LinkCurrent national leaders on five continents appear as beneficial owners of offshore entities in the Pandora Papers trove. The list includes Jordan’s King Abdullah II, the presidents of four African nations, the Czech Republic’s prime minister, the president of Ukraine and the presidents of the Dominican Republic and Ecuador.
For example, the UK has been plagued by dirty money for a long time:
LinkCracking down on money laundering has become a top priority for regulators. The Financial Conduct Authority, HMRC and National Crime Agency are currently struggling to battle a tide of dirty money flowing through the UK.
Not exactly ancient history, is it? The problem is that there are too many vested interests in high places for real change to take place:
LinkA 2019 parliamentary report said the UK system attracts people "such as money launderers, who may wish to use property to conceal illicit funds".
It said criminal investigations are often "hindered" because police cannot see who ultimately owns properties.
The government recently raised the risk of money laundering through property from "medium" to "high".
And obviously, a topic about money laundering cannot be complete without mentioning Switzerland:
LinkSwitzerland’s efforts to combat dirty money constitute a “failure” that haven’t kept pace with the explosion of money-laundering in the financial hub, the country’s former top money-laundering cop told Tribune de Geneve.
Again, this is not exactly ancient history.
LinkIf the demise of Swiss banking secrecy was supposed to flush dirty money out of the system, it appears to be failing. Criminal and regulatory wrist-slaps continue to pile up against banks. Even worse is the allegation that Switzerland lacks real political will to tackle money laundering.
So in your opinion, what can or should governments do to prevent this? What could citizens do?