Closing summary
- David Cameron and John Kerry have warned that corruption and terrorism are dual threats to the world’s economy and security, at a summit aimed at tackling graft featuring heads of state and business leaders.
- Six countries, Britain, Afghanistan, Kenya, France, the Netherlands and Nigeria, have agreed to publish registers of who really owns companies in their territories, a so-called register of beneficial ownership. This is a key goal of anti-corruption groups. Six more, including Australia, will consider doing so.
- Eleven countries will join the now 29-strong group where lists of beneficial owners are drawn up and shared between governments, although not publicly. Those countries include Cayman Islands, Jersey, Bermuda, the Isle of Man and the UAE.
- The British prime minister used his opening speech to warn foreign companies that own around 100,000 properties in England and Wales that they will be required to disclose their ownership, one of a number of measures aimed at cleaning up London as an international centre for money laundering.
- The US is one of the countries which did not sign up to the pledge to share registers of beneficial ownership, and Cameron said he would keep pushing the Americans to be more accountable, as well as efforts to improve transparency on island tax havens like the British Virgin Islands, which also did not sign up to sharing information.
- This concern was echoed by Allan Bell, chief minister of the Isle of Man, which has signed up to the information sharing, who said there wouldn’t be real progress unless the United States made its own tax havens, such as Delaware, more open.
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US secretary of state John Kerry said he had been shocked at the extent of corruption in the world since taking on his role in the Obama administration.
We are fighting a battle, all of us. Corruption, writ large, is as much of an enemy, because it destroys nation states, as some of the extremists we are fighting or the other challenges we face.
- Cameron called corruption “the cancer at the heart of so many of the problems we need to tackle in our world” and said tax-dodging holds back growth and undermines security by making poorer citizens more vulnerable to “poisonous ideology of extremists”.
- Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari, who has made tackling corruption a key part of his leadership, called for the conference to agree swifter measures to return stolen assets. Cameron announced he would require overseas firms to sign up to a new public register if they own or buy property or if they want to bid for central government contracts.
- Afghanistan’s president Ghani said corruption was fuelling his country’s political violence, and the fight against wrongdoing “should not be a fashion that is discarded with the next set of elections.”
- Cameron last month announced that the overseas territories and Crown dependencies - such as the British Virgin Islands and Jersey - had agreed to provide UK tax and law enforcement agencies with full access to company ownership details.
- But campaigners say they are disappointed that the offshore territories are not pledging to create a public register, like the UK and others have promised to do. Adrian Lovett, deputy chief executive officer of anti-poverty campaign ONE, said:
ONE calls on countries who attended the anti-corruption summit to urgently implement gold standard policies that ensure fair play. To root out corruption, we need committed and robust action, crucially including the public disclosure of beneficial ownership of companies and trusts.
- There were some notable omissions on the conference guest list, including any representative from Fifa during a plenary discussion on corruption in sport, while the organisation is plagued by a deep-seated bribery scandal.
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Bermuda and the Cayman Islands were represented at the summit but others, such as the British Virgin Islands and Panama were not.
That’s all from me, thanks very much for reading.
Updated
Cameron is asked about the need to push overseas territories and crown dependencies to do more to be open and transparent over the registers of beneficial ownership.
He says the territories have come a long way in agreeing to the automatic sharing of information, and says that goes further than what the United States and some European countries have agreed.
If you think how far they have come in the last few weeks and months, I am convinced we will get them all over that bar [of automatic sharing of registers, which British Virgin Islands has not signed up to do].
The gold standard which I will push for as long as I have breath in my body, is public registers.
That is not just for small islands, it is the United States, China, India that I want to sign up as well.
Cameron admits there are challenges with the US, that the state of Delaware also has a lack of transparency. “We just have to work with all these countries to convince them to raise the bar,” he said.
Cameron hails 'coalition of the committed'
David Cameron has hailed a “coalition of the committed” for what he described as the biggest demonstration of political will to tackle corruption.
#Cameron closing #AntiCorruptionSummit: If we want to tackle poverty + beat extremism, we have to tackle #corruption pic.twitter.com/ZEJgK8wMDk
— Transparency Int'l (@anticorruption) May 12, 2016
He says there is “nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come” and that there are now 129 jurisdictions who have committed to implementing international standards to give tax information on request. He says those new standards have led to £50bn in extra tax revenue, “think of the roads, schools and services provided with that money”.
Today’s summit is not just about securing the agreements, it’s been a different kind of events, not having speeches and talking to ourselves, having open challenging conversations asking tough questions.
Cameron said there is a need for every country to reach a gold standard of a register of beneficial ownership made public, and he says that he includes crown dependencies and overseas territories in that.
This cannot be a fashion, we have to stay the course for the next 10 years and beyond.
We are talking about stopping the corrupt hiding their loot from authorities. When people steal from your country and hide it in mine, we can find it and return it to you.
Updated
President Santos is closing the session now. He says the “sisters and brothers of corruption are terrorism, drug trafficking, illegal mining”, which are all part of the same chain. He says heroin from Afghanistan and cocaine from Colombia can be connected to one drug dealer in the UK, and that’s why an international approach is necessary.
