Posted by Hari on Monday, November 06, 2017 with No comments | Labels: Roundup
Paradise Papers:
Queen and Bono kept money in offshore funds, leaked files reveal
The Queen, Bono and one of Donald Trump's closest advisors
are among those whose offshore investments have been revealed in the largest
ever leak dubbed the "Paradise Papers". The 13.4million files, which
were obtained after a hack on law firm Appleby which has offices in Bermuda,
the Isle of Man and a number of other tax havens, show the complex financial
dealings of the super-rich and major
global corporations. Tory donor Lord Michael Ashcroft, Donald Trump's advisor
Wilbur Ross and Arsenal football club stakeholder Alisher Usmanov have been
named in the documents alongside Stephen Bronfman, chief fundraiser and senior
adviser to the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau and a dozen of Trump
administration advisers, Cabinet members or major donors who appeared in the
records. They documents show that in 2005 the Queen's private estate invested
£7.5m in Dover Street VI Cayman Fund LP, held on the Cayman Islands, which in
turn invested in BrightHouse, a rent-to-own firm which has been criticised for
irresponsible lending, and off-licence chain Threshers. The Queen does not
manage the Duchy of Lancaster's investments, which are decided by a council,
and pays tax voluntarily on any income. However it is the first time that the
Queen's offshore investments have been revealed. It comes just a year after the
release of the so-called "Panama Papers", in which the hidden
millions of some of the world's richest and most powerful were exposed sparking
the downfall of several governments around the world. TELEGRAPH
David Cameron's
former energy minister lands top job as chairman of metals firm owned by
Russian oligarch
Greg Barker has been hired by the high-profile oligarch Oleg
Deripaska at his firm EN+. The firm hopes the hiring will boost the firm's
credentials as it prepares to ask UK investors for money by selling shares on
the London stock exchange. Lord Barker is the latest former minister in the
Cameron government to accept a job in the corporate world. Earlier this year it
was revealed that 52 former ministers now have jobs outside Parliament. A host
of ministers from David Cameron's Coalition have roles in the private sector,
including pensions minister Steve Webb and Owen Paterson, the ex-Northern
Ireland Secretary. Lord Barker, who was given a peerage in 2015 and organised a
PR trip to the Arctic in 2006 to promote Cameron's green credentials, has also
worked for Russian oil oligarch Roman Abramovich. Critics said it was yet
another example of the harmful revolving door between ministers and industry. Stefan
Stern, director of the High Pay Centre, which campaigns against high corporate
pay, said: 'It is a concern if people see politics and a political career as
some kind of stepping stone or halfway house to their real career.' DAILY MAIL
HSBC accused of
“possible criminal complicity” in South Africa scandal
Lord Hain said he had handed new evidence to the chancellor
about the alleged involvement of a British bank in the “flagrant robbery” of
South African taxpayers. The Gupta corruption scandal began when the
Indian-born family was accused of allegedly using its vast wealth to wield
influence over South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma. The Guptas and Zuma deny
any wrongdoing. Hain told the Lords he had obtained information that “shows
illegal transfers of funds from South Africa made by the Gupta family over the
last few years from their South African accounts to accounts held in Dubai and
Hong Kong... Many of the transactions are legitimate, but many certainly are
not... The latter illicit transactions were flagged internally as suspicious,
but I am informed that they were told by the UK headquarters to ignore it.” Hain
said the transactions were disguised, originating from one bank account before
being split in a number of different accounts. The former Labour minister’s
latest intervention comes two weeks after the chancellor referred concerns
about Standard Chartered and HSBC to the FCA, SFO and NCA. He did so after Hain
wrote to him saying high-level sources in South Africa had alerted him to the
exposure of British financial institutions to the affair. GUARDIAN
UK mobile phone firms
overcharging customers after contracts expire
Three of Britain’s biggest mobile phone networks keep
charging customers extra for their handsets after they have been paid off,
leaving them up to £38 a month worse off, a consumer group has said. Citizens
Advice found that Vodafone, EE and Three were overcharging customers who failed
to change their contract an average of £22 a month, rising to £38 a month for
buyers of premium phones including the Samsung Galaxy S8, Apple iPhone and Sony
Xperia XZ Premium. Many contracts are paid monthly over two years and cover the
cost of the customer’s phones, which can be hundreds of pounds to buy outright.
