership with 432 owners acquired 71,000 acres through companies – including the phoney pharoah’s 27,000 acres, owning half the privately-held part, much of registered in the Cayman Islands with nominee still owned by a Liechtenstein-registered outfit it tracked down over 20 years by writer and directors in Jersey. Estate staff are sworn to called Bocardo SA. campaigner Andy Wightman. secrecy over his identity and refer to him only While David Cameron has promised to One of the largest estates, the 62,000-acre by the pseudonym “Mr Saleh”. improve transparency through a register of Killilan and Inverinate in the north-west Earlier this year another offshore company, beneficial ownership of companies, this will be Highlands, is now owned by Smech Properties Cluny Estates Ltd registered in Jersey, bought the based on self-disclosure and will not apply to Ltd, a Guernsey company controlled by Sheikh 10,000-acre Cluny Estate in Inverness-shire. The either trusts or offshore companies (even based Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, prime Qatar royal family, who already own property in Britain’s tax havens) and will thus not reveal minister of the United Arab Emirates and in London, are understood to be behind this the true ownership of much land. ruler of Dubai, which also owns a number company but the agents refused to confirm it. But where the prime minister fears to tread, of properties across the south of England. A The home-grown landed aristocracy aren’t Nicola Sturgeon (the “most dangerous woman close associate of Maktoum is Mahdi Al Tajir, above using offshore companies to own land in Britain” according to the Daily Mail under whose 17,500-acre Perthshire estate (home to either. In a legal dispute in 2014 over the rent of a Scottish landowning editor Paul Dacre) has plans the Highland Spring mineral water plant) is farm, the Duke of Roxburghe raised action in the to act. Her Scottish government promises to bar owned by Park Tower Holdings Establishment name of The Capital Investment Corporation of any company outside the EU from registering a registered in Liechtenstein. Montreal Ltd, a company registered in Bermuda. title to land in Scotland’s Land Register. Since Other owners are more elusive. Little is Over the hill, the North Glenbuchat Estate in a new anti-money laundering directive should known of who is behind the 56,000-acre Loch Aberdeenshire is one of a number of notorious open up corporate ownership across the EU, Ericht Estate, title to which is registered in wildlife crime hotspots, from which four while this won’t resolve all the iniquities of the names of a Guernsey company and the eagles have disappeared along with ownership Scottish land ownership, it is substantially more exotic Compania Financiera Waterville SA in of the estate to a company called North Glen than Dave will achieve south of the border.

Killilan and Inverinate Loch Ericht North Glenbuchat 7

Issue 1396 10 July 2015

Issue 1396 Page 37 10 July 2015 37 restructuring. Its business “changed from REVOLVING DOORS that of residential and commercial property development, investment and management, IN THE BACK to that of interior design and development What a load management consultancy”. The property ONE HYDE PARK development itself, which makes the big of Acobas! money, went offshore. HAOS reigns at the Cabinet Office The move foreshadowed the development Ccommittee responsible for approving HMRC and the of One Hyde Park, the Candys’ flagship juicy private sector jobs for ministers and ultra-expensive apartment block developed senior government officials. Candy man by Project Grande (Guernsey) Ltd, set up on Following some highly controversial career the island as soon as planning approval was moves, the Eye has looked at the details of AS Ian Barlow, chairman of the HM received for the project in February 2006 and letters of approval issued to departments by WRevenue & Customs board, the jointly owned by Christian Candy’s the Cabinet Office’s advisory committee on brains behind the offshore structure Guernsey-based CPC Group and the business appointments (Acoba). used by the property developing project’s financial backers from Qatar. In 2012, for example, former tax boss Dave Candy brothers and which now In other words, ahead of their biggest Hartnett joined Deloitte, with whom he had appears to be on shaky ground? deal yet, the Candys reshaped their settled many cases. These included the dubious Doubts about the company’s status business so the real profits would be deal with Vodafone (with whose chairman arise following the leaking of a draft made offshore (by selling flats almost he had had 49 meetings); and HSBC, with video and memo which suggest the exclusively to buyers themselves using whose bosses he had discussed the infamous offshore arm that makes the serious offshore shell companies), with their “Swissleaks” scandal half a dozen times. And money might not be so offshore after all (see UK company acting merely as a consultant and last month George Osborne’s last Eye). interior designer. closest special adviser, Rupert Until a few months before taking the Very effective the new set-up will have Harrison, was taken on by asset HMRC job in 2012 Barlow was, from July proved, too. In the wake of the credit crunch, manager BlackRock, not long 2008, a non-executive director of property eager to reassure potential buyers that they were after Harrison had designed development company Candy & Candy Ltd. still worth a bob or two, the Candys revealed the pension changes the firm However, he was keen to tell the Eye that that in the two years ended 30 June 2008, CPC is now cashing in on and after in this position he did not provide any tax Group Ltd had made a profit of £191m. With having lunched with BlackRock advice. This was despite having been head UK corporation tax at 28 percent at the time, twice around budget time (see last Eye). of accountancy firm KPMG’s tax practice a Guernsey rate of 0 percent would have been The approval letters issued by Acoba give running fiendish offshore tax avoidance handy. the impression that the pair told the committee schemes until 2001 and then the firm’s senior This is just the sort of neat arrangement a far less about their conflicts of interest than they UK partner until leaving and taking up the partner from KPMG, which also happened to ought to have. Candy directorship. be the Candy companies’ auditor until May When it came to Hartnett and HSBC, his The Eye has now seen evidence that shows 2006, would have recommended. So what “contacts were no more significant than the Barlow acted as an adviser to the Candys exactly did Barlow, a fellow of the Institute of contacts he had with other banks operating in before joining them as a director. A CV Taxation, advise the Candys on as KPMG’s top the UK”, apparently. Given the (then fairly prepared as he (successfully) applied to join partner in the UK? Certainly his tax expertise recent) Swissleaks episode, this was palpably the board of the London Development Agency would have been helpful, not least because untrue. Harrison’s dealings with BlackRock, in August 2008 says that while at KPMG he Candy & Candy Ltd’s accounts show that a meanwhile, weren’t even mentioned in provided advice at “board level” to “clients tax investigation into the company’s handling his approval letter, which merely said his in many sectors… These have included BP… of certain expenditure began in 2003, before work “did not specifically relate to asset Candy & Candy…” being settled in 2007 with apparently little or management”. Accounts for the brothers’ UK holding no extra bill. To get to the bottom of such matters and company, Candy & Candy Holdings Ltd, for HMRC said that Barlow was unable to open up the malfunctioning appointments 2005/06 show that it was in this year that answer the Eye’s questions as he was “on system, the Eye asked for Hartnett’s the business underwent a major tax-efficient leave”. Somewhere offshore, perhaps? applications under freedom of information laws some time ago. This was refused; and we now learn that, owing to an admin error, the OPIUM TRADE next stage in the FoI saga, the internal review, has been delayed. Things were speedier when Help for heroin we asked for Harrison’s application. The committee issued a copy-and-paste refusal the ORE on the extent of poppy base. After following day – only to retract it when the Eye M production at Camp Bastion, the UK’s all, food at complained and to promise a more thought-out most important base in Afghanistan, where Bastion had answer in due course. commanders watched as farmers harvested to be flown in Addressing this shambles ought to fall to opium crops from fields near the perimeter at some risk the great and good on the Acoba board, many fence (see Eye 1394). and great cost of whom have taken their own spin through A visitor to Bastion in 2011 recalls a trip from around the world, and some local produce the revolving door. Chaired by former Tory to what was known as “Shit Valley”, the area would be a fresh and cheaper alternative which minister Baroness (Angela) Browning, it at the end of the runway where treated sewage would give local farmers a legitimate income. includes former New Labour transport minister from the base had been discharged since the Alas, Bastion’s environmental health team and Scottish secretary Baroness (Helen) arrival of UK forces in 2006. There was a would have none of it, citing “a risk of DNBIs”, Liddell, who now sits on the advisory board lot of it: Bastion and its associated facilities or Disease and Non Battle Injuries – stomach of accountants PwC; and former top level were home to 10,000 British troops, as well as bugs and infections, in other words. This was mandarin Sir Alex Allan. 20,000 Americans, Danes, Tongans, Estonians odd; not least because UK and US soldiers Allan’s last moment in the spotlight and others. elsewhere in Afghanistan had been buying came earlier this year when he appeared as a The sewage was processed in a state-of-the- local food for years and the treatment plant at government witness at an information tribunal, art facility with sophisticated filtration, operated Bastion had cost £11m. arguing unsuccessfully against releasing by British sappers and US contractors. They Deprived of a legitimate trade, the Afghan ministers’ diaries. After he made spurious were rightly proud of their efforts to produce farmers decided to grow more opium instead, claims – including that if diaries were released, waste water “to UK river discharge quality”. across Shit Valley and within sight of the ministers would make up entries to look busy Thanks to the deluge, Afghan farmers helicopter pans at the runway’s end. Thus – his evidence was described by judges as noticed that the soil in Shit Valley was another opportunity was lost to foster loyalty “flawed and unimpressive” and “way below the remarkably fertile and, having been driven from locals who might have considered it in standards that the public and [a tribunal] are from their own fields by the conflict, as well their interests to provide useful intelligence and entitled to expect of government departments as by threats from warlords and the Taliban, so “protect” Bastion from Taliban attacks had and senior civil servants in advancing public they were keen to plant fruit and vegetables their livelihoods depended on trade with the interest arguments”. there. base, rather than on the drug dealers who then It may be some time before the flawed and Some of their crops – peaches, melons and bought their opium and turned it into heroin unimpressive policing of Whitehall’s revolving pomegranates – were offered for sale to the for export. door to business is finally opened up. 8