He says the Panama Papers show how corruption is “scared of the spotlight” and urges new protection for whistleblowers who he says are under great danger in many countries. Prosecution is also key, he says, because people have to know the process works.
Updated
Spanish Justice Minister Rafael Catala says that tackling corruption must go beyond laws and regulation, and become part of the culture. It is not enough to have laws and values, we need resources to change cultures, he said.
He says organised crime intensively uses technology, anyone defending the rights of citizens also need access to those tools. Society as a whole needs to foster transparency as a value, he says, as do private companies.
Corruption is not something that belongs to any country, it is an international scourge and the fight has to be based on international co-operation.
Updated
Baroness Scotland, secretary-general of the Commonwealth announces she will create an office of criminal and civil justice reform.
I intend to be a magpie for every single good idea to put in to a toolkit for implementation and change.
She also says she intends to create a Commonwealth standard of anti-corruption best practice, so companies can apply for a mark.
.@PScotlandCSG sets out #Commonwealth priorities in tackling corruption at today's #anticorruption summit. WATCH https://t.co/Xf1i2oIejm
— The Commonwealth (@commonwealthsec) May 12, 2016
Updated
Perhaps another pointed comment at Cameron here from Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat. He says we should not speak about “corrupt countries” but of individuals.
.@JosephMuscat_JM: We shouldn't speak of corrupt countries but of corrupt individuals & i don't know 1 place that is immune #AntiCorruption
— Cabinet Office (@cabinetofficeuk) May 12, 2016
Updated
'We inherited 'fantastically corrupt' system' says Afghan official
An Afghan official, tasked with tackling government corruption, is the first to make a jibe at Cameron for his gaffe when speaking to the Queen.
We inherited, and I quote, a ‘fantastically corrupt’ system.
He says that in his country for the past decade “there has been enthusiastic international community partnerships willing to pour in billions into a country without thinking about the safeguards that were needed in order to ensure that money would be spent transparently and effectively.”
He says the country is now saving $200m dollars a year from anti-corruption efforts which “otherwise would have gone into the pockets of mafia and corrupt companies”.
Without political will, there is no way we can fight corruption. No impunity for officials or companies, is a must.
He says Afghanistan is blacklisting on average one company a week, with the list published online and updated every week, and he invites the UK to publish a blacklist of corrupt companies as well.
Afghanistan calls for countries to make their data on blacklisted companies public #anticorruption pic.twitter.com/YEZUPh4Yn0
— Open Contracting (@opencontracting) May 12, 2016
(I’ll try to update the posting with his full name and title but I missed it in the introduction.)
Updated
Barry Johnston, head of advocacy at ActionAid, said the summit will be remembered for what it will not achieve.
It’s good news that Nigeria, South Africa, France, Afghanistan and the Netherlands have used the summit to take action to publicly reveal the owners of secretive shell companies. David Cameron still hasn’t managed to get British overseas tax havens to meet the same standards.
3 organisations, 1 message - "#DavidCameron must act to end the era of #taxhavens at today's #AntiCorruptionSummit." pic.twitter.com/V4R7iBxxIg
— ActionAid UK (@ActionAidUK) May 12, 2016
Oxfam GB’s chief executive, Mark Goldring, adds his voice to concerns that the communique from the anti-corruption summit does not go far enough.
If corruption is a cancer then this summit has delivered some pain relief but not the major surgery needed to heal the global economy.
Until tax havens are required to publish public registers showing who really profits from shell companies, the corruption and tax dodging revealed by the Panama Papers will continue undisturbed and millions of people in both the UK and the world’s poorest countries will pay the price.
Sadly, tax dodgers can still sleep easily tonight as #AntiCorruptionSummit fails to deliver https://t.co/XaVX8ficW3 pic.twitter.com/J2VWAiY904
— Oxfam International (@Oxfam) May 12, 2016
Updated
Laura Stefan, the Romanian anti-corruption campaigner, says a culture change is not easy in places where corruption is forced by economic circumstances.
“We tend to think that anti-corruption is something everybody wants. The establishment, in many of the countries where this is a real problem, does not want it,” she said. “Because they risk losing their assets.”
Updated
Businessman Strive Masiyiwa is telling a story of when he was approached about buying a stake in a telecommunications company by the former Nigerian state governor James Ibori, and the structure of payment which showed how the transactions were going to take place offshore.
He details how the transaction was being facilitated by British lawyers and advisors, before he pulled out citing his concerns over the details of the deal.
Ibori was eventually sentenced to 13 years - you can read the full story here.
#anticorruption Strive Masiyiwa - it's about impunity yes but in the Ibori case it was about State Prosecution too
— Soji APAMPA (@sojapa) May 12, 2016
Updated
Sri Lanka’s President Sirisena says corruption is being driven out of his country by democracy, with people voting to remove the previously corrupt administration.
“We consider it our prime duty to root out corruption,” he says.
He mentions the 19th amendment of the constitution where he handed over most of the president’s executive powers to the parliament. He says that was to show his firm commitment to transparency and the determination to root out corruption.