At the end of the contract, the customer owns the handset and is free to stay
on the contract or switch. However, Citizens Advice research found that
Vodafone, EE and Three continued charging customers the same amount as when
they were paying for the handset. Over-65s were the most likely to be caught
out, with 23% on a handset-inclusive deal remaining on it for more than 12
months past the end of the fixed contract, compared with 13% of under-65s. Overall,
36% of people with a handset-inclusive mobile phone contract stayed on it
beyond the fixed period, with 19% staying in the same contract for more than
six months afterwards. Nina Bibby, chief marketing officer of O2, accused their
rivals of undermining trust and reputation in the mobile phone industry, and
said they separated device and service charges in monthly bills: “We’d like to
see the other operators review their position and follow our lead.” GUARDIAN
One in four people
'trapped' in low-paid jobs with 'little chance of escape'
Low pay is "endemic" in the UK, especially among
women in their early 20s who juggle work with childcare responsibilities, said
the Social Mobility Commission. Research showed that only one in six low paid
workers managed a permanent move to better paid jobs in the past decade, with
half fluctuating in and out. On average, people stuck on low pay have seen
their hourly wages rise by just 40p in real terms over the last decade,
compared to a £4.83 pay rise for those who have permanently
"escaped", said the report. Older people are less likely to leave low
paid jobs than their younger counterpart, while low paid workers were mostly
likely to escape in Scotland and least likely to escape in the North East, it
was revealed. Conor D'Arcy, senior policy analyst at the Resolution Foundation,
which conducted the study, said: "Britain has one of the highest
proportions of low paid work in the developed world, and while three-quarters
of low-paid workers did manage to move into higher-paying roles at some point
over the past decade, the vast majority couldn't sustain that progress. This
lack of pay progress can have a huge scarring effect on people's lifetime
living standards.” TELEGRAPH
Insurers 'burying
price rises' in renewal letters
Rules introduced in April require companies to
"clearly, accurately and prominently" display a renewal premium and
what was paid the year before. A message to encourage customers to shop around
is also stipulated, under rules set by the regulator. The new rules were
expected to collectively save consumers up to £103m a year - but the regulator
has said some insurers and brokers are failing to follow the rules properly. The
trade body for insurers said there had been "teething problems" with
implementing the new system. The rules cover all general insurance products,
such as home, motor, pet and travel cover. Steven Murdoch, from London,
complained to John Lewis Insurance that there was not a like-for-like
comparison on renewal documents for home insurance. It gives last year's
premium in bold after the extra cost of paying monthly direct debit is added,
but the new quotation has the price in bold before the direct debit charge is
added. "It looks like the premium is about the same, when in fact it's an
8% increase," he said. The extra charge is shown in less prominent type. Admiral
- one of the largest insurers in the UK and a FTSE 100 company - gave last
year's quoted premium, before discounts were applied, rather than the amount
that the customer actually paid. M&S had not used the correct wording in
its four-year renewal offer for some customers. Ian Hughes, chief executive of
research agency Consumer Intelligence said that, although implementation had
been "patchy" there were signs of a rise in longstanding customers
shopping around for a better deal in motor insurance. Switching rates had
changed little, but that seemed to be because customers were being offered a
more competitive deal from their original insurer or were haggling on price. BBC NEWS
EU raids Daimler and
VW in widening cartel inquiry
The EU competition watchdog said in July that it was
investigating several German carmakers on suspicion they had conspired to fix
prices in diesel and other technologies over several decades. Daimler
unexpectedly revealed on Friday that it had claimed whistleblower status to
avoid any fines, while Munich-based rival BMW said EU officials searched its
offices. German magazine Der Spiegel reported in July that Volkswagen, its
units Porsche and Audi, Daimler’s Mercedes and BMW may have used industry
committee meetings to fix the size of tanks for AdBlue, a liquid used to treat
nitrogen oxide in diesel emissions. Strategic cooperation among German
carmakers is not unusual, but companies found guilty of breaching EU cartel
rules face fines of as much as 10 percent of their global turnover. The
industry has been hit with billion-euro fines on both sides of the Atlantic in
recent years for cartels related to parts including lighting systems, engine
coolers and bearings. REUTERS
£250m Tesco fraud
trial hears two staff quit over their concerns
Tesco's former finance head, managing director and food
commercial boss deny charges of fraud by abuse of position and false accounting.
Carl Rogberg, 50, Chris Bush, 51, and John Scouler, 49, are alleged to have
failed to correct inaccurately recorded income figures. The trial into alleged
fraud at Tesco has now heard that two members of its finance department
resigned in 2014 over concerns they may be compromising their professional
integrity. The two were unhappy about what they were being asked to do by
bosses. The situation had left some staff "in tears", and afraid they
would compromise their professional integrity if they continued to work at
Tesco. The prosecutor told the court about Richard Parsons, a project manager
at the supermarket, who in an exit interview said: "It has broken me"
and that he was angry at having been put in a position which compromised his
ethics. Jurors also heard that former Tesco accountant Aysen Nadiri quit her
role on August 26 2014. She had said senior Tesco management refused to accept
targets could not be met and they had a disregard, in Miss Nadiri's view, for
proper accounting principles. The court also heard that one of Tesco's senior
accountants, Amit Soni, who eventually presented findings of the hole in the
accounts to the board, spent weeks agonising about what he was going to do. In
an email on September 3 2014, he told colleagues: "Keep the file with you,
the whistle is about to blow." He added: "It has consumed my life in
the last four to five weeks, collecting information in secret, getting my team
to understand what I want and then doing it in a subtle way and only on my
desktop." BBC NEWS
Kobe Steel uncovers
more evidence of quality mistakes
Scandal-hit Kobe Steel has found fresh evidence of mistakes
with data on the quality of its products. The Japanese company said it had
uncovered a new case of fake data involving steel, and had also halted some
copper shipments from a plant. Kobe also said it had found a case of employees
not reporting evidence to an internal investigation. The number of companies
that may have used Kobe steel which was not correctly certified is about 500,
including carmaker Daimler, aircraft manufacturer Airbus, and the maker of
Japan's bullet trains. Among the new cases uncovered, the thickness of steel
supplied to customers "was fabricated", a Kobe spokesman told the
BBC. Kobe said that 3,793 tonnes of steel plates shipped to one customer had
the wrong measurements. The company has also stopped shipping about 43% of
copper products from its Hatano plant, near Tokyo, because it was found to
violate Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS) regulations, Kobe said on Friday. When
asked whether the problem of data fabrication could have been going on for more
than a decade, the spokesman said: "It could be longer than a decade, we
are looking into it now." BBC NEWS
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