Issue 1397 24 July 2015

36 Issue 1397 Page 36 24 July 2015 OFFSHORE OWNERSHIP technique for his Kensington home. Ramzi OPEN JUSTICE Dalloul made a fortune as Saddam Hussein’s principal arms broker in the 1970s through Arms houses his Beirut-based company Arab Resources Closed minds F David Cameron is to “knock down the Management, but he now appears to lead a HEN “firm believer in open justice” Iwalls of company secrecy” as he promises, quietly philanthropic life with his wife in a W Ken Clarke sought to defend the an essential step would be to reveal the true home owned by a Liberian company, Edenroc contentious 2013 Justice and Security Bill ownership of British land and property Ltd. The company acquired the leasehold which paved the way for secret civil court registered in the name of offshore of the property in 1982, buying the hearings, he said they would be used sparingly shell companies. But he would have freehold in 2008. and there would be no “mission creep”. “Any to confront some well-connected No surprise either that the most suggestion that these closed hearings would interests. expensive residential property on make anything secret that is in the public An old friend of the Conservative the market in Britain, a row of domain now is emphatically wrong,” declared party is Fouad Makhzoumi, a mansion blocks on Rutland Gate in the former minister without portfolio. Lebanese businessman whose Knightsbridge, turns out to be owned That was then. In an extraordinary move last company disgraced former cabinet by an offshore company. Yunak week the appeal court gave the go-ahead for minister Jonathan Aitken joined Corporation NV and Yunak Property the worst kept security secret – a case involving without making the necessary parliamentary Corporation NV jointly own the property former undercover agent Martin McGartland, declarations and whose business was promoted (valued at £300m) from 5,000 miles away on shot by the IRA 15 years ago – to be heard behind by Aitken while he was a minister. More recent the Caribbean island of Curaçao. closed doors. Neither McGartland nor his lawyers family favours to the party amount to £1.06m Until his death in 2011, the property was will have access to government evidence and the in donations by Makhzoumi’s wife May since said to be ultimately owned by Sultan bin public will never know if justice is served or not. 2010, the most recent a handy £500,000 in Abdulaziz, a former Saudi defence and aviation The government justification for extending 2013. Before then, the small UK arm of his minister instrumental in the Al-Yamamah and “closed material procedures” (CMPs) business empire donated £100,000. other corrupt deals. The director of Yunak to civil cases, in what human rights May Makhzoumi of course meets the UK remains one Hussein Al-Mahktani, also lawyers and critics say is “a serious residence requirement under electoral law for implicated as a recipient of BAE Systems’ assault on the tradition of open making a donation, but she does not own her legendary “hospitality” during the Al-Yamamah justice”, was always that it was Kensington mansion block apartment directly. scandal. necessary to preserve national security Instead it is owned by a Panamanian company, At the end of last year, a charge appeared in cases brought by, say, suspected terrorists. Aminvest Corporation. against the property in favour of Omni Capital Whatever the merits of that argument – and there Land Registry documents indicate that Ltd, a property lender set up by none other than remain serious concerns about the growing use looking after such setups is a nice line of CPC Group, Christian Candy’s Guernsey-based of CMPs in tribunals and special immigration work for Britain’s private banks. Aminvest property development business – suggesting the appeals – they cannot surely have been intended Corporation gives its address as “care of Monaco resident has his finger in another very for use against their own. Arbuthnot Latham”, a small private bank in juicy pie. McGartland, who worked for the Royal the City. Its chairman is Sir Henry Angest, a PS: Such big names from yesteryear seem Ulster Constabulary and MI5, has lived in recent former Tory party treasurer who has to have fewer qualms about acknowledging England under a false identity ever since he given almost £2m to the party personally their London addresses. The modern oligarch became an IRA target when his cover was blown while his banking group has given several with possibly dubious funds is more careful in 1991. Now 43, he is suing the government more donations, as well as providing a handy and often impossible to identify. An early-day for negligence and breach of contract, alleging overdraft facility before the 2010 election. motion presented in the Commons by SDLP that he has been denied medical treatment and Angest certainly remains popular – he was MP Mark Durkan, on the back of the Channel support after he was nearly killed by terrorists knighted in the recent birthday honours – and 4 film From Russia with Cash showing a and left disabled. His full-time carer, Joanne might not welcome efforts to dismantle a fake corrupt Russian politician impressing Asher, also claims she has been denied support system that sees hundreds of thousands of UK London estate agents with his dirty money, and respite, which has affected her health. properties owned in offshore tax havens. calls for transparency on the ownership of Home secretary Teresa May claimed the case Another high-profile Lebanese offshore companies owning UK property. The should be heard in secret because to “confirm businessman uses the same offshore corporate government has yet to respond. or deny” anyone was an agent poses a national security risk in revealing the way the intelligence services operate. But as regular readers already ISLAND FLIGHTS know (Eyes 1361 & 1371), the Home Office, police, MPs and the Bloody Sunday inquiry have Cash landings all publicly acknowledged McGartland’s role. Statements purporting to come from the Crown ROW about an airport runway that was authorities – always taken to mean the security A washed away by storms is threatening services – were even read out on TV news to cost taxpayers even more if it goes back to bulletins. But the appeal court ruled that this court so different arms of government can apparent “acknowledgement” of his role was not bicker over who should pay for the years of necessarily an admission by MI5 itself. repairs that have been needed to keep the The appeal judges upheld an earlier high poorly built runway open – and, indeed, over court ruling that because “sensitive material who should pay the lawyers. relating to the means by which protection can be Shetland Island Council spent £10m first minister Alex Salmond announced afforded and the training of handlers’ featured in extending the runway at Sumburgh in 2005, £12m funding directly from the Scottish the case”, it raised issues of national security. but soon afterwards much of it was badly government in 2013 to pay for full structural While Lord Justice Richards said CMPs damaged in winterOverleaf storms. The Scottish repairs to the runway, in an effort to bring are a “serious departure from the fundamental government-owned Highlands and Islands the matter to an end. Last year Shetland MSP principles of open justice and natural justice”, Airports Ltd (HIAL)Issue has now1400 won permission Tavish Scott described the situation of two arms they were what parliament had authorised. He to sue over the workmanship,4 September claiming 2015 of government fighting each other over repairs said there were appropriate safeguards against £14.2m in damages (plus interest, plus costs). that have already been paid for as ludicrous, excessive or inappropriate use and no reason The two organisations have already duked adding: “I am at a loss to understand why this to give the “statutory provisions a narrow or it out in the Court of Session over breach court case is allowed to happen.” restrictive construction”. of contract and whether this current claim HIAL’s managing director told the Shetland Nogah Ofer, McGarland’s solicitor, will ought to be time-barred. HIAL was given the News that the case could roll on for another seek to take the case to the Supreme Court. She go-ahead for a full hearing last month and is two years. told the Eye: “We would have expected court now pressuring the council to enter mediation of appeal judges to treat this draconian measure and agree an out of court settlement to avoid a GOOD NEWS PS: The campaign against as a very last resort. Instead they are prepared long and expensive court case “in the interests sky-high prices on supposedly lifeline flights to approve closed hearings where disclosure of of local taxpayers”. However, the council is in to the Scottish Islands (Eye 1395) has won information to Mr McGartland really does not no hurry to cough up local taxpayers’ money some concessions from airline Loganair. pose a national security threat. This is part of a to settle. “Compassionate discounts” will help people to pattern of increasing tolerance of secrecy in our That the row is still rumbling on is travel to the mainland for funerals or visiting courts and will leave claimants trying to fight especially bizarre given that former Scottish sick relatives. their case in the dark.” 9 34 Issue 1400 Page 34 4 September 2015 IN THE BACK

TAX HAVENS Selling England by the offshore pound VER the last year Private Eye has revealed the extent of ownership of British land by Ooffshore companies, generally for tax avoidance and often to conceal dubious wealth. Now the Eye has created an easily searchable online map of these properties, revealing for the first time the British property interests of companies based in tax havens from Panama to Luxembourg, and from Liechtenstein to the South Pacific island of Niue. Using Land Registry data released under Freedom of Information laws, and then linking more than 100,000 land title register entries to specific addresses, the Eye has tracked all The Eye’s interactive map leasehold and freehold interests acquired by offshore companies between 2005 and 2014. – which can be found at Using this data the Eye published a series of exposés of the companies, arms dealers, www.private-eye.co.uk from oligarchs, money launderers and others who use offshore companies, before David Cameron Wednesday 2 September – addressed the issue on a trip to the Far East in July. “There is no place in Britain for shows all land and property dirty money,” he said, promising to publish details of the property titles held by offshore registered in England and Wales in the name companies. Even if this were to happen, however, it would fall far short of enabling of an offshore company between 2005 and offshore-owned property to be immediately identifiable, as the Eye can now make possible. July 2014. It uses data released following So what kind of operator might be found in this mine of information? The Eye’s Freedom of Information requests from quarrying so far has unearthed an eclectic cast of characters. Private Eye and expert work by software developer Anna Powell-Smith. Strange company offshore (see Tax us if you can), in six years Freehold properties are indicated by orange in charge of the tax system he has shown no shapes covering the area of the property. Property investment and development appetite to curb corporate tricks. Leasehold properties are shown by purple pin companies routinely use offshore corporate points. The map includes properties owned vehicles to own major buildings to achieve by any overseas company, not just those capital gains tax and stamp duty advantages. Born (tax) free based in tax havens, sometimes for legitimate When, for example, 1 Cabot Square, the Owning British property offshore is as old as the reasons. Even the freehold on the saintly Eye’s original Canary Wharf tower, was bought (largely post-war) growth of financial services premises, owned by an Australian company, by the Qatar Investment Authority in 2012 in Britain’s network of overseas territories and appears. But around 95 percent of properties as part of a financing deal, it was acquired Crown dependencies. It has been a favoured way, are held by companies in tax havens, territories by Luxembourg company OCS Investment along with clever trust structures, for generations whose selling point is tax avoidance or secrecy. sarl. Scores of leaseholds on other parts of of families to pass on wealth without paying The map is searchable by street and town. the docklands financial district are also held estate duties (now inheritance tax). Hovering over a highlighted property reveals offshore. Perhaps the most prominent such family are the address, the Land Registry title number, Those taking advantage of the super-prime the Harmsworths, whose male heirs became the offshore corporate owner, in most cases London property boom to develop luxury Lords Rothermere a century ago and now the price paid for the interest, and a link to apartments also keep their companies clear run the newspaper dynasty behind the Daily email the Eye with any further information. of the UK tax net. When in 2006 Christian The data shows property worth around Mail. The empire is controlled by the family £170bn. However, there is no price paid data Candy’s CPC group acquired Bowater through a Bermudan company itself owned by for more than a quarter of properties, so a House in Knightsbridge for £480m in a joint a series of trusts. The 3rd Lord Rothermere, conservative estimate of the total value of venture with the Qatari prime minister, to Vere Harmsworth, became a tax exile in the properties acquired by offshore companies create the plutocrats-only One Hyde Park 1970s, bequeathing the opportunity to claim since 2005 alone is £200bn. apartments, they did so through Guernsey- “domicile” status in France to his son and All data is from Land Registry records, based Project Grande (Guernsey) Ltd. current Lord Rothermere, Jonathan. which occasionally contain errors. “Price The Candy brothers’ UK company simply The set-up allows not just the multi-billion paid” fi gures may be totals for sales “managed” the development, the real profits pound business interests led by the patriotic including other properties. When a property on the development heading to the Channel Mail to be passed on inheritance tax-free, but title has been identifi ed, the underlying Land Islands (with the help of one of the Candys’ also substantial property interests when held Registry record can be obtained for a £3 fee UK companies’ directors at the time, current offshore. So tracts of farmland in Dorset are from https://www.gov.uk/search-property- HM Revenue & Customs board chairman Ian now owned by Harmsworth Trust Company information-land-registry. Barlow). Leaseholds sold on the apartments (PTC) Ltd in the British Virgin Islands, while themselves are also owned through offshore even a space in an underground Kensington companies. car park near the Mail offices is owned by is 750,000 acres, including estates owned by the Other typical players of the offshore Harmsworth Holdings Ltd in St Lucia. Duke of Roxburgh using a Bermudan company commercial property game include chains of Eye 1394 revealed that in total 490,000 acres and none other than phoney pharaoh Mohammed shops such as Boots, Shell forecourts and pubs of England and Wales – larger than the area Fayed through a Liechtenstein company. such as the Slug and Lettuce, not to mention of Surrey or Greater London – are owned by Prize for the largest single piece of countless “retail parks”. While chancellor offshore companies, most of it almost certainly offshore-owned land in England goes to the George Osborne has ended some tax advantages acquired in this way for stamp duty and Gunnerside grouse-shooting estate in North available to individuals who own property inheritance tax reasons. The figure for Scotland Yorkshire, in the hands of a BVI company ☞➙ TAX US IF YOU CAN: The survival of the great offshore tax break As the tax costs of offshore corporate £214,000 for anything over £20m. In his structure remains as popular as ever. property-owning became clear, chancellor most recent budget, Osborne promised Nor do the tax changes do anything George Osborne nibbled at the edges of that non-doms would have to pay to make land and commercial property, the problem. inheritance tax on UK residential property including rented residential property, less In 2012 he brought in a stiff 15 percent even if held by offshore companies. tax-efficient. Non-doms owning land stamp duty land tax (SDLT) charge The changes will have stopped through offshore companies and trusts for companies acquiring residential some stamp duty dodging but they keep their inheritance tax break while property worth £2m or more. The same certainly fail to prevent the money property developers like the Candys arrangements also became liable for capital laundering that is the real concern. still avoid UK tax on the profits of gains tax when they sell property and Indeed, higher than expected successful developments by an “annual tax on enveloped dwellings” receipts from the “envelope tax” the fairly simple expedient of now costs £7,000 for a £1m property and (£100m in the first year) suggest the using an offshore company. 10 Issue 1400 Page 35 4 September 2015 35 behind which sits American duty-free shopping magnate Robert Miller. The most blue-blooded user of offshore companies turns out to be the HOUSES OF ILL-REPUTE: Why British bricks Gascoyne-Cecil family, whose privileges go back and mortar are a safe haven for dirty money to the court of Elizabeth I but who own 2,000 acres of land through Jersey companies (while, With the inflated British property market 2012 when corrupt Nigerian governor like many others, claiming EU farm subsidies). a haven for dubious money, David James Ibori was convicted of money The most quintessentially English land Cameron’s plan to list offshore corporate laundering using not just London’s banks owned offshore is the Hambleden estate on the owners of British land is belated and but also its property market through banks of the Thames near Henley. Home to the inadequate. Gibraltar and the British Virgin Islands The Metropolitan Police’s Proceeds companies. This was a rare success chocolate box brick-and-flint village that has of Corruption Unit (POCU, now part of in an onerous business, and with law doubled as a film set for Midsomer Murders the National Crime Agency but largely enforcement making little impact, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the area is owned funded from the aid budget) found that transparency becomes essential in the by BVI company Hambleden Estates Inc, which 75 percent of properties investigated in war on corruption. The prime minister turns out to be controlled by Swiss foreign its money-laundering cases were held by recognised as much at the G8 summit at exchange dealer, Urs Schwarzenbach. overseas companies. All were in tax havens Lough Erne in 2013 when he promised Schwarzenbach’s neighbour a couple of miles or “secrecy jurisdictions”, as they are to “break down the walls of corporate up river can lay claim to the most expensive also known. secrecy”. This, however, translated single land purchase on record through an The authorities investigate a small merely into a public register of beneficial offshore company. In 2011 the former president fraction of the illicit business. Director of owners of UK companies when, as the of the Bank of Moscow, Andrey Borodin, POCU, Jon Benton, told Transparency anti-corruption unit paid for by his own acquired the 300 riverside acres that is Park Place International recently that his unit had government notes, these aren’t the for £120m through yet another BVI company, looked at £180m worth of property but that problem: tax haven companies are. Durio Ltd. Borodin currently enjoys political this was “only the tip of the iceberg.” NCA The tax havens, largely British asylum in the UK while the Russians pursue him boss Donald Toon (pictured) told the Times: overseas territories and Crown over fraud allegations. “The London property market has been dependencies over which the skewed by laundered money. Prices are British government holds Moscow-on-Thames being artificially driven up by overseas sway, have been left to decide Borodin is one of scores of wealthy Russians criminals who want to sequester their themselves whether to open up who have bought English property through assets here in the UK.” and – surprise, surprise – have The Eye reported some examples in decided not to! offshore companies. When the Eye looked at one of Britain’s richest streets, Kensington Palace Gardens, it emerged that one home had been acquired (reportedly for a nine-figure sum) by activist Alexei Navalny established the interests own a row of mansion blocks in Knightsbridge the oil-to-media businessman who topped the of the most senior figure in Putin’s Russia to recently put on the market for £300m by most recent Sunday Times Rich List, Leonard be linked with London property, deputy prime companies registered in the Caribbean haven Blavatnik. He used a Delaware company, while minister Igor Shuvalov. He also has cause to of Curacao. The big Saudi name in that deal, neighbour, fellow oligarch and Chelsea FC owner thank the Crown Estate. Last year a Russian chief negotiator Prince Bandar, owns 2,000-acre Roman Abramovich, bought his pile through a company he controls, Sova Real Estate LLC, Glympton Park in Oxfordshire through a Jersey Cyprus company. Since 2005 six other properties paid £11m for a 164-year lease on two flats company, while another facilitator on the deal, on the same road have been bought by BVI on the fifth floor of Whitehall Court, a large Wafic Said, owns nearby Tusmore Park through companies, two by companies registered in St Victorian Gothic building overlooking the another Panamanian company. Vincent and Grenadines and one in the Bahamas. Thames. The leasehold had originally been Decades of Middle Eastern turmoil have It is not known who is behind these latter granted just two years earlier by the Crown been kind to London’s estate agents. Saddam purchases, nor where their money came from; Estate to a British Virgin Islands company. Both Hussein’s main arms broker, Ramzi Dalloul, but whoever they were they found an almost the BVI company and the Russian company has a home in exclusive Phillimore Gardens, indecently willing seller at the heart of the British were represented by Mayfair solicitors Tulloch Kensington, owned through Liberian company establishment. The freeholds on Kensington & Co, run by Russian specialist Alastair Tulloch. Edenroc Ltd, while his Lebanese compatriot Palace Gardens are owned by The Crown Estate, Quite where Shuvalov’s money comes from is Faoud Makhzoumi owns a home in nearby which means they are legally property of the not clear: his ministerial salary would pay just Cheniston Gardens through a Panamanian Queen but with all profits going to the Treasury, 10 percent of the stamp duty bill, never mind the company, Aminvest Corporation. less 25 percent of operating profit which since purchase cost. Makhzoumi came to Britain’s attention as a 2012 has replaced Brenda’s civil list payments. friend of disgraced 1980s Tory defence minister Such a body – which also owns prime London Arms houses Jonathan Aitken, who failed to disclose his property from Westminster to Hyde Park and The top end of Britain’s property market might connections to the dealer. The Tory association swathes of coastal Britain – might be expected to today have a distinctly Russian look, but riches is no thing of the past either: Faoud’s wife May show some reluctance to sell offshore (even to the from yesteryear’s more questionable businesses donated to the Tories as recently as 2013 and Queen’s own tax havens). But the Eye discovered remain equally at home in the capital. has given £1m in total since 2010. Aminvest is that in two years up to March 2014, it sold £135m Instrumental in the latest bribery scandal administered by Arbuthnot Latham, the private worth to offshore companies. exposed by the Eye, involving a decades old bank chaired by former Tory treasurer and major Among them was 3 Carlton Gardens in telecommunications contract with the Saudi donor Sir Henry Angest. the heart of London’s (gentleman’s) clubland, Arabian National Guard, was Lebanese fixer sold to a Guernsey property developer. Mahmoud Fustok through a firm run with his Lifting the veil Earlier, nearby 13-16 Carlton House Terrace, brother Mansour. Information contained in the If the benefits of offshore companies for overlooking St James Park, had been sold “Swissleaks” data of HSBC Geneva accounts holding UK property are ever to be fully to the Hinduja brothers and their companies obtained by the International Consortium of withdrawn, some wealthy Tory donors will in Guernsey and BVI. In total the Eye found Investigative Journalists gave Mansour’s London have to be upset in the process. One of the 120 former Crown Estate properties that, address as a house in St John’s Wood owned by a single largest donors, with £3m handed over directly or indirectly, have ended up owned by Panamanian company, Restonal Naviera SA. so far, is Australian-born “non-dom” hedge companies in tax havens including Panama and Other Saudi arms veterans to have luxuriated fund manager Michael Hintze, whose Clapham the Seychelles. The real owners of most remain in London’s smarter addresses courtesy of the Common home is owned by a Guernsey entirely anonymous, which is why they use offshore corporate network include Riyadh’s company, itself controlled by a series of trusts. offshore shell companies in the first place. defence minister at the time of the infamous Al Figures analysed by the Eye show that the Investigation by an anti-corruption Yamamah deal, Sultan bin Abdulaziz, who died use of offshore companies is not slowing. In foundation established by Russian opposition in 2011 but until then was said to ultimately three years up to March 2015, in just the London boroughs of Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea and Camden (taking in Hyde Park), £8bn of property acquisitions were made in this way. But Land Registry data does not disclose the ultimate owner of the property. David Cameron’s plans come nowhere near to doing so either. The Eye’s online map, however, provides the starting point from which readers and others can begin to lift One Hyde Park, Hambleden, Park Place – owned from Guernsey and the British Virgin Islands the veil of offshore secrecy that covers Britain. 11