Updated
Colombia’s President Santos is opening the session now on driving out corruption, and he is particularly linking it to armed violence, human rights abuses and civil disruption.
En Londres buscamos soluciones con @David_Cameron, @JohnKerry y otros líderes mundiales para acabar la corrupción pic.twitter.com/Ac2L9aBztQ
— Juan Manuel Santos (@JuanManSantos) May 12, 2016
Updated
Six countries sign up to publish names of who really owns companies
The full communique has been published from the summit.
Corruption is at the heart of so many of the world’s problems. It erodes public trust in government, undermines the rule of law, and may give rise to political and economic grievances that may, in conjunction with other factors, fuel violent extremism.
Tackling corruption is vital for sustaining economic stability and growth, maintaining security of societies, protecting human rights, reducing poverty, protecting the environment for future generations and addressing serious and organised crime.
However, firm commitments to tackling corruption are wildly varied depending on the country. British territories including the Cayman Islands and Jersey have agreed to draw up lists of who owns companies registered there, but the information will not be public, just shared among a group of 29 nations when requested by governments.
-
Just six countries, Britain, Afghanistan, Kenya, France, the Netherlands and Nigeria, have agreed to publish registers of who really owns companies in their territories, a so-called register of beneficial ownership. This is a key goal of anti-corruption groups. Six more, including Australia, will consider doing so.
- Eleven countries will join the now 29-strong group where lists of beneficial owners are drawn up and shared between governments, although not publicly. Those countries include Cayman Islands, Jersey, Bermuda, the Isle of Man and the UAE.
#anticorruption summit communique is out. Cayman, Jersey and Bermuda will join auto exchange of BO info. Small step pic.twitter.com/Lfk046MuRA
— Robert Palmer (@robertnpalmer) May 12, 2016
The communique also includes:
- A pledge to create an international centre to share information between law enforcement agencies tracking corrupt money
- An international forum to speed up the return of stolen assets
- 11 new jurisdictions have agreed to share information on beneficial ownership behind closed doors
- A International Sport Integrity Partnership will be launched in 2017
José Ugaz, chair of Transparency International points out that the US is not among those nations sharing information on beneficial ownership.
We called on countries to be ambitious and concrete in their proposals to prevent and punish corruption and protect those who stand up against it. Some countries have risen to the challenge and others have not.
Robert Palmer of anti-corruption group Global Witness said the results of the meeting were mixed, but positive.
The tide is definitely moving toward transparency, and the tax havens and the US are being left behind.
Updated
The session which will start at 2.10pm is chaired by Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, looking at ‘How do we drive out corruption.’ It’s the last session of the day before Cameron will close the summit.
On the panel is:
- Laura Stefan, anti-corruption coordinator for the Expert Forum think-tank
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President Maithripala Sirisena of Sri Lanka
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Strive Masiyiwa, the London-based Zimbabwean businessman who is founder of telecommunications group Econet Wireless.
Updated
It’s lunchtime, and I’m taking a short break until the summit restarts at 2pm, but meanwhile here’s a video from the Guardian team, looking at the top 10 most secretive tax havens.
Oxfam protests with off-shore island in Trafalgar Square
Around 50 activists in bowler hats and suits were enjoying the sunshine this morning at Oxfam’s “offshore island” in Trafalgar Square.
Oxfam had raided its props cupboard: there were palm trees, deck chairs, and a stall selling “Swindle Sundaes”, as well as coconuts and a giant plastic lobster. It had also printed fake £100 notes stamped with the words: “The Tax Dodging Bill”.
Two Oxfam staff - Paul Langley and John McLaverty - were enjoying a “Cayman Breezer” at a pop-up cocktail bar. “We’re operating out of a PO Box. Good luck trying to find out who we are!” Langley joked.
He added ironically: “I hope that the UK government talks tough but doesn’t do anything. We’d hate to have our money put to use for education and health.”
The activists - from Oxfam, ActionAid and Christian Aid - played with an inflatable beach ball between the square’s sparkling fountains. Others batted around a shuttlecock. Several bemused tourists looked on.
Ojobo Atuluku, country director for ActionAid Nigeria, said David Cameron was right to recognise there was something wrong in Nigeria. She said: “He has a big responsibility in making it right.”
She welcomed the government’s plan to unmask the offshore owners of UK properties but noted: “This is the tip of the iceberg. Most of the money isn’t spent on property but hidden in tax havens. What needs to happen is openness and transparency about shell companies and the owners behind them.
“We believe David Cameron has the power to make this happen. It’s a matter of whether he wants to be an instrument to stop this fantastic corruption. Poor people in Nigeria are looking to global leaders like him to make the right choice.”
Updated
We can trade with countries and still raise issues of corruption, says PM
David Cameron is asked about his upcoming conference with the prime minister of Malaysia and allegation of corruption within that country. The PM says Britain will always raise those issues when it trades around the world.
If the reaction is only to say, the only way of dealing with corrupt governments is not to provide any aid, any security and any trade with that country, frankly we’re not going to get very far.
