Read on Twitter
Wow - the UK government is to investigate a 'climate of fear' (and drug trafficking) in one of its most aggressive tax havens, the British Virgin Islands https://twitter.com/patrickwintour/status/1351196455638343687
A similar process, including complaints to the UK's Governor, led to the suspension of self government for the much smaller haven, the Turks and Caicos Islands, in 2009. Could BVI be on this path? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_the_Turks_and_Caicos_Islands#Suspension_of_self-government,_2009
The BVI ranks 1st on the Corporate Tax Haven Index, and 9th on the Financial Secrecy Index. Per the State of Tax Justice 2020, it is singlehandedly responsible for $16 billion of revenue losses around the world. Full profile here: https://iff.taxjustice.net/#/profile/VGB
Despite often pretending otherwise, the UK has full control of its Overseas Territories. It would only take an Order in Council to suspend the BVI constitution, and allow the UK to impose any cleaning up measures necessary to end the corruption and the promotion of illicit flows.
Even the spectre of such a possibility *may* send a lot of the actors behind illicit financial flows running for another hideout. Will major