Issue 1402 2 October 2015

Issue 1402 Page 37 2 October 2015 37 thousands of properties acquired by offshore TAX DODGING companies before 2005 and after July last year. Indeed, the information will prove most useful IN THE BACK when up-to-date acquisitions are covered. Yet Evasive requests to obtain this have been refused under OFFSHORE OWNERSHIP the FoI exemption for information “reasonably answers accessible by other means”. NEW parliamentary session began with Since the “other means” would involve A the familiar scene of HM Revenue & Land Registry paying £11 for title numbers belonging to each Customs (HMRC) trying to cover up its of an additional 15,000 offshore companies, pisspoor performance in tackling the richest says no followed by £3 for the register entry tax evaders. for each of tens of thousands of Questioned on its handling of the AR be it from the Eye to blow properties, this would be reasonable “Swissleaks” data on tax evasion by British Fits own digital trumpet, but only to the richest anorak with an customers of HSBC’s Geneva branch, HMRC’s the interactive map of English and army of helpers. director of enforcement and compliance (sic), Welsh property held by offshore More recently the Eye has been Jennie Granger, told MPs that having uncovered companies, published on the fighting for the release of data 950 tax dodgers and £142m in unpaid tax and Private Eye website, has proved containing clues to the identity of having “just about exhausted” the data, there a success across the country. those behind the 45,000 offshore remained just the one criminal conviction. Local newspapers, websites and property-owning companies, as well There were “no more prosecutions” in the campaigners have highlighted as their lawyers – many of whom are pipeline under what is called, without irony, hundreds of businesses, homes firmly onshore – who make a mint “Project Solace”, she admitted. and public offices owned by companies from managing them. This data would allow a more This is a dismal return on such a trove Panama to the Seychelles. Law enforcers accurate and extensive interactive map to be of evidence, so, challenged on the matter by are also known to be enjoying discovering built but, after the current version was published, Tory MP Stephen Phillips, Granger was keen its secrets while munching their lunchtime the request has been refused as “vexatious”. to pretend that whatever the performance on sandwiches. The matter is now with the Information HSBC she was still succeeding in the broad David Cameron will doubtless be pleased, Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to decide. battle against offshore evasion. “More generally having professed in Singapore recently that Political responsibility for the Land Registry, there have been 11 prosecutions in relation to there was “no place for dirty money in Britain” a government-owned “trading fund” (ie, it uses offshore,” she claimed, “resulting in 15 years’ and promised to publish “data on which foreign receipts to meet outgoings), rests with business jail time collectively” – echoing comments companies own which land and property titles secretary Sajid Javid (formerly of Deutsche earlier this year from senior HMRC official in England and Wales”. The era of openness, bank, which itself acts as an offshore trustee for Edward Troup that “we have had, over the however, has not quite reached the Land many properties). His approach to transparency past five years, 11 prosecutions for offshore Registry. and corruption is epitomised by recent proposals evasion”. The Eye’s map incorporates property titles to relax money-laundering regulations to make Really? In the face of fierce criticism (freeholds and leaseholds) acquired between 2005 them less onerous for companies. for not prosecuting offshore account and July 2014, which were obtained through a Javid is also mulling the privatisation of the holders, surely these would have been better Freedom of Information request last year. The Land Registry, which would make obtaining publicised. The Eye asked HMRC for details Land Registry said – before Cameron’s Singapore information impossible rather than just difficult. of the prosecutions – and they turn out to be speech – that the data had been released “in error” A better move might be for him to get with the regular domestic tax fraud cases where some and that no further such detail would be provided. prime minister’s transparency programme. of the undeclared money happens to have been While the “erroneous” release has itself ● View the Eye’s interactive map of offshore sent offshore. Five of the 11 prosecutions were proved valuable, there are clearly tens of property ownership at www.private-eye.co.uk accounted for by a single family, the father of whom had not declared income from his Loughborough taxi business. Five years of DEATH IN CUSTODY the “jail time” came from the single case of a Scottish IT consultant who had diverted all his Symptoms of failure income to offshore companies, while another two were for an eBay trader from Bury, 34-YEAR-OLD woman died in agony at family, said the jury heard evidence investigated under HMRC’s entirely separate A Eastwood Park jail because of a series of several missed chances on the day of her “e-marketplaces” programme, who merely of failures by staff. Natasha Evans, who was death. After she had uncharacteristically failed operated an online account with an American undergoing a heroin detox programme in to collect her methadone, the manager of the bank. Then there was two-and-a-half years the Gloucestershire prison, died of kidney substance misuse team found her ill in bed; but for a quantity surveyor who worked without and heart infections which led to sepsis – all a nurse, since retired, said she did not appear paying tax for 20 years and whose “offshore” of which could have been treated had the unwell and made no clinical observation or connection was, er, to have bought a house in symptoms been recognised sooner. medical note. Just before lunchtime Natasha’s France. Last week an inquest jury said that “serious cellmate called for help. While a second nurse These cases are a long way from the failure” and “neglect” contributed to Natasha’s noticed her language was incoherent and her prosecution of hidden offshore accounts and death in November 2013. Her case again raises pulse racing, he did nothing. investigations of the banks that offer them that questions about why vulnerable offenders who The inquest jury found “serious” failures Granger’s answers to parliament suggested. pose no threat to anyone other than themselves on his part. The nurse, who was subsequently Tellingly, HMRC’s own press releases at the are sent to jails which cannot cope with their sacked, made no contemporaneous note, failed time of the convictions – before the Swissleaks needs. to assess Natasha properly and did not call a furore – contain no reference to its offshore Natasha’s crime was possessing the drug to doctor or ambulance. He also failed to alert programme. In reality, the programme has just which she was addicted. The damning inquest colleagues to her condition at a lunchtime the one prosecution to boast of. verdict follows last month’s suicide in Foston handover and no plan was made to monitor her. At a recent economic crime symposium in Hall prison, Derbyshire, of Anna Graven, 41, who An expert opinion was offered in evidence that Cambridge, a senior US Department of Justice had been jailed for eight weeks for shoplifting. Natasha would have survived with the correct prosecutor said that a similar programme there Deborah Coles of Inquest, a charity that care and treatment at that time. Instead, her had produced more than 100 prosecutions of advises families after a death in custody, cell mate again alerted staff when she found evaders and 50 of their banking facilitators by asked: “Why are vulnerable women still being Natasha lying on the floor at 4pm. directly taking on the banks and their clients. imprisoned at great cost to the public purse The same nurse did then summon a doctor, Unsurprisingly, HMRC’s Granger and other when their greatest risk is to themselves?” She who arrived half an hour later, saw that Natasha officials, despite being billed, were no-shows at declared it “shameful” that the government was critically ill and called for an “emergency the event. and courts were still ignoring their own blue light” ambulance. For some unexplained Meg Hillier MP, new chair of the Commons recommendations. A Home Office report eight reason, that “blue light” urgency was not public accounts committee, has, perhaps years ago said prison should only be used for initially conveyed to the ambulance staff and understandably, indicated that in the post- serious crimes, with most women sentenced Natasha waited a further 59 minutes – a delay Margaret Hodge era the committee’s focus will to cheaper and more effective community the ambulance trust accepted was too long. move away from tax. But with top officials penalties – a view echoed by the justice select By this time it was too late to save Natasha. routinely misleading it over poor performance, committee last year. She died while being treated by a paramedic, taking its eye off HMRC balls-ups would not be Solicitor Clare Richardson, for Natasha’s the prison doctor and ambulance crew. a smart move. 12