The aim to raise standards all over the world and realise no government is exempt. Trading with a country doesn’t mean you can’t raise issue of concern, in Britain we certainly do.
Summing up at the end of the session, he says it is clear that a lot of countries still don’t have laws making foreign bribery illegal, calling that a “baseline point we need to get over”.
He says it is also vital that prosecuting authorities need to be faster, because of the speed of money transfer in the digital age.
No country can be left behind from the drive, he says, because if “we leave behind territories with poor practices, that is where bad behaviour will go.”
Updated
You rarely see this, but Nigel Green, founder and CEO of deVere group, has mounted a defence of tax havens in a statement sent to journalists. It’s unlikely to win him many friends here at the summit. Green says tax havens are vital to the world economy, and attempts to make the case that tax havens can be moral.
Offshore financial hubs help facilitate optimum allocation of capital, they promote a culture of investment and saving, and due to their competitive tax regimes, it can be reasonably argued that they help promote lower tax policies in other parts of the world.
It’s not just helping people save money on tax, he says, tax havens protect the wealthy when their countries are in political unrest. He calls this the “moral aspect” to tax havens.
Economic and financial plusses are only part of the story as to why tax havens should be defended. There is a moral aspect too.
They offer financial refuge for those who live in nations where there is economic instability, leading to, for example, major currency volatility and out of control inflation; and/or where there is political unrest and persecution from government and the ruling classes.
Updated
Huang Shuxian, deputy secretary of China’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Communist party’s top anti-corruption body, says the country will sign up to the summit’s communique, which promises a transparent register of beneficial owners.
He says China wants to speed up criminal matters, extradition treaties and other methods of joint enforcement.
Updated
Swiss foreign minister Didier Burkhalter says his government is committed better restitution for victims of corruption. He says there is £100m a day leaving developing countries due to corruption.
If the money comes to us, then we have to make every effort to return [it] to the right owners, to the people. That’s what the Swiss government wants to do, what we are trying to do already.
Developed countries have already returned $5bn, and 40% of that has come from Switzerland.
In doing so we have learned a lot, it is a partnership. There is strong political will but it is very difficult to achieve [practically]. We have to know it [the assets] will come, at the end, to the people.
Updated
Afghanistan's president calls corruption 'enabler of political violence'
Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan president, says there has to be a rule of law-based approach that tackles the impunity of those companies and structures favoured by “the rules of the game”. He says corruption in Afghanistan is an enabler of political violence.
We have to have the courage to name the problem. If there is no national ownership and constant denial or blame games, we are not going to get anywhere.
Ghani says one key thing needed is credible international partners, in particular with drug trafficking, which flows through Europe from Afghanistan.
We are asking you and all of Europe to go after drug money, we need very credible action because as long as the criminal economy persists, the networks, the actions we do [will not work].
Updated
Cameron says powers to protect whistleblowers is an important step that needs to be taken.
He says asset recovery needs additional powers, being announced today by 21 countries. There will be a new global forum for asset recovery, but Cameron also wants to work on disbarring corrupt companies from operating internationally.
Updated
The next session is chaired by David Cameron on ‘How do we tackle corruption’. He says he wants this to be focused on punishing the corrupt, redress for victims, and how to break the cycle of poverty and corruption.
Speakers on the panel are
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President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan
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Sarah Chayes, the US author who was at the opening plenary session
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Eva Joly, the former French prosecutor and ex-Green presidential candidate
The sessions seem to be running about 40 minutes behind schedule at the moment.
Updated
Masahiko Shibayama, representing the government of Japan, says as a host country for the Rugby world cup and Olympics it will continue to work closely to improve transparency in sport and pledges to put anti-corruption at the heart of the G7 summit.
It’s a long-winded statement which also doesn’t touch on the alleged seven-figure payment from the Tokyo Olympic bid team to the son of Lamine Diack, the disgraced former world athletics chief.
The Guardian’s Juliette Garside, one of the team on the Panama Papers, says pressure is building on British Virgin Islands over its stance on sharing beneficial owner information.
Cayman, Jersey and Bermuda signed up to sharing beneficial owner information, and Guernsey in due course - that leaves BVI isolated
— Juliette Garside (@JulietteGarside) May 12, 2016
Chris Holmes, the Paralympic swimmer, says there must be more athlete-centred governance in sport, which will help avert corruption.
Whether it’s grassroots, through to governance, the changing room to the board room, athletes have to be at the centre of sport. Every decision needs to pass that test, is it athletes at the heart of that decision?
I believe we have one simple question for every sporting body to ask itself, every second of every day, will this make a better experience for the athlete?
Will it enable them to fulfil their potential? If it won’t, why are we doing it?
Updated
Sport's 'self-governance is not an excuse for bad governance'
The OECD’s Angel Gurria says sport being autonomous of government interference is no reason for corruption.
Self-governance is not an excuse for bad governance. We cannot have that as an excuse, because it affects public morale, credibility and the problem of trust that we are having.
This from the Guardian’s David Pegg on the reticence of the British Virgin Islands to sign up to the automatic exchange of beneficial ownership.
