Nearly 40 per cent of dirty money in the world is going through the City of London and other crown dependencies, a minister has said.
Andrew Mitchell, the UK’s deputy foreign secretary, said that the Foreign Office would put more pressure on crown dependencies and overseas territories to obey UK laws setting up beneficial share ownership.
Speaking to the Bright Blue thinktank, Mitchell said: “On the issue of dirty money, it is important to recognise that Britain has a dog in the fight. According to some estimates, 40 per cent of money laundering around the world – this is money often stolen from Africa and Africans by corrupt businessmen, bent politicians and war lords and so on – 40 per cent of that money comes through London and overseas territories and crown dependencies.”
He said that “crown dependencies and the overseas territories have not yet done as much as they must do”.
“If these overseas territories and crown dependencies want to have our king and our flag, then they must also accept our values, which is why we are so intent on ensuring dirty money cannot flow in and from there,” he added.
Mr Mitchell said that Foreign Secretary David Cameron would place more pressure on overseas territories to create open registers of who owns funds in tax havens, such as the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and the Cayman Islands. Neither island has introduced public registers.
Last month, the Government of the BVI said it has no plans to establish a central register of true company owners, despite pressure from Britain.
The BVI said that it was backing other measures it said would be at least as effective in ensuring law enforcement agencies can find out who is behind shell companies involved in financial crime.
Mr Cameron proposed plans for a public register of the beneficial owners of all companies in 2013, during a G8 summit in Northern Ireland.
Some of the UK's overseas territories, including the BVI, have opposed the move.
The BVI is consistently ranked in industry surveys as one of the top offshore locations in the world, in terms of the volume of money flowing through it and the number of company formations there.