Issue 1403 8 16 October 2015 Issue 1403 Page 8 16 October 2015 IN A rave write-up of Theresa May’s immigration speech at last week’s Conservative party conference, Daily Mail columnist Peter Oborne poured scorn on her “Guardianista” critics. Noting a remark by Channel 4’s Cathy TRICKS & MORTAR Newman that May was turning the Tories back ONE in every six homes sold in into the “nasty party”, Obore sneered: “Of Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea over course, the Guardian newspaper agrees.” You the last three years for which data is available NEWS UK may have brought back can be sure, he added, that if people “complain was bought by a company in an offshore tax Rebekah Brooks as chief executive but about migrants taking their jobs and wrecking haven, the Eye has established. it is keen to show it is more open and their living standards, there’s Channel 4 News The market for homes is now so skewed by friendly than in the bad old days of News and the Guardian on hand to denounce them as sales to overseas companies that a quarter of all International. Even the Archive department racist.” cash spent on residential property in just these has recently set up a Twitter feed, Is this the same Peter Oborne who back in two London boroughs came via companies from @NewsUKArchives, to tweet old photos February praised the Grauniad for exposing Belize to Anguilla, Jersey to the South Pacific from the picture library and show how it is tax evasion at the Swiss arm of HSBC – under- Cook Islands. “preserving historic archival content”. coverage of which prompted him to resign from The figures, based on data acquired by the It makes a change from when Brooks was the Telegraph – and for its “magnificent” work Eye for property transactions in 2012, 2013 and last in charge and she proved to be rather less on phone hacking at News International? 2014 and analysed alongside market statistics keen on preserving old records, as the jury Since leaving the Torygraph Oborne has by data-savy London estate agency YOUhome, heard at last year’s phone-hacking trial (see Eye been the toast of the liberal town. Guardian reveal the extent to which the top end of the 1358). It emerged that in the middle of 2010, as assistant editor Michael White hailed him as British property market is dominated by secret the police inquiry into hacking was escalating, “a courageous troublemaker and magnificent buyers hiding behind offshore companies. Brooks ordered that all company emails from polemicist”, likening him to the late Paul Foot. In Britain’s two most expensive boroughs January 2007 to January 2010 should be deleted. Over the summer Obore wrote three features 3,520 homes were bought using offshore When her underlings questioned the for the Graun, most recently on 31 August. companies, out of a total of 21,373 sales, or unusual move, on the grounds that company He has also been writing a weekly column 16.5 percent. The value of those using offshore kept email correspondence for seven years and for website Middle East Eye, edited by David companies was £8.25bn, or 23.8 percent of the deletion policy might be “misconstrued”, Hearst, formerly chief foreign leader writer for the total value and giving an average price of Brooks insisted: “Yes to 2010. Clean sweep.” the Guardian. £2.34m. The most popular location for the shell Doubtless there will be no such problems with Now he’s back in the Mail and the romance company used was the British Virgin Islands, corporate memory in the brave new world of has soured – and, like any ex-lover, he can’t stop followed by Jersey, Guernsey and Panama. News UK! rubbishing his ex. The day after his Theresa May The figures do mask a downward trend, eulogy, he returned to the subject in another almost certainly linked to higher stamp duty for PATRICK WINTOUR, the Guardian’s column. “I looked at the Guardian website corporate-owned residential property plus an political editor, is moving on to take up a yesterday afternoon,” he told Mail readers. “As annual “enveloped dwellings” tax announced by posting on the diplomatic beat. If you think I expected, I encountered a mixture of gibberish chancellor George Osborne in his 2012 budget. his promotion is nothing more than an and psychobabble.” Not looking up his own The proportion of properties bought using an everyday story of newspaper folk, you know Grauniad pieces again, surely? offshore company fell from 20.3 percent in 2012 nothing about the hysteria Corbyn’s election to 12.4 percent in 2014 – still a large number has caused on the left and in the left-wing given there is no need for such structures other press. than tax avoidance or secrecy. Labour MPs are desperate to know In the most up-market locations, however, whether Wintour’s replacement will listen the taxes appear to have had no effect. In to them sympathetically or be a full-blooded 20, 30, 40 Years’ time in Knightsbridge, the proportion of sales through Corbynista, who will agitate for their which Jeremy Hunt believes we deselection. They ought to have nothing to offshore companies increased to 49 percent will ‘have to answer pretty difficult worry about. Wintour’s natural successor is (worth 59 percent of the value) in 2014. Similar question’ of whether we are prepared proportions of sales, 45 percent and 48 percent, Nicholas Watt, the Guardian’s chief political to work as hard as the Chinese were found in 2014 in Belgravia and the correspondent. He is a straightforward news Queen’s Gate area that runs from Hyde Park to reporter, with a contact book the size of a 75 Years average Chinese worker South Kensington. telephone directory, who is hardly ever off the can expect to live, compared to 81 for Osborne’s “clampdown” on tax haven news chat shows. those in UK companies buying up London might have But Watt faces two problems. Firstly, the worked on some of the lower-level tax dodges, Guardian’s new editor Kath Viner is keen to but for those with serious and often pretty end decades of sexism by promoting women, AT LEAST in the old days of the dead- dubious money, it’s offshore business as usual. and there is speculation at the Graun that the wood press, you could keep embarrassing bosses will go for ex-Guardian reporter Allegra adverts away from the stories they related to. Stratton, political editor of Newsnight. In the digital age, no longer. SAUDI ARABIA DELIGHTED BY Unfortunately, Stratton still remembers The Telegraph’s live blog about Russian the moment she told her then Guardian airstrikes in Syria last week featured posts with APPOINTMENT TO U.N. HUMAN colleagues that James Forsyth, political editor such alarming headlines as “Details emerge of the Spectator, had done her the honour of about Russian force in Syria”, revealing the RIGHTS COUNCIL consenting to be her husband, only to see them aircraft Vladimir Putin had deployed to help turn on her for daring to marry a Conservative. out old mucker Bashar Al-Assad in his hour of The prospect of coming back to work with need. Another reported Malcolm Rifkind’s stark people who not only wear badges saying “never warnings that Russia was fanning the flames of kissed a Tory” but actually mean it may be too the crisis, under the alarming headline “Russia much for her to bear. escalates crisis if reports are true”. Secondly, Watt also has Tory contacts. In Right next door was an advertisement normal circumstances, editors would like that. for… Russia Beyond The Headlines, a soft- As there is a Tory government, they might news website about all things Russian. RBTH, reason, it’s useful for political reporters to have as it happens, can trace its way all back to ministerial sources who could give them real Moscow’s propaganda bureau and is sponsored news stories. by Rossiyskaya Gazeta, itself owned 100 But in the current spittle-flecked “Tory percent by the Russian government! The sidebar scum” mood on the left, any association warmly invited readers to test their knowledge I’m very with the government is a sign of ideological of Russian classical music or visit the Science proud to behead impurity. Even though Watt has made it clear museum’s “Cosmonauts” exhibition. – er, be head – of he will resign if he doesn’t get the job, Viner How nice to know, now the Cold War is such a noble has delayed making a decision on Wintour’s over, that rather than carrying out lengthy replacement for weeks. campaigns of misinformation the Russian organisation The “new politics” is taking an awfully long government can just hire bits of the Telegraph time to produce a new Guardian political editor. to get its message across! 13

Issue 1405 13 November 2015

Issue 1404 Page 37 30 October 2015 37 Soulieman Marouf, a British- Cameron promised to break down still form born Syrian businessman, was a fortress around London’s offshore-owned added to the EU sanctions list real estate and prevent the true owners of IN THE BACK in 2012 after the Times exposed most properties linked to shady dealings being his links to the Assad regime. He identified. What can be teased out is none too reportedly acted as the London appetising. OFFSHORE OWNERSHIP fixer for the Syrian ruling family, purchasing expensive jewellery and clothes for Neighbours the president’s wife Asma and buying sniper rifles on the black market for the regime. Bishops move from hell Marouf, whose portfolio of high-value HE most valuable single sale of properties in London’s West End were frozen Tproperty to an offshore company, based N EXAMINATION by the Eye of British in 2012 by the Treasury, succeeded in lifting on records up to 2014, shows how even a Aproperties frozen by law enforcers and the order last year following a challenge in a major public space can be shipped off to a the courts reveals some of the world’s most European court. But he’s not out of the woods tax haven and exploited for huge gain all questionable operators channelling fortunes yet. According to Land Registry data, at least but tax-free. into property while attempting to hide one property – a flat in Fulham where he is In 2010 a consortium of investors put behind tax haven companies. Even a limited listed as residing on the UK electoral roll but together by US investment bank JP Morgan search reveals 125 freezing orders over owned via a BVI company called Gardinia paid £559m for the historic Bishops Square, properties held by offshore companies on Enterprises Ltd – is still subject to a Treasury complete with office blocks, next to behalf of some unsavoury characters. freezing order. Spitalfields market in London’s East End. The Ziad Takieddine, a Lebanese Back in 2011, Eye 1286 reported how vehicle for doing this was a company called businessman at the centre of the Erastus Akingbola, the then Bishops Square sarl. As it is registered in EU corruption scandal that engulfed head of Nigeria’s Intercontinental member Luxembourg, unlike most tax haven the French presidency of Bank (which was funded partly companies this one is at least required to file Nicholas Sarkozy, owns by Britain’s international accounts at a public registry – and the figures Warwick House, a mansion in development fund CDC), was show just what a tax-efficient arrangement Holland Park thought to be being chased through the UK the JP Morgan bankers organised. Although worth more than £17m, via a British Virgin courts over £7m of the company receives more than £40m a year Islands company. Takieddine brokered misappropriated funds, much of which was from its tenants, by paying most of this out numerous arms and oil contracts in the Middle used to buy properties using offshore trusts and in interest to its owners and bankers it has East on behalf of the French state. While under companies. The claims were successful and an been left with tax bills in both the UK and investigation by French authorities in 2013, apartment in Cambridge Gate, the opulent row Luxembourg totalling just £321,000 in the past Takieddine, an uncle of Amal Clooney, of apartment blocks overlooking Regent’s Park, two years. admitted to paying bribes to an aide of owned in the name of an Isle of Man company Last month property analyst CoStar Sarkozy’s and was banned from leaving the remains subject of a freezing order obtained by reported that JP Morgan was preparing to country while authorities investigated his role the bank. sell Bishops Square for £850m, which would in the “Karachi affair” of illegal arms sale to Intriguingly, members of the Al Gosaibi generate a near £300m capital gain for the Pakistan in the 1990s. He also came under family caught up in the Middle East’s biggest investors. But a simple trick in Luxembourg investigation after he was found with €1.5m in ever corporate collapse, of the banking and – selling the company rather than the property cash on a private flight out of Libya in March trading conglomerate taking their name that – will allow this to be made tax-free and stamp 2011. Just the man to be welcomed with open failed in 2009, own five high-end properties on duty-free. arms by London’s estate agents. Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, using BVI, Jersey As London gets passed around among One case examined by the Eye exemplifies and Liberian companies. All have been frozen offshore property speculators, driving up how the financiers of Middle Eastern violence in proceedings brought by creditors. commercial as well as residential prices, there’s exploit offshore secrecy to evade sanctions. The “walls of corporate secrecy” that David not much in it for the poor old British taxpayer.

LYCAMOBILE cash stored away on low-tax Madeira. The latest WWW Holding Company accounts state that the tax liability is “with regards to the Called to account controlled foreign company tax regime”, as YCAMOBILE, the mobile phone firm and to threats of being struck off “UK-resident companies are subject to a charge Ltop Tory donor, has put aside £9.5m to (see Eye 1337). for tax on undistributed income of low-tax cover “a potential liability of unpaid taxes” – The previous year’s WWW controlled foreign companies of which they are including “interest and penalties” – according Holding Company accounts shareholders”. The firm says that “discussions to accounts filed this month. The taxman, it show the potential scale of with HMRC are at an early stage” but the seems, is “in discussions” with the firm over Lyca’s tax avoidance: with £470m turnover in £9.5m put aside might not be enough, as “there paying tax held in offshore companies. 2013 and a £6.5m profit, the firm says that “no is a possibility the final settlement could be in Lycamobile has given the Tories £1.3m liability to UK corporation tax arose”, and none excess of this provision”. since 2011, including over £500,000 this year. was paid. That year, Lyca’s WWW Holding Lycamobile also has questions to answer Private Eye has repeatedly pointed out that Company did pay £424,000 in “overseas after an investigation by BuzzFeed News found the firm doesn’t pay any UK corporation tax, taxation”. Preceding years show a similar pattern, Lyca “bag men” were using an unmarked black despite the huge amounts of money flowing with millions in profits but no UK corporation people carrier to regularly deposit rucksacks through it (Eye 1335), and now the Revenue tax, going back to 2006. stuffed with cash – in some cases up to seems to be catching up at last. In 2013, Eye 1336 showed how Lyca’s £240,000 – at post offices scattered across east Lycamobile and other Lyca firms are owned international structure appeared to move money London. This despite the company also using by Subaskaran Allirajah, an Indonesian-born into a tax haven. Lyca firms buy bundles of G4S to carry its deposits in more conventional billionaire with French citizenship who lives phone time from a siste r company, Lycatelcom fashion. in the UK. The firm sells cheap international LDA, which handily is based in the Portuguese The admission of a possible multimillion- phone calls aimed at migrant communities tax haven of Madeira. The latest accounts show pound tax liability comes as the firm has through newsagents and street sales. Rather than that the UK branch of the empire, Lycamobile changed accountants: Ernst and Young resigned owning a phone network, Lycamobile buys and UK Ltd, bought £108m of “airtime” from from working for Lyca last June, and KPMG has sells bundles of cheap phone time from other Lycatelcom LDA. While many Lyca firms prepared the very late accounts, both for WWW operators. make no profit and pay no tax, all the cash Holding Company and for the UK subsidiary The admission that its firms may owe £9.5m flowing into Lycatelcom LDA means it does Lycamobile UK Ltd. The latest accounts show in “unpaid taxes” appears in the accounts of the make a profit: in its latest three available annual some possible financial re-engineering: while top-level company in its multinational network, accounts, Lycatelcom reported annual profits the 2013 accounts reported the group’s £470m called, oddly, WWW Holding Company, which ranging from £8m to £55m. However, Madeira’s turnover, the 2014 accounts report the new is based in London’s Docklands. These accounts standard corporation tax rate is just 5 percent. possible tax liability but… report no turnover appeared seven months late and were only filed And according to figures obtained by the Eye, at all. after Companies House threatened to strike the Lycatelcom LDA managed to avoid paying any The Eye asked Lycatel about the tax firm off, which would have stopped it doing tax at all in Madeira. provision and its Madeira firm, but the firm business in the UK. Lyca firms are no strangers But the UK taxman is now chasing the declined to respond. 14