Cayman Islands signing up to automatic exchange of beneficial ownership is significant in one key respect - BVI is now effectively isolated…
— David Pegg (@davidtpegg) May 12, 2016
@davidtpegg … in holding out against transparency. A Cayman/BVI alliance led the OTs resistance to more transparency. BVI now on its own.
— David Pegg (@davidtpegg) May 12, 2016
Pâquerette Girard Zappelli, ethics director at the IOC said the committee had learnt a lot from the corruption scandal at Salt Lake City in 2002 and is now very proud of its ethics procedures.
We are pushing all the other sports organisations, including Fifa, to achieve a similar level of good governance. It’s something that is very strong.
However, she hasn’t yet addressed the alleged seven-figure payment from the Tokyo Olympic bid team to an account linked to the son of the disgraced former world athletics chief Lamine Diack, apparently made during Japan’s successful race to host the 2020 Games.
The suggestion that votes could have been bought is hugely embarrassing for the IOC.
Updated
The panel on sport and corruption is starting now with Sierra Leone’s Isha Johansen, the only female president of a football association in Africa, and only one of two on the Fifa board.
I have a mission and a vision, to force good governance into football. Because I believe it can help with the growth and prosperity of that nation.
Corruption is a deadly killer disease. Having lived in Sierra Leone through the ebola crisis, I know the destruction a disease can cause in a society, it can rip through it, it can kill a society.
British Virgin Islands expresses concerns about beneficial ownership register
The British Virgin Islands’ premier and minster of finance D Orlando Smith has said his country needs more guarantees that there would be appropriate levels of privacy before it could sign up to implementing a standard on beneficial ownership information exchange. The territory is not signed up to the register announced today by Cameron, and Smith said the nation had not been invited to the summit.
In a statement, Smith said he supported a new globally applied information exchange regime on beneficial ownership, as long as it was “equal and even in its application across the board.”
The government needed time to assess the impact the register would have on it’s economy, he said.
We believe that achieving this goal requires further details and discussions about how it would apply in practice and be effectively implemented consistently and globally, together with time to assess its impact on the BVI economy in the short and longer term.
We would expect to participate in discussions by international standard setters as the proposed standard is developed and we commit to implement the standard once it is agreed and adopted by all UK Overseas Territories, Crown Dependencies, G20 and OECD Member States.”
He said there was a real issue with data security and once information was available to a variety of actors, “the risk of a breach goes up immeasurably.”
If legitimate businesses fear that their international transactions will be exposed to the world, or, worse yet, accessed by criminals or terrorists and used as a weapon of extortion or intimidation, then the gears of international finance will start to grind more slowly.
Governments and law enforcement agencies have “legitimate reasons for seeking access to otherwise confidential business information and, therefore, must be subject to appropriate safeguards,” he added.
While we wait for the next session to start, this is the take of Neill Blundell, head of the fraud and investigations group at corporate law firm Eversheds, on the criminal offence of ‘failure to prevent economic crime’ which has been proposed by Cameron as a way of tackling money laundering and corporate enabling.
It will be a massive game changer for prosecutors like the UK Serious Fraud Office as it will make it far easier to prosecute corporate wrong-doing. There will be some worried business executives out there today and some hopeful prosecutors.
Updated
The next session is on sport and corruption, chaired by Sir Philip Craven, president of the International Paralympic Committee. It’s one of the sessions which has caused the most controversy, with Fifa not invited.
On the panel are:
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Pâquerette Girard Zappelli, director of ethics at the International Olympic Committee
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Jaimie Fuller, Australian sports entrepreneur and philanthropist
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Angel Gurria, Secretary-General of the OECD
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Isha Johansen, president of the Sierra Leone Football Association
Cayman Islands accuses larger states of 'hypocrisy'
Cayman Islands premier Alden McLaughlin is spekaing now, he says his country has “proven our commitment to the global fight against corruption” and that his presence at the summit is a show of good will.
He insists his country has played “a leadership role” in the fight against corruption for 20 years, and meets the standards for the OECD anti-bribery convention and the UN convention against corruption.
Our credentials can not be seriously challenged. I believe we have earned our seat at table to be part of the development of any new global standards.
Like Alan Bell, he echoes how he believes small jurisdictions have been targeted by bigger states.
Cayman Islands rep tells corruption summit if major countries excluded from transparency the result will be continued failure.
— Patrick Wintour (@patrickwintour) May 12, 2016
He says countries with real political clout have to tackle their own systems, not just those in other small territories. “It is time to put behind us shades of hypocrisy,” he says.
There is little point in us continuing the rhetoric if we are to allow major countries to stay outside the global standard.
Updated
Some insight from the Attorney General Jeremy Wright today on how a criminal offence of “failure to prevent” economic crimes such as fraud and money laundering might work. This was something mooted in the prime minister’s Guardian piece today.
Under existing law, a company only faces criminal liability if prosecutors can prove a sufficiently senior person knew about the criminal conduct. It can be extremely hard to prove this, especially in large companies with complex management structures.
A new offence could find companies responsible where they haven’t adequately prevented economic crime.