Issue 1406 27 November 2015

Issue 1406 Page 37 27 November 2015 37 the number of pubs in its portfolio to “more MAGISTRATES ASSOCIATION than 150”, according to industry mag Estates Gazette. Predictably, many of these have closed IN THE BACK under Golfrate’s ownership while plans for Beaky blinder luxury flats go through. HE Magistrates Association (MA) has OFFSHORE OWNERSHIP Other casualties are: the White Swan in Tbeen accused of hopping into bed with Charlton Village, acquired through Isle of Man the private punishment companies which company Mendoza Ltd in April for £900,000, now carry out the sentences imposed by the Manx for with the current managers reportedly thrown out courts, raising concerns about a possible by bailiffs in June while the locks were changed; conflict of interest. nothing Two8Six, the only gay club in Lewisham at the The association, which represents time, acquired via Mendoza in 2012 and promptly about 75 percent of all beaks, has set up a IRST came the mighty “pubcos” to closed; the Grosvenor Arms, a pub and music commercial wing, the MA Education and Fspoil Britain’s boozers (Eyes passim venue in Lambeth, acquired by Isle of Man firm Research Network, as part of an “income ad nauseam); now it’s the turn of offshore Hamna Wakaf Ltd in 2013 and closed down last generation strategy”. This, it says, will form property developers to buy them up and shut August; the Beehive, another lively Lambeth local, “an innovative centre” to enhance “fairness, them down. acquired through Mendoza Ltd in 2012 and closed efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of A recent planning application to demolish the last September. The Sovereign, a pub in Camden, justice”. All well and good – except that three Gladstone Arms, a much-loved pub and music was acquired by Mendoza Ltd in 2012 and closed of its funding partners in the venture are the venue in Southwark, south London, and build a in 2013. Among the other pubs to have closed French multinational Sodexo, the controversial ten-storey block of luxury flats in under the ownership of Mendoza Ltd US import MTC Novo, and Working Links: its place has provoked hundreds of include The Duke of Wellington in all now profit from carrying out magistrates’ objections from locals. The plans Spitalfields (pictured), the Peacock in sentences. were lodged by Sartorio Properties Battersea and the Bacchus in Hoxton. Sodexo operates five jails and runs six Ltd, while Land Registry title deeds Not much is known about Asif of the community rehabilitation companies show that the pub was acquired last Aziz, although a little emerged (CRCs) set up last year to take over probation October by Isle of Man company in parliament when Siobhain work. MTC Novo provides rehabilitation and Sartorio Ltd, part of the Golfrate property group. McDonagh, Labour MP for Mitcham and offender management across London and the Worldwide company records collated by Morden, was campaigning to force Golfrate to Thames Valley and has just won a five-year the openCorporates website reveal a further sell for redevelopment Lyons Tower, a monstrous contract to run Rainsbrook secure training 77 companies registered at the same Isle of 17-storey office block in Colliers Wood: “[Aziz] centre (pictured) Man offices, run by law firm Andco Corporates was born in Malawi,” she told parliament in 2011, near Rugby. And Services Ltd, which between them hold titles to “and his fortune is thought to have been made in the government’s approximately 375 properties, mostly in London. Angola. Aged 16, he is said to have turned up in favourite, Offshore companies are generally not taxed on London one day, out of nowhere, to buy property Working Links, gains they make on property. The partners in in an auction. He has been accumulating more has, despite Andco act as directors of the property-owning and more property ever since.” its pisspoor companies. Aziz is reported to have owned businesses in employment track Planning documents reveal that many of South America as well as a food trading operation record, secured three CRC contracts in Wales the Manx companies have identifiable links to in Angola, which was sold in 2005 to members of and the south-west of England. Golfrate. This outfit was set up in 1991 Asif the Lebanese Tajideen family. That deal turned The Magistrates Association, a registered Aziz, a publicity-shy property magnate, and is sour, however, and in 2010 the new owners sued charity, boasts of its ability “to influence reported to own property worth £2bn. Aziz first Aziz in the high court over claims that Aziz had key decision-makers in parliament and hit the headlines in 2005 when his firm acquired exaggerated the value of the companies and government” as well as its work to support, the London Trocadero, the Baroque-style arcade falsified a series of expense claims. In one email train and give guidance to members. The on Piccadilly Circus, for £212m. This turns out Aziz asked his chief accountant: “Will they check website for its commercial MA network to have been another offshore deal, through a each figure – can we not bullshit the numbers company says its “year one strategy” is to company called London Trocadero Ltd, also another way? Food for thought.” focus on a “more effective and appropriate registered to the Isle of Man offices of Andco. No food – or drink – at many of London’s use of existing and emerging technologies” More recently, in 2014, Golfrate acquired 11 best-loved boozers, though, now that the offshore – which alarms critics further. They say the pubs in London from Punch Taverns, bringing property men have their hands on them. affiliate companies can now own research and identify commercial trends as well as having FITNESS TO WORK TESTS access to parliamentarians and the judiciary through the network’s, er, networks. As one retired magistrate told the Eye: Deadly reckoning “The MA is dancing with fire in taking ET more evidence has emerged of universities concluded that the government’s money from commercial companies who are Ythe often devastating impact of the controversial “fit to work” tests for disabled managing community sentences. I am sure government’s welfare reforms on those with claimants, which Mr McArdle faced, were the new subsidiary has good intentions, but disabilities after Alan McArdle died of a associated with an extra 590 suicides in just by taking money from commercial CRCs, heart attack less than an hour after learning three years and 279,000 cases of mental it lays itself open to accusations of undue that the Department for Work and Pensions ill-health. Eye readers will be aware that the influence.” (DWP) was threatening to cut his out-of- tests, until recently run by Atos, have attracted A spokesman for the MA denied a work disability benefits. widespread criticism for delay; for being too conflict of interest, saying the MA Network Mr McArdle is the latest claimant to have prescriptive, leading to devastating errors; and works with organisations from all sectors: fallen foul of a push to force people off sickness for leaving claimants stressed and penniless. “Magistrates sentence in accordance with rigid benefit and into work, no matter how ill they are. Ministers continue to claim that any link to sentencing guidelines, so any suggestion that Mr McArdle, whose diabetes left him with suicide or death is “misleading” – even though the impartiality of sentencing decisions is in no feeling in his arms and legs, had just come they received a formal warning in 2010 in a question is simply a non-starter.” out of hospital following a fall and was too “Rule 43” letter from a coroner after a suicide He declined to say how much the three unwell to visit the offices of Work Programme “triggered” by a wrong finding of “fit for work”. companies had coughed up, but said that contractor Maximus for sessions of compulsory The coroner urged improvement in the collection “founding affiliates have provided seed “work-related activity”. Even though the of medical evidence before finding someone funding totalling £45,000”. Spookily, after the charity Slough Homeless Our Concern, which with a mental health condition fit for work, in Eye asked why its first year was focused on had worked with Mr McArdle for 16 years, told order to prevent further unnecessary deaths. “technology”, which might be of commercial Maximus he was not well enough to travel to It is now being asked why work and interest rather than, say, domestic violence, its offices, the company recommended to the pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith and he said that the website had not been updated DWP that he be sanctioned with the loss of former employment minister Chris Grayling and in fact the seed funding “is supporting benefits. Slough MP Fiona Mactaggart said it failed to respond substantively to the coroner the development of online networking and was “shocking” that the only way Mr McArdle back in 2010 – as they are legally obliged to. information sharing across the justice sector, could prove he was not well enough to take part Nor did they pass on the coroner’s concerns to as well as an initial research project on in the Work Programme was by dying. Professor Malcolm Harrington, the independent how better to support women offenders to Details of his death emerged as new expert commissioned to review the tests in the comply with community orders and reduce research from Liverpool and Oxford wake of widespread concern. reoffending”. So that’s all right then. Issue 1407 Page 35 11 December 2015 35 REVOLVING DOORS – would have found him as schools minister boasting of such dealings, and giving Ark a big plug, in 2013. Speaking at a National IN THE BACK Ark at him Education Trust conference, Laws said: “Let HE prime minister’s advisory me give you a sense of my thinking, and TUC NEWS Tcommittee on business appointments my ambition, by recounting a visit I made (Acoba), which vets ministers’ and top to a school last week. That school is King officials’ moves through the revolving Solomon’s Academy, a new ARK school Unison door into the private near Paddington Station.” Interviewed by the sector, continues to Independent a few months later, Laws mused on tape press its case for being that “there are some good academy groups the most pisspoor doing an absolutely fantastic job – like Ark ERIOUS turmoil among the brothers and government body and Harris – and some not doing so well.” sisters at Unison is threatening to undermine S going. Then in the run-up to the last general the election of the new general secretary. The latest in a series election, while Laws was still schools minister, Senior officials at the public service union of failures to spot, or Schools Week magazine revealed how he had were secretly taped plotting to secure another five even conceal, clear received donations totaling £15,536 from the years at the top for long-term incumbent Dave conflicts of interest and chair of the Ark trustees, hedge fund manager Prentis, in what appears to be a blatant breach of official dealings with Paul Marshall. election rules that prohibit officials using union future employers (Eyes The first the public hears of these time, money or resources on behalf of any one passim ad nauseam) appointments is after they’ve been agreed, candidate. comes in the case of an application made by by which time it’s too late for concerns to be Linda Perks (pictured), Unison’s London former Lib Dem schools minister David Laws. raised. With the blundering official advisory regional secretary, is clearly heard slagging off The less than reliable form-filler, who was committee unable to spot even the most Prentis’s three rivals – Roger Bannister, John forced to resign from government in 2010 obvious conflicts of interest before applying Burgess and Heather Wakefield. She says: “This and suspended from parliament after claiming the rubber stamp (and never advising that is one of the toughest elections that Dave has £40,000 rent when he was living with his appointments aren’t suitable), perhaps it’s time had to fight and it is very important that Dave partner, has secured a job as international for that to change. is delivered… I have said before that not one of 15 adviser to the hedge fund-backed, free school- the others is capable of running the union, quite sponsoring charity Ark. frankly.” Giving the green light to the position, chair At an October “briefing” for London reps of the advisory committee, Tory peer Baroness at Congress House in London, ahead of the Browning, wrote to Laws: “The committee ballot (which closed last Friday), Perks thanks took into account that you did not have any Revolving Door applications her colleagues for their work in securing branch 276 dealings with Ark whilst in office, but the nominations for Prentis and says: “Dave is very, made by former government charity would have been impacted by decisions very grateful.” She tells them to expect a “huge” ministers since 2010 the DfE took on accountability and funding… bundle of leaflets from the Prentis campaign. Issue 1407 Revolving Door applications you did not deal with the organisation directly 487 Perks clearly knows she’s venturing into made by top civil servants since 2010 while in office...”. 11 December 2015 dangerous rule-breaking territory as she warns Did not have any dealings… Really? Some 0 Revolving Door applications those attending the briefing not to get caught out very basic checking of this statement – which considered ‘unsuitable’ by Acoba and to “make sure witnesses are friendly”. She must have been based on Laws’ application said that if the opposition got the evidence that “people are using union resources, there could be complaints, so you just need to be careful and use your discretion and do not use emails as these can OFFSHORE OWNERSHIP said he “strongly suspected that there was a be traced”. sophisticated criminal network laundering the Unfortunately for her, so could her distinctive Time at proceeds of corruption, [and] that Golfrate voice. Perks is said to have been suspended and was an integral hub in the vast and complex complaints about “organised election abuse” the bar money laundering investigation”. But the senior and demands for an independent inquiry have officer “gives no particulars of the matters on duly flowed in. The Eye asked Unison about the ORE on the property company, which he relied” and the police failed to make tapes and whether Prentis knew what was being MGolfrate, that has bought up hundreds a case to justify the warrants. Worse still, they orchestrated in his name. A spokeswoman said the of British pubs (plus other buildings, such misrepresented certain information about Dr union could not comment while an investigation as the Trocadero in London’s Piccadilly) Gulam Adam and failed to disclose matters that by the Electoral Reform Society was underway. through Isle of Man companies. were unhelpful to them. It wasn’t Knacker’s As the last Eye revealed, Golfrate is busily finest day in the uphill battle against money shutting some of the capital’s most cherished laundering. A clean break boozers, such as the Gladstone in Southwark Not that Golfrate appeared to emerge from (pictured) and the Sovereign the case entirely spotless, either. S a small independent trade union prepares in Camden (see last Eye). But The police had produced “a number Ato take legal action against the government, it seems the company has of documents relating to the comrades at Unison may wish to question its provoked not just the ire of local offshore companies connected with own role in denying workers their rights. drinkers but also the interest of Dr Adam and his family” which Many of the outsourced cleaning workers at Inspector Knacker. showed “significant transactions the University of London split from Unison in Three years ago, as part of between those companies and links 2013 to join the Independent Workers of Great the “Operation Knabstrupper” to Golfrate”. Although these “raise Britain (IWGB), having decided that the former investigation into money questions as to the way in which was worse than useless (Eye 1346). Since then, laundering connected to Robert these companies operate and their the IWGB has won sick pay and holiday pay for Mugabe’s regime in Zimbabwe, officers from tax liabilities”, said the judge, “there is nothing its members, but official union recognition has the Met Police’s Proceeds of Corruption Unit that connects any of this with breach of the been harder to come by. The employer, Cofely, (now part of the National Crime Agency) Zimbabwe sanctions regime”. has voluntarily recognised Unison, enabling it to obtained warrants to search properties The evidence also showed that Adam’s block the IWGB’s attempts at recognition – even connected with Golfrate and a Zimbabwean “mobile phone contained the telephone though the IWGB estimates it represents as much associate called Dr Gulam Adam. Golfrate and numbers of Mr Gideon Gono [then governor of as 70 percent of the workforce. Adam, however, successfully had the warrants the Zimbabwean central bank and subject to EU Now, with the help of trade union barrister judicially reviewed and quashed. sanctions] and army officers, police officers and John Hendy QC, the IWGB is taking the According to lord chief justice Lord Zanu-PF politicians”. But, said the lord chief government to court, claiming that UK union Thomas, the Met thought that “criminal justice, “although this shows Dr Adam’s close recognition laws deny its freedom of association, property was obtained from members of connections with those who rule Zimbabwe, it which is enshrined in article 11 of the European Zanu-PF [Mugabe’s party] for the purpose really takes the money laundering allegations Convention on Human Rights. The case raises of investing in the London property market relating to the sanctions regime no further”. more awkward questions for Unison, which has and the rent thus obtained then being passed If nothing else, the case does say a little been used as a tool by Cofely to deny its workers back to them”. The judge reported that the about those using offshore companies to close recognition. How comradely! chief inspector in charge of the Met unit had British pubs. 16

Issue 1408 19 December 2015

Issue 1408 Page 39 19 December 2015 39 FREEDOM OF INFORMATION by other means” – despite the “other means” being thousands of individual requests at £11 a time and demanding an army of supporting IN THE BACK Open anoraks. In fact the whole “dataset”, with companies UNISON BALLOT contempt and addresses, should be released under amendments to the FoI law introduced in 2012, NE of David Cameron’s first moves in which give the public a legal right of access to A family affair ONumber 10 in May 2010 was to “open up raw data held by government departments. RESSURE is mounting on Unison chiefs government data”. Not only would this “enable The Eye has pointed this out to the Pto order a new ballot and to launch the public to hold politicians and public bodies to Land Registry, which responds that because an independent inquiry into allegations account”, he wrote to government departments, its information is subject to Crown copyright, of “organised election abuse” after senior but it would also “realise significant economic the dataset provisions do not apply. This used officials were secretly taped plotting to keep benefits by enabling businesses and non-profit to be true, but since such a position would Dave Prentis (pictured) as general secretary organisations to build innovative applications have exempted all datasets prepared by civil of the union (see last Eye). and websites using public data”. servants – and thus defeated the prime minister’s As the Eye was going This is exactly what the Eye has done with its fine intentions – it was rectified by the to press, the results of the map of property owned by offshore companies government this year with the updating of the election were due to be using data up to 2014 obtained under freedom of Re-Use of Public Sector Information Regulations announced – unless the information laws (see www.private-eye.co.uk). (RPSI). returning officer for the Alas, the Land Registry now seems to have lost The Eye’s case is now with the Information Electoral Reform Services the memo from Cameron. Commissioner, but if the Land Registry’s view is (ERS) decided the process As reported in Eye 1402, it has refused upheld, Cameron’s 2010 promise will have been was unfair. This is the same our request for information on the thousands so much hot air. As will his 2013 reminder: “We ERS which has a lucrative contract with Unison more properties bought by offshore companies can’t just talk about open government, we’ve got to run its elections and has in the past been since 2014, claiming the request is “vexatious” to deliver.” Time for the Land Registry to catch seen to be too ready to support the union’s head and the information is “reasonably accessible up, surely. office when dealing with complaints. (The ERS scrutiny officer’s finding in one case was OFFSHORE OWNERSHIP subsequently found by the union certification officer to be “at best misleading”.) Thus 18 of the union’s 65-strong national Sins of commissioners executive have written an open letter to HE Church of England has a clear Commissioners. Nor was Unison president Wendy Nichols calling for Tline on the evils of corporate tax this their only such sale that the suspension of Prentis, as well as all the avoidance and those who promote it, but has year. In September 2013 they other London regional management team anyone explained the policy to the Church also sold Dissington Estate identified on the damning tapes. They also Commissioners, the CofE’s investment wing? in Northumberland, for £18.6m, to Guernsey want a senior figure from the Labour and After the Lib Dems left Cowley House, company Lugano Dissington Estate Ltd, trade union movement appointed to conduct a the “Old Westminster” grade II-listed controlled by Geordie telecoms and property full independent inquiry. “The possibility of headquarters they had occupied under a lease magnate, Barry Moat. the most senior official of the union and his from 1998 until 2011, the freeholder sold In the same month that the commissioners, agents systematically abusing Unison rules the prime London property for £11.75m for under First Church Estates Commissioner and resources in this way risks bringing the redevelopment as luxury apartments. Nothing Andreas Whittam-Smith, sold Cowley House to union into the most serious disrepute,” they surprising there, perhaps; nor, given chancellor an offshore company, the Church of England’s wrote. George Osborne’s continuing tax generosity ethical investment advisory group published its Linda Perks, Unison’s London regional towards property developers, the fact that the policy on corporate tax avoidance. “Concern secretary, was recorded briefing more than buyer, in July 2013, was Garnet CS Ltd from may relate not only to a company’s approach 60 officials from Greater London on how to the Isle of Man, a company that will almost to its own tax liabilities,” it said, “but also to intervene in the election, to ensure that “Dave certainly enjoy major tax advantages on its corporate promotion of, or support for, tax is delivered”. She thanked them for their work development profit. avoidance by others…” Shouldn’t that cover in securing branch nominations for Prentis and What is surprising, however, is that the the sale of an expensive chunk of London to the said, “Dave is very, very grateful”. sellers of the freehold were the Church Isle of Man? The three other candidates – Roger Bannister, John Burgess and Heather Wakefield – were incapable of running the union, she said. NEW BROOM AT CQC Since this is the very self-regulatory structure Evidently aware that she was venturing into that has failed to take any action – for example forbidden territory, she warned them “don’t get against the banks’ auditors in the wake of the caught out” and “make sure any witnesses are Why-oh- financial crash, and refuses to examine the friendly”. accountants’ role in bringing down struggling Despite the tapes apparently implicating Wyman businesses (Eyes passim ad nauseam) – the others in breaches of election rules, which achievement might not have been one to boast prohibit officials from using union time, HE march of the beancounters goes on: about. Only last week, Treasury select committee money or resources on behalf of any one Tdays before parliament’s health select chairman Andrew Tyrie was forced to write to candidate, only Perks has been suspended. committee declared that, despite good recent the accountancy regulators who had decided A swift tweet from union vice-president Eric progress, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) there was nothing to see at HBOS to demand that Roberts that he had “complete confidence” “is not yet an effective regulator of health and they think again. in her, did little to convince the three other social care”, health secretary Jeremy Hunt When the Enron crisis broke in 2002, Wyman candidates that Unison chiefs hadn’t already appointed a new chairman for the body: Peter was president of the Institute of Chartered prejudged the issue. Wyman CBE (pictured). Accountants, which persuaded Britain’s “light The union has appointed one of its own Although he has plenty of worthy posts on touch” government not to clamp down on the assistant general secretaries, Roger McKenzie, his CV, chartered accountant Wyman is not a accountants in the way American regulators had to carry out an internal investigation. As those natural regulator. On an early 1990s break in his – for example, by banning them from providing who have lodged formal complaints point out, 42-year career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, he auditing and consulting services to the same that means McKenzie is in effect investigating worked as an adviser to the soon to be disgraced client – a concession for which a price is still his own boss. The union also decided that in Tory minister Neil Hamilton, before sitting on a being paid (KPMG earned almost as much Perks’s absence, the head of the London health government “deregulation task force” from 1994 from consulting as it did from auditing HBOS). region, Chris Remington, should step up and to 1997. And as a senior tax partner at PwC a couple of run the London region. Remington just happens Appearing before MPs at a “confirmation” years earlier, he had campaigned hard against a to be… Perks’s husband, who also features on hearing this month, Wyman also took, ahem, credit clampdown on offshore corporate tax dodging, the damning tapes as her “prompt”! for the way his own profession is now regulated. prompting Gordon Brown to dismiss him as a But then Unison is keen to keep it in the “I set up, along with the Financial Reporting “tax avoidance adviser”. family. Prentis’s long-term partner Liz Snape, Council and people from the Department of Trade The health service needs many things right recently elected TUC president, is also a Unison and Industry… a new regulatory structure for the now. Is an accountancy veteran from the dark assistant general secretary. accounting profession,” he boasted. age of light touch really one of them? 17 38 Issue 1410 Page 38 22 January 2016 LAND REGISTRY PRIVATE PRISONS More Farrant Not fit for purpose CORONER has issued a scathing report The consultant, without that history, made no nonsense A into prisoner care at a G4S prison in diagnosis but ordered more tests. Yet another HE ever-expanding use of British Wales after hearing that a prisoner’s epilepsy appointment was cancelled by G4S, but Ali did Tproperty as a repository for dodgy went undiagnosed – despite numerous seizures eventually get to see another specialist at the money, coupled with David Cameron’s – until after his death in February 2014. hospital in December – although she only knew commitment to transparency (rhetorically An inquest jury decided that Mohamoud of his previous A&E visit and again made no Issue 1410 at least), make the question of who owns Ahmed Ali, 37, died in his cell from SUDEP formal diagnosis. 8 January 2016 Britain particularly important at a time when (sudden unexpected death from epilepsy) at Epilepsy expert Professor Matthias Koepp George Osborne is lining up the keeper of HMP Parc in Bridgend, following a series of told the inquest there was enough information this mine of information, the Land Registry, failures by staff and prison chiefs. The inquest in the prison records for a specialist to diagnose for privatisation. also heard that Ali, a Somalian who had come epilepsy as early as January 2013, and that Ali The man with the job of piloting it through to the UK at the age of eight, had served two exhibited all the risk factors. It was a serious choppy waters is chief land registrar Graham years longer than his four-year term imposed failure, he said, that the prison had failed to tell Farrant, who, as Eye 1408 reported last month, for two sex offences, while immigration doctors about Ali’s symptoms. told staff he had been discussing the future with authorities were considering whether to The jury also heard that because of the the Cabinet Office civil servant looking at how deport him. dangers of SUDEP to epilepsy sufferers, the jail to flog public services, an ex-Rothschild banker Last week assistant coroner Christopher should have considered that he needed to share named Ed Welsh. Woolley took the unusual step of writing to the a cell instead of being held alone. Despite the clear case for public interest, ministers for both prisons and immigration, as The coroner’s extensive concerns included this didn’t go down well with Farrant. In well as to G4S, the prison governor, and the recommendations that prison records systems his latest staff blog, he wrote: “I note that inspector of prisons, to outline his concerns that should be changed so that medical professionals someone within Land Registry has felt it there was a “risk of future deaths” unless urgent have access and that medical staff – not custody appropriate to release a quote from my blog action was taken. He warned immigration staff – should be making decisions about to Private Eye.” Either naively or menacingly minister James Brokenshire that “prolonged cancelling hospital appointments. Although he added: “I would encourage the person administrative detention” could lead to an G4S said such decisions were now being made who provided the quote to tell me why increased risk of death for detainees – most at deputy governor level, the coroner was still they did so in order that I can understand likely from suicide rather than SUDEP. concerned that “urgent” appointments may still what advantage they think they will gain to The inquest had heard that, despite suffering be missed. He said passing factual or medical either themselves or to the organisation as a his first seizures in December 2012 and being information among prison staff should not be result.” taken to A&E the following April after further left to “word of mouth”, and that prison cell Why might Farrant be no fan of the incidents, Ali repeatedly missed hospital risk assessments should also consider health Eye? We did, after all, give him an award appointments with neurologists because of needs as well as risk of self-harm. back in 2002 when he was chief executive prison staff shortages. When he finally attended Matt Foot, the solicitor for Ali’s family, said of Barking and Dagenham council. Farrant an appointment, in August 2013, crucial G4S had compounded its failures by initially bagged the Eye’s Rotten Boroughs column’s information held at the prison about his medical wrongly telling another family that their son prestigious “blue sky thinker” of the year history was not passed to hospital doctors. had died. gong after spending £40,000 sending 180 council officers to prance about in Arab headgear in a game called the “gold of the No TLC from MTC desert kings”. With sand spread over the floor they had to earn food and water from ALLS for G4S to be stripped of its improvements for inmates at the MTC-run the “mystic of the desert”, a suitably attired Cchildren’s prison contracts in the UK Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility in Farrant aide. after BBC Panorama revealed guards at Mississippi following a legal campaign by the This wasn’t the first appearance for Farrant, Medway Secure Training Centre abusing Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC). Judge who also acquired the nickname “club class” young inmates are incontestable. But Carlton Reeves said: “The evidence before the for his overseas jaunts to discuss performance swopping one contractor for another might court paints a picture of a facility struggling management at the Essex taxpayers’ expense. not be the whole answer. with disorder, periodic mayhem, and staff His debut came in 1996 when he lasted just Regular Eye readers will not have been ineptitude which leads to perpetual danger to 10 days as chief exec of Norfolk county council in the least surprised when, last September, the inmates and staff.” (Eye 899). Councillors decided to un-appoint G4S lost its contract to run Rainsbrook youth SPLC had said gangs “ran amok” in the him after discovering he had been an assistant jail in Northamptonshire following severe youth jail while staff “colluded”. During the director of housing at Tory Westminster criticism from inspectors and the sacking of court case, the MTC prison’s governor admitted council when, under Dame Shirley Porter, it six members of staff for gross misconduct. The that two staff were being fired for sexual moved homeless people into asbestos-ridden Eye, after all, had been recording problems at misbehaviour, but he was waiting for DNA tower blocks. Rainsbrook since 2004, in the days of Group 4, evidence to see if a third guard had sexually Farrant left Essex in 2005 to run pisspoor when a 15 year old died after being restrained assaulted multiple inmates. swimming pool operator Leisure Connection. there (Eye 1111); and in 2010 we reported In February last year, meanwhile, there After a series of complaints and fines for how a G4S manager was given a suspended was a riot at the Willacy County Correctional the company over problems at various jail sentence for assaulting a 13 year old Center in Texas. Around two thirds of the council-owned facilities in 2008, Farrant (Eye 1262). However, serious questions now 2,800 inmates refused work details, and set left to set up management consultancy Pmp arise over whether the new outfit taking over at fire to three of the ten tents in which they Genesis before returning to local government Rainsbrook will be any improvement. were housed. The riot was supressed after as chief executive at Thurrock council two Little known in the UK, the MTCnovo guards used tear gas and 300 inmates were years later, taking the Land Registry job in consortium mainly comprises The Management removed. The American Civil Liberties March last year. & Training Corporation (MTC), a US prison Union said the riot was “most unsurprising” The Land Registry is resisting the Eye’s firm with a terrible record, along with the UK given the poor conditions: inmates slept in efforts to get up-to-date information on privatiser Amey and some smaller “third sector” 200 closely placed beds per tent. In March the offshore companies buying organisations. Omens from the US aren’t good. National Bureau of Prisons cancelled MTC’s up English and Welsh Last July there was a riot at the MTC-run contract at the jail. property. As the Eye’s Arizona State Prison-Kingman, which saw In Britain, meanwhile, MTC is part of interactive map of 1,200 prisoners having to be shipped out. a consortium that is expanding rapidly. property bought between By September, Arizona state governor Doug MTCnovo is not only taking over Rainsbrook 2005 and 2014 shows (see Ducey had severed all links with MTC after the but is running probation for all ex-prisoners in private-eye.co.uk/registry), official report into the riot found “a culture of London and the Thames Valley. this greatly aids disorganization, disengagement and disregard MTC tried once before to expand in the transparency, but for for state policies by MTC”, along with “failure UK. In 2004 it was in negotiations to take over some reason Farrant’s by MTC to conduct critical staff training, and a UK prison until the Observer reported how organisation withholding these failures from Department of its directors had helped set up the notorious doesn’t want to Corrections monitors”. Abu Ghraib prison in post-Saddam Iraq and the help improve it. Also last July, a federal judge ordered bid floundered. 18