The failure to prevent offence would help prosecutors hold companies to account for criminal conduct at all levels of a business and show the public that organisations are not above the law.
US must sign up to transparency, says Isle of Man chief minsiter
Alan Bell, the chief minister of the Isle of Man, says the US has to take more responsibility, not just blame small overseas tax havens. There won’t be real progress, he says, “unless the United States joins in this international agreement” and makes its own tax havens, such as Delaware, more open.
It is all very well to pick on small jurisdictions, unless the US joins this international agreement, unless the US does more and gives confidence to other jurisdictions, it was heartening to hear John Kerry this morning, well, we need action not just fine words.
The Isle of Man, a crown dependency, was one of the ‘tax havens’ named in the Panama Papers but its government insists it already has robust systems in place to combat money laundering and illicit activity.
Updated
The Guardian’s diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour says that a free press is vital to tackling corruption, citing the Panama Papers revealed by the Guardian and others. He calls for the protection of whistleblowers who expose corruption.
He also says the government’s promise for a register of beneficial ownership in the UK does not go far enough, and says the government should set a timetable of two or three years for overseas territories to make public registers of ownership.
.@patrickwintour says a free press is vital in fighting #anticorruption + whistleblowers must be protected
— martha lane fox (@Marthalanefox) May 12, 2016
Updated
Netherlands joins Cameron to commit to register of beneficial ownership
Applause for the Netherlands’ justice minister, Ard van der Steur, he says his country will also commit to a register of beneficial ownership and calls for others to follow.
We do need to have a world-wide system, we need to do it together. If we want to be serious, we need to have such a register everywhere.
That’s welcomed by former minister Eric Pickles
Netherlands just announced that they will commit to a public register of beneficial ownership at #anticorruption summit
— Sir Eric Pickles (@EricPickles) May 12, 2016
Updated
Ukraine’s Daria Kaleniuk has been a key advocate for anti-corruption and transparency in the country, post-Viktor Yanukovych’s presidency.
Transparency is very important but it’s not enough, we have to have asset recovery. We have to prosecute. We hope the next step is joint-international criminal investigative teams.
Norway’s Erma Solberg says that when development is discussed, that climate change, poverty and job creation are all affected by corruption.
Solberg says there are problems with transparency when company ownership is foreign, despite Norway’s register of beneficial ownership. She says that underlines how this is a global issue.
We are not free from corruption, we had heavy fines for two companies recently because they were corrupt in other countries.
Updated
Christine Lagarde: 'If you are pro-growth, you are against corruption'
“I want transparency and integrity to be a systematic part of IMF country surveillance,” she said.
.@Lagarde encourages countries to sign up to #IMF's voluntary Fiscal Transparency Evaluation at London #anticorruption summit
— Open Gov Partnership (@opengovpart) May 12, 2016
The next session at the summit is ‘How do we expose corruption’, chaired by José Ugaz of Transparency International.
On the panel is:
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Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF
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Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of the Ukrainian anticorruption Action Centre
- Erna Solberg, Norway’s prime minister
Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP and former chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, has this to say on Cameron’s announcement. (OT and CD refers to British overseas territories and crown dependencies.)
Public registers of beneficial ownership in our OTs and CDs is crucial to tackling tax havens & tax avoidance. https://t.co/GkwlbL0HY9
— Margaret Hodge (@margarethodge) May 11, 2016
Good announcement by PM on property ownership but devil is in the detail. (1/2) @taxinparliament
— Margaret Hodge (@margarethodge) May 12, 2016
Will the registers really be public? How can we get info if tax havens refuse to co-operate and what enforcement is there? @taxinparliament
— Margaret Hodge (@margarethodge) May 12, 2016
Real success of anti-corruption conference hinges on PM insisting that OTs & CDs have public registers of beneficial ownership (1/2)
— Margaret Hodge (@margarethodge) May 12, 2016
otherwise anti-corruption conference looks like a PR stunt with PM kicking this issue into the long grass (2/2) @taxinparliament
— Margaret Hodge (@margarethodge) May 12, 2016
Adrian Lovett from the ONE campaign asks about overseas territories and crown dependencies, and their participation in the push for anti-corruption.
Cameron says financial centres are not automatically in the wrong, not all rely on a lack of transparency. He says the gold standard will be to have open registers of beneficial ownership, but even many developed states do not do that yet.
The ONE campaign have been leading some of the protests around the fringes of the summit.
We're calling for a public register of beneficial ownership in the British Overseas Territories at #AntiCorruption pic.twitter.com/Z2WKtaxNQ8
— ONE Campaign UK (@ONEcampaignUK) May 12, 2016
Stop the #trilliondollarscandal #anticorruption @ONEcampaignUK pic.twitter.com/Mg5dqKAsiC
— Ruba Ishak (@ishakruba) May 12, 2016
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There’s a Q&A starting now, with Mo Ibrahim, the Sudanese-British communications entrepreneur, who urges the government to ban shell companies, saying no legitimate business has any need to use them.
Mo Ibrahim: "Legitimate business has no need for secrecy provided anonymous co's." #anticorruption
— Transparency USA (@TransparencyUSA) May 12, 2016
Mo Ibrahim of the @thebteamhq calls for open contracts and an end to shell companies at the #AntiCorruption Summit pic.twitter.com/qd0xODtzQI
— Maggie Murphy (@Maggranna) May 12, 2016
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Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank, says corruption is going to become more difficult in the modern world.
We are living in a world of radical transparency, whether we like it or not, hackers are going to expose more and more.
Jim says that everyone knows what the best practices are, and combatting is one things, but we need to put in place practical processes to help countries develop proper systems.
Sarah Chayes, the US author whose book was praised by Cameron, says this is not a question of a few bad apples, it is the work of the biggest criminal organisations on the planet, in some cases terror organisation.
We have all been extremely unintegrated in our efforts to combat this. It is courageous to hold this summit, in this town, now.
Chayes says holding the summit in London was “guaranteed to expose” how Western economies have been relying on proceeds of corruption.
You can read Sarah Chayes' chapter on the link between corruption & terrorism in our new book https://t.co/5mPCuI5lEa #AntiCorruption
— Cabinet Office (@cabinetofficeuk) May 12, 2016
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Nigeria's President: 'The international community has looked the other way for too long'
President Buhari says the international community must come up with ways of dismantling safe havens and ensure a swifter return of assets.
Nigeria is calling on the summit to create a strategic action plans to facilitate the return of assets and stolen funds, hidden in secret bank accounts abroad, he said.
He cites the oil sector, where he says the corruption there is a threat to Nigeria’s economy and its national security.
Buhari - wants mechanisms to combat illegal activity in oil sector incl oil theft #anticorruption pic.twitter.com/Md4MgRIE9b
— Martin Tisné (@martintisne) May 12, 2016
.@NGRPresident: "International community has looked other way too long." #anticorruption
— NRGI (@NRGInstitute) May 12, 2016
Kerry says some nations will see a clampdown on corruption as an opportunity for them to exploit crackdowns elsewhere and make money.
We have to say to them, there is no safe harbour anywhere. No impunity to corruption.
Kerry says he believes when countries feel the heat of enforcement, standards will change. quickly. “I view today genuinely very important moment,” he says.
John Kerry addresses anti-corruption summit, saying this is not 'passing fancy'
This is the beginning of something, Kerry says. “We are fighting for our states, countries, our nations,” he says. Corruption destroys nation states, as much as some of the extremists we are fighting.
Some people say that is hogwash, but corruption tears at the fabric of society.
He points to the beginning of the Arab Spring, when a young Tunisian fruit seller burned himself to death, in a frustrated protest at widespread corruption.
He says of the billions of dollars stolen in corruption, the money could be desks, schools and books.
Criminal activity is a literal destroyer of nation states, it contributes to drug trafficking, human trafficking, it creates deep states within states. It is a contributor to terrorism, my friend. Extremism comes with utter sense of desperation from people who feel the system is rigged. People are angry and the anger is going to grow.
Kerry says he believes corruption is not part of a culture, but that culture can change and adapt.
Cameron says he is looking to business for support, saying accountants have sometimes been “enablers” of corruption.
He wants to address how assets can be recovered, with new legislation in 21 new countries, how to tackle corruption and how to punish the corrupt.
Cameron says they want to find new methods to drive out corruption not just from parliament but national bodies like sport. He says this is about “changing culture”, not just practices.
The audience will be able to challenge the suggestions and ask questions throughout, he says.
David Cameron opens summit calling corruption 'a cancer'
If we want to tackle extremism, we have to tackle corruption. If we want to deal with people not paying their taxes, if we want to deal with money laundering, we have to deal with corruption.
Cameron says the issue hit home for him was when he went with Ban Ki Moon to developing countries to ask about clear goals neededto replace the millenium development goals.
He says people wanted justice and action on corruption as much as they wanted clean water and sanitation
The summit’s plenary opening session ‘The cost of corruption’ will be starting in the next ten minutes.
David Cameron will make the opening remarks and then we’re expecting to hear from:
- US secretary of state John Kerry
- Nigeria’s President Buhari
- President of the World Bank Jim Yong Kim
-
Sarah Chayes, a foreign policy author who recently published the book ‘Thieves of State, why corruption threatens global security.’
That’ll be followed by a Q&A, and you should be able to follow it on the livestream above.
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Anti-corruption summit criticised for absence of Fifa, Panama
One international body is notable for their absence - Fifa. Corruption in sport is a key focus of the summit but the football governing organisation was not invited by the Prime Minister, despite being mired in a corruption scandal.
Downing Street said the International Olympic Committee would instead be involved in a panel discussion on financial crimes in sport. A Downing Street spokesman told the Telegraph they had invited only one representative body from sport.
There is one focus session which will be on sport, which is clearly, absolutely, the top of the agenda when we are talking about corruption.
Labour deputy leader Tom Watson laid into the PM over this omission today, telling PoliticsHome: “What’s the point of having an anti-corruption summit if you fail to invite either the overseas territory that profits from it or the sports body that’s become a byword for corruption? Like so many Cabinet Office initiatives, this is shaping up to be a failure before it’s even started.”