Issue 1411 5 February 2016

Issue 1411 Page 37 5 February 2016 37 RUSSIAN SANCTIONS IN THE BACK Boom time in

POLICE 5 Putin-on-Thames Titov, Pichugov, Shuvalov HEN the report into the radioactive Farm fix Wpoisoning in central London of “A Just Russia” party boasts a 185m2 rented Alexander Litvinenko concluded last month apartment in the UK, and declares a Lexus, a RESH evidence suggesting that Essex that the former spy was most likely victim Merc and a Bentley Continental GT. Fpolice helped cover up the “murder” of a state-sponsored murder sanctioned by ● Perhaps the richest declaration is from of a man found crushed by a cement mixer President Putin, Labour’s Ben Bradshaw Viktor Pichugov, a member of the Russian was last week presented to the local crime told the Commons that “meaningful action” parliament’s upper house and reportedly commissioner’s office in an attempt to have was now needed “against the dirty Russian Russia’s ninth richest man, who has a 265m2 the disturbing 14-year-old case reinvestigated. money and property here in London that house here, along with two even larger Lee Balkwell, 33, was found in the early sustain the Putin kleptocracy”. properties in Monaco, and lists a Bentley, a hours of 18 July 2002 with his head and shoulders Alas, home secretary Theresa May spoke Maybach, a Lexus and a Land Rover among his wedged between the drum and chassis of a cement volumes for the government’s interest in doing motors and a Porsche Cayenne for his missus. mixer on an Essex farm, linked to drugs and anything meaningful… by ignoring the MP’s ● Not quite so wealthy but apparently firearms offences. In October 2008, six years after point entirely. doing very nicely, director-general of state- Lee’s death, an inquest jury returned a verdict of Should she or David Cameron ever decide owned mortgage company JSC, Alexander unlawful killing through gross negligence on the to hit Putin supporters where it hurts – in the Semenyaka, owns with his wife two 90m2 flats, farm. Simon Bromley, Lee’s employer, had told wallet – the Eye can help with details of the and a larger one in France. the inquest the death was the result of an accident substantial property riches Russian state officials ● Communist party member Alexander when the cement mixer’s engine accidentally and parliamentarians currently hold in Britain, Mastinin declares a 126m2 apartment plus a started during late night cleaning. including those of an associate of one of the Rolls Royce and a Porsche Boxster. Bromley was subsequently cleared of “gross accused murderers. They are revealed in Russian ● Last, but not least, the first deputy chairman negligence manslaughter” but was convicted “anti-corruption” asset disclosures in Moscow; of the Duma Vladimir Parahin has a 90m2 of health and safety breaches. Separately, in and though they only give details of a property’s flat somewhere in the UK. He is a political 2006 Bromley had been convicted of drugs and floorspace, the disclosures suggest vast Russian ally of fellow Duma member Andrei Lugovoi firearms charges and sentenced to six years. property wealth in the UK, almost certainly held – one of the two men found to have murdered Now, a new report prepared by a retired through secret offshore companies. Litvinenko in broad daylight in central London senior police scientist has highlighted unusual ● Boris Titov, appointed by Putin as his These are just the property interests that can marks on Lee’s body which, it is claimed, are “business ombudsman” to address the scourge be gleaned from a search of public records for consistent with the use of a stun gun. of contrived prosecutions of entrepreneurs by those recently in public positions, when many Robert Milne, a former Metropolitan police corrupt police, declares a 250m2 apartment in of Putin’s cronies operate on the margins of the forensic scientist with experience of more than the UK – impressive when the average area of a state and might not be inclined to disclose too 30,000 crime scenes, also said that photographs family home is just 100m2. much anyway. at the Upminster farm demonstrate that the ● The wife of Dmitry Skrivanov, a former The Eye has reported on some of the more scene had been staged. But his report makes no coordinator for the All Russian People’s Front, extreme examples of oligarch wealth in the UK, suggestion about who the killer may have been. a movement created by Putin in 2011 to bring as well, such as that of Russian deputy prime Leslie Balkwell, Lee’s father, also said that non-governmental bodies inside the tent – owns minister Igor Shulalov. In 2014, a Russian since his son’s death Essex police officers had a 142m2 UK flat, almost certainly in London. company he controls paid £11.4m for a 164-year privately come forward and alleged that there was ● Even luckier is Mikhail Abyzov, made lease on two flats on the fifth floor of Whitehall a corrupt circle of cops in bed with three local minister for open government affairs in 2012 Court, a large Victorian Gothic building crime families. Two officers said the farm had after holding senior positions in privatised overlooking the Thames. The leasehold had been under electronic surveillance for suspected energy companies. His declaration contains a been granted two years earlier by the freeholder, drug trafficking on the night of Lee’s death; 341m2 flat and a 278m2 house in the UK, as well the Crown Estate, to a British Virgin Islands another is said to have confessed to having been as a string of non-UK properties. To get around, company also believed to be linked to Shuvalov. part of a corrupt circle of cops working with the 43 year old has a Mercedes car, two Ducati This, of course, is without mentioning the David Hunt, recently labelled by a high court motorcycles, plus a Harley Davidson and a London property wealth of the various oligarchs judge as an organised crime lord. helicopter. His wife has two Porsches (a Cayenne – some in, some out of favour with Putin – who In 2012 the Independent Police Complaints and a Panamera), two Land Rovers and a Lexus. have tens and sometimes hundreds of millions Commission (IPCC), responding to complaints ● Former member of the state Duma budget of pounds of wealth safely invested in a piece from Lee’s parents about the investigation, finally and taxes committee Mikhail Serdyuk of the of Britain. produced a 147-page report outlining a litany of errors. Yet one of the most extraordinary facts – that Lee’s clothes were destroyed 19 hours after MENTAL HEALTH DEATHS hospital) and the Surrey and Borders Partnership his death and before any post mortem examination Trust (which was responsible for Adam’s care) – did not seem to trouble the watchdog; and it were both guilty of systemic failures. These rejected any suggestion of corruption. Epsom faults included a lack of proper risk assessments, The family remained unhappy and last October N THE week when new NHS figures poor record-keeping and care planning, and the Essex Police finally settled a civil action admitting Irevealed a worrying rise in the number almost complete lack of effective communication it had spectacularly bungled the investigation by of unexpected deaths of mental health between nursing staff in the period leading losing vital evidence and closing down lines of patients, an inquest jury has found to Adam’s death in May 2014. Jurors were inquiry, but denying any claims of corruption. that a catalogue of blunders caused or satisfied Adam did not intend to kill himself Now those failings have been re-examined significantly contributed to the death of when he climbed the chimney. by Mr Milne, who told the Eye he considered the a young hospital patient. Their damning findings came as the police failures were an “orchestrated derailment”. Adam Withers (pictured) was just Lib Dems obtained new figures showing His report, which he presented with Lee’s 20 when he fell to his death from a 130ft that the number of deaths annually among father last week, concludes: “On the balance of industrial chimney at Epsom Hospital. Not mental health patients – both in hospital and the probabilities, it is my opinion that the death of only should a ladder that ran up the side of community – had risen by a fifth over the last Lee Balkwell was the result of a deliberate act of the chimney not have been left unsecured, but three years from 1,412 to 1,713. It also follows a murder or manslaughter and it is unlikely that the Adam had told staff earlier in the day that he critical inquest finding over the avoidable death accident as described happened at all. “Further, intended to climb it. He was being treated for an of Christopher Higgins, another man suffering a the deliberate lack of criminal investigation and acute psychotic episode and had told staff he was psychotic breakdown (see Eye 1409). apparent lack of competence by the Essex Police acting on an instruction from God. Deborah Coles, director of the charity has too many failures of process and direction in Even though the hospital had a history of Inquest, which supported the families in both this case to be a mere collection of coincidences patients on Adam’s ward absconding over the cases, called for a wide-ranging investigation and as such supports the view that the course of roof beside the chimney, and that Adam himself into the under-resourced and over-stretched justice in this case has been perverted.” had previously done so, nothing was done to mental health services. “Too many of these Lee’s father has now been asked to prepare make the ward safe. cases raise the same systemic failings that reveal a formal statement about the police whistle- The jury decided that the Epsom and St a lack of learning and accountability across NHS blowers to accompany the report. Helier University Hospitals Trust (which runs the trusts,” she told the Eye. 19