And one country is notable for its absence too - Panama. A government spokesman confirmed they had also not been invited.
They are a special case. They have not been invited, but we are trying to work with them bilaterally.
FAIL -> Neither Panama nor British Virgin Islands were at Cameron's much vaunted anti-corruption summit. https://t.co/c4mDkLYjJ8
— Alastair Sloan (@alastairsloan) May 10, 2016
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Oxfam have organised a protest in Trafalgar Square, with “bankers” in bowler hats on a beach, representing tax havens.
Bermuda and the Cayman Islands are represented at the summit but others, such as the British Virgin Islands, are not.
Campaigners have insisted Britain must go further to tackle corruption than the measures announced today, and insist that the territories’ ownership registers are made public.
In a letter coordinated by Oxfam ahead of the summit, more than 300 economists argued that tax havens produce no economic benefit and “are distorting the working of the global economy.”
Signatories included American academic Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University, France’s Thomas Piketty and Nobel economics laureate Angus Deaton.
It’s time to #EndTaxHavens 🚫🌴💰RT if you agree @David_Cameron must take tough action today #AntiCorruption pic.twitter.com/KyLbcKzts0
— Oxfam Campaigns (@oxfamcampaigns) May 12, 2016
Very 'comfortable' on my tax haven.... #endtaxhavens pic.twitter.com/DygotDbDnt
— Paul Langley (@ChangingPaul) May 12, 2016
early morning bankers enjoying their #taxhaven @oxfamcampaigns #EndTaxHavens #anticorruption pic.twitter.com/RKcLFAPt86
— Abstar Mason (@iamabstar) May 12, 2016
Life's a beach if you're a tax dodger. Join our pop up tax haven in Trafalgar Square! #EndTaxHavens #anticorruption pic.twitter.com/tYvEbpwa7W
— thinking & doing (@tashahester) May 12, 2016
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We’re expecting there to be some protests on the fringes of the summit, with so many world leaders in attendance, though there are relatively few out at the moment, and far outnumbered by police.
There’s now a livestream of the arrivals at Lancaster House at the top of this live blog, though we don’t expect there to be anything more than arrivals until 10am.
For now, you can see world leaders being greeted by the Foreign Office minister Hugo Swire, accompanied by some tinkling background music.
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Heads of state have begun arriving at Lancaster House for the summit, which begins at 10am with an opening address from David Cameron.
No detailed itinerary for the day has been made public but we’re expecting opening remarks from the prime minister, US secretary of state John Kerry and Nigeria’s President Buhari.
Others attending the summit include president of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani, Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank, Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, Erna Solberg, Norway’s prime minister, Ángel Gurría, secretary general of the OECD and Maithripala Sirisena, president of Sri Lanka.
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Cameron launches anti-corruption summit in London
World leaders, heads of civil society and business are arriving for an anti-corruption summit in the UK capital.
Ahead of the summit, the prime minister announced he would introduce a new corporate offence for executives who fail to prevent fraud or money laundering inside their companies, to counter claims that the aims of the summit ring hollow with London’s reputation as the money laundering capital of the world .
In an article for the Guardian, Cameron describes corruption as “the cancer at the heart of so many of the world’s problems” and says it destroys jobs, traps the poorest in poverty, weakens security and even undermines sport.
Here’s how the day will pan out:
The all-day summit at Lancaster House will be attended by the US secretary of state, John Kerry, and world leaders including Muhammadu Buhari, the Nigerian president, and Ashraf Ghani, the president of Afghanistan. Cameron was caught on camera on Tuesday describing both countries as “fantastically corrupt”.
Buhari, who was elected on a mandate to fight corruption did not demand an apology from Cameron, saying the prime minister was “being honest”, but added:
Unfortunately, our experience has been that repatriation of corrupt proceeds is very tedious, time consuming, costly ... The repatriation of identified stolen funds should be done without delay or preconditions.
Cameron has made a series of policy pledges to coincide with the launch of the summit.
- Foreign companies that own properties in the UK will have to publicly register who controls them.
- No foreign company will be able to buy UK property or bid for central government contracts without joining the register.
- If UK agencies believe that a property was bought with illicit wealth, the burden of proof could be reversed, with the owner required to show that legitimate funds were used in the purchase or else the assets would be seized.
- A small group of countries including France, Nigeria and the Netherlands will join the UK in committing to set up public registers of beneficial ownership. A further six countries, including Australia, will consider doing the same.
- Some UK overseas territories, not including the Cayman Islands or the British Virgin Islands (BVI), will join the UK and 33 other governments in agreeing to automatically and regularly share their registers of company ownership.
- A group of nations will make a commitment to sign an open data partnership, saying that transparency in public procurement will cut costs.
The summit will also hear a discussion on world sport though Fifa, the football governing body in the midst of a corruption scandal, will not attend.
In the spirit of openness, Cameron has pledged that none of the sessions will be held behind closed doors, with all of the discussions live-streamed.
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