Issue 1414 18 March 2016

Issue 1414 Page 37 18 March 2016 37 OFFSHORE OWNERSHIP by companies registered in Jersey, 12,061 in the Isle of Man, 11,536 in Guernsey, 2,782 in Mauritius, 2,657 in Gibraltar, 1,963 in Panama IN THE BACK D-Day for data and 1,245 in the Cayman Islands. But the most IX months after the Eye obtained details of popular location for registering a property ROYAL FLEET AUXILIARY Sproperties acquired by offshore companies company offshore, with 22,155 in the period, between 2005 and 2014, often to conceal the was that convenient financial centre of… the identity of the true owner, and launched its British Virgin Islands. Jockyards interactive online map showing every While Jersey has been most commonly linked one of the properties, the government by criminal investigators to money- ahoy! has at least announced some action. laundering cases, this is only because In a consultation document of the closer links with the authorities ROM next month Solent Gateway published last week, business there. The BVI, where the identities of FLtd will begin operating its 35-year minister Baroness (Lucy) Neville- companies’ owners are not filed with contract to run the Ministry of Defence’s Rolfe promises to publish a list the authorities, is a tougher nut to crack. vital Sea Mounting Centre at Marchwood of properties owned by offshore (A recent freedom of information in Hampshire. It’s certainly an interesting companies. Ahead of this, request by Christian Aid for the choice of contractor. Private Eye is making available Serious Fraud Office’s risk assessment The port is home to a substantial core of its database of properties and the for the BVI was refused on the less the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, whose vessels are offshore companies that acquired them, than reassuring grounds that releasing it essential to the UK’s ability to deliver its Joint showing addresses and in most cases prices would harm relations with the territory). Rapid Reaction Force as well as a “deployable paid, between 1999 and 2014 (see www.private- Even if the government does push ahead reserve force” overseas. Landing dock ship eye.co.uk/registry from Friday 18 March). with its new proposals, they are unlikely to RFA Mounts Bay, for example, deployed from The government acknowledges that “property solve the problem entirely. Given the UK’s near Marchwood last month to join operations can provide a convenient vehicle for hiding the total absence of enforcement against corporate currently deterring migrants from crossing from proceeds of crime” and that “high values of law-breaking, proposed criminal sanctions for Turkey to Greece. property in London in particular, presents [sic] an false information will probably not trouble the Solent Gateway Ltd is a joint venture opportunity for criminals to launder considerable world’s major money launderers unduly; hidden incorporated in 2014 between port and transport sums of money in one transaction”. So it also behind further offshore layers, proving falsity is logistics operator GBA Holdings and David proposes to make transparency a condition of hard to do without extensive investigation and MacBrayne Ltd (DML), which mainly runs property ownership in the UK, as suggested by international cooperation. passenger and car ferry services for the Scottish the Eye and others, “requiring foreign companies What action there has been against offshore islands. DML is “wholly owned by Scottish to provide information on their beneficial corporate ownership to date has achieved ministers” – in other words, wholly owned ownership before they are able to buy land/ little if anything. An “annual tax on enveloped by the SNP government in Scotland. Indeed, property in England or Wales”. dwellings” introduced from 2013/14 was DML boasts in its company literature of its The Eye identified £170bn worth of supposed to encourage property owners to commitment to “supporting the aims of the properties acquired by offshore companies in drop the corporate shells. HM Revenue & Scottish government, and to making a good just ten years. As most transactions did not give Customs data just released shows, however, that commercial return for our shareholder, Scottish values, however, the total is likely to be well the number of properties owned by offshore ministers” – rather than any interest at all in, over £200bn. It highlighted their use by property companies worth £20m or more (the serious say, defence. developers such as the Candy brothers to avoid launderer’s preferred range) actually increased This seems a bit rich given the SNP’s tax, the landed gentry like Lord Rothermere to from 220 in 2013/14 to 230 in 2014/15. In other hostility to so many aspects of UK defence escape inheritance tax and any number of arms bands it fell by just 7 percent, showing that a policy. The SNP has objected to Trident’s dealers and oligarchs covering up properties tax running into six figures for properties worth proposed replacement, the “illegal” war in they’d rather nobody knew too much about. £10m or more is still a price worth paying for Iraq and insists that the navy’s new Type 26 Among the properties were 20,590 acquired secrecy. destroyers be built in Scotland; and yet now it finds itself profiting handsomely from the Marchwood deal in England. Given the relationship between APPLE Back in 2012, at the height Solent Gateway Limited and the Scottish of its public remorse, it signed government, it’s odd that its successful Core values up to doing voluntary audits bid to run the port was not announced to with the Fair Labor Association the Scottish parliament. Questions were PPLE customers have a fundamental (FLA). While this might sound asked in Holyrood, but only after the deal Aright to privacy, chief executive Tim admirable, the FLA was set was announced in Westminster – what Cook argued in his recent standoff with up by a group of garment might DML’s annual income be? What the FBI. Unfortunately, that’s not a right manufacturers to vet their own payments would DML receive from the UK extended to workers at the company’s factories, and is not known for its rigour (see government? Would DML be able to profit suppliers in the Far East, most of whom sleep Eye 1308). So what exactly did the factory tours from commercial use of the port? Answers in company dorms so they are ready to put in carried out at Pegatron by the FLA and Apple’s came there none. It was all deemed too the hours. own auditors last year find? “commercially sensitive at this time” by And what hours. After an international The FLA concluded that only 23 percent of Scottish ministers. outcry six years ago over conditions at its work-weeks were too long – and this during According to its company accounts for Foxconn plant, Apple forced the supplier to a period when the company had been given 2015, DML’s “subsidy receivable from the improve standards. Once it had done so and a special government dispensation to exceed Scottish government” amounted to more than the fuss had died down, it promptly shifted a legal limits. And a few months earlier, Apple’s £100m, so it’s doubly odd that Holyrood has large part of its iPhone production to Pegatron own audit concluded that, er, only eight percent remained so reticent. Meanwhile, the MoD in Shanghai (Eye 1305) – one of the few of work-weeks were longer than the 60-hour boasts that “the commercial arrangement suppliers rated by China Labor Watch (CLW) as maximum. secures the delivery of MoD’s routine and, having an even worse human rights record than Either things at the factory have become importantly, surge requirements”, but it too Foxconn. drastically worse since those inspections or fails to mention the potential size of the flow of So has high-minded Apple raised standards somebody is giving a misleading picture. funds from itself into the Scottish government here too? It seems not. CLW has collected Every year Apple trumpets its commitment as a result of the deal. more than 1,000 pay stubs from factory staff, to worker rights in a sustainability report that That flow is likely to be very substantial. and found that 71 percent of workers there usually comes out at the beginning of February. Here’s just one small example: the MoD will still work longer weeks than Apple’s 60-hour For some reason there’s no sign yet of this have to lease back its berthing facilities at the maximum. “When it is busy, we have to work year’s report. now privately run port. According to an Eye very long hours and take only one or two days Meanwhile, on Apple’s advice, its mole at the base: “The average cost of a berth off each month. Sometimes we cannot stand it shareholders recently voted against the need for ships in the UK is around £3,500 to £4,000 and ask for leave, but it’s not granted,” said one. for the company to carry out a human rights per day; our lords and masters [the MoD civil Indeed, while Chinese labour law allows for review. Opposing the review, Apple had pointed service] have negotiated a rock bottom price of, only 36 hours’ overtime a month, 99 percent of out, among other things, that its supplier code wait for it… £37,000 per day!” workers are exceeding this, says CLW. of conduct made it unnecessary. “Often, these Apple’s own assessment of conditions at standards exceed what local laws require,” said ‘Squarebasher’ Pegatron, by contrast, is rather rosier. the company. So that’s all right, then... 20 Issue 1415 Page 37 1 April 2016 37 CONTAMINATED BLOOD payments by a paltry £260, while at the same time removing the index link. Those with life threatening and debilitating HIV and Hep C IN THE BACK Border cash will thus only ever receive £15,000 a year, S predicted here two issues ago no matter how much the cost of living rises. LAND REGISTRY A (Eye 1413), victims of the contaminated Among other changes, Hunt also plans a series blood scandal in Scotland are to receive a of cuts which some say will leave them up to substantial boost in state financial support. £7,000 worse off. His consultation document Computer The recent announcement north of the border proposes to remove support for partner-carers, should shame the Cameron government, which axe discretionary grants and payments, and Issue 1415 says ‘no’ is planning “reforms” that, far from improving restrict travel allowances. Bereaved spouses 1 April 2016 AST July, telling an audience in Singapore matters, are likely to leave many cash-starved or partners, some of whom gave up livelihoods La story that was first reported in the Eye haemophiliacs and others who were given deadly to become carers, will receive only a one- about corrupt Nigerian governor James Ibori blood transfusions in England even worse off off £5,000 payment, rather than continuing buying up properties across London using than they are now. support. secret offshore companies, David In Scotland, those suffering from HIV or As Scottish health secretary Shona Robison Cameron promised that in a “new advanced hepatitis C infection will receive said: “Infected blood is one of the most terrible era of corporate transparency” £27,000 a year, matching average incomes and chapters in the history of our NHS. Those there would be “no place for dirty almost doubling the current £14,740 payment. affected have suffered dreadful impacts on their money in Britain”. Now, in place Those with advanced Hep C will also receive health, life expectancy and quality of life, as well of the warm words, comes the a one-off lump sum of £50,000 (up from as financial hardship. It is quite right that they cold reality of dismal failure. £20,000). Bereaved spouses and partners will be and their families are given adequate support to The prime minister’s “first entitled to 75 percent of the annual entitlement. help them cope with consequences for which step”, he said, would be to get the “Land Registry In England, by contrast, health secretary they are entirely blameless.” What part of that to publish this autumn [ie 2015] data on which Jeremy Hunt plans only to increase annual can Hunt possibly dispute? foreign companies own which land and property titles in England and Wales”. By this stage FREE SCHOOLS that the villages near the AONB and along the Private Eye had already acquired the information A39 aren’t home to nearly enough children to up to 2014 and published its own interactive map fill a 700-place school, so the school must plan of all these properties* and the PM was merely Devon to recruit from further afield. Yet there is no trying to catch up with Lord Gnome. shortage of places in schools in the region. Autumn came and went with no official assent The school is supposed to have an annual publication, as did winter; until this month the HE government year group intake of 100 pupils. Since Route 39 last Eye announced that it would be releasing Thas overruled local opened in 2013, in temporary accommodation all the data it had later in the week*. Cue a objections and a planning inspector to insist in picturesque Clovelly, it has recruited a total sudden release, the following day, from the that a new-build secondary free school for of 123, with four school years now up and Land Registry! Alas, however, its information 700 pupils be given the go-ahead in the North running. Ofsted’s verdict last summer that the is woefully incomplete. Where the Eye’s Devon area of outstanding natural beauty school “requires improvement” hasn’t helped database shows the price paid for more than (AONB) alongside the South West Coast Path. recruitment for this September, with numbers 60,000 offshore properties, the Land Registry Plans for the Route 39 Academy (named again expected to be low compared to those has managed only 6,300. after the nearby A39 road) were rejected in originally presented to the Education Funding Prices paid for commercial property acquired 2014 by Torridge district council and again by Agency by the group that set up the school. before October 2013 are excluded; and the a planning inquiry last year. But communities Route 39 originally managed to get price of any property exceeding £99,999,999 secretary Greg Clark approved the building in 500 families to sign up to support the free is also excluded for “computer says no” February, saying there was no alternative site school application. However, this enthusiasm reasons that didn’t pose any problem for Lord outside the AONB “that was consistent with the may have been artificially bolstered by holding Gnome’s highly advanced IT capabilities (er, school’s ethos”. the “consultation” day at the local Milky Way an Excel spreadsheet, basically). This takes out Of course the school’s ethos is carefully amusement park, with free entry for all the the most valuable land in Britain, such as the worded to include reflecting “the area’s unique families who came along. The bidders said they £560m Bishop’s Square in East London owned rural and coastal environment” and maximising “wanted a venue where children would be happy for tax avoiding purposes by a Luxembourg “the potential of the unique and beautiful…” etc. and occupied” while parents were asked to sign company (see Eye 1404). Where the Eye’s data But neighbouring headteachers have pointed out up to support the bid. shows property values worth £170bn, the Land Registry manages only a piddling £10bn. Worst of all is that the prime minister’s MENTAL HEALTH DEATHS promise of “transparency” has been broken. The foundation for the Eye’s work was Freedom of Information requests in response to which Too little, too late the Land Registry gave out information it now EALTH secretary Jeremy history, no one thought to check or ask whether wants to hold on to and commercialise in the HHunt’s belated promise she had concealed any potential nooses when she run-up to its own privatisation. With private to reform long neglected arrived on the new ward, and observation of her equity firms circling, there will be no more and chronically underfunded mental health was not stepped up on the “risky” transfer. automatic release of data. “Charges for the services comes too late for another young Thus at 10.55pm on 13 January, Hannah update package options available from April”, patient who hanged herself in a Warrington was found hanging in a toilet for the disabled. the Land Registry tells the Eye, “range from hospital last year. No one knows where she had got the cable or £2,000 for a single download to £10,000 for Student Hannah Evans, 22, who was known how or why the toilet had been left unlocked. monthly updates and unlimited access”. to have been a suicide risk, had been in Hollins It has since been taken out of service. Last seen The Eye’s map has given access to Park hospital for less than a day when she made at 10.30pm, Hannah should have been checked information to journalists, researchers and a noose out of a computer cable and hanged again at 10.45pm, but her absence was only members of the public for whom these new herself in a toilet which should have been out of noted when she failed to turn up for medication. fees are out of reach, demonstrating the public bounds. Before Easter, an inquest jury decided a She had been given a 25-minute window of interest in the material. Stories have appeared not series of errors had led to her death. opportunity to kill herself. just in the Eye but local and national newspapers, Hannah (pictured) had a complex personality Hannah’s distraught parents had in the past including the front page of the London Evening disorder and a history of trying to hang herself. She successfully cared for her themselves, often Standard, as well as the BBC and Sunday Times. had spent the previous three months as a detained operating their own 24-watch to keep her safe. New stories will effectively be suppressed. patient, first in Weaver Ward at Halton General’s They said they would never have consented to the “The challenge I am laying down for Brooker Centre, and then on a psychiatric intensive transfer to Hollins Park had they been told about every country today is to root out the rot of care unit at Leigh Infirmary. On nine different all the ligatures she had previously acquired. corruption – to ensure transparency over what occasions she had been found with ligatures with Selen Cavcav, of INQUEST, which has been your own companies are doing,” said Cameron which she could have hanged herself. supporting the family, said Hannah’s death was in Singapore. Back home the disclosure is Hannah’s intense fear of change was well a “shocking reminder that there needs to be an fleeting, pisspoor and begrudging – before the known; yet she was givven only two-and-half- urgent improvement in the care of young people shutters come down again. hours’ notice that she was to be moved from by mental health services”. Jeremy Hunt’s promise *www.private-eye.co.uk/registry intensive care to Hollins Park. Despite her of an extra £1bn by 2020 is too little, too late. 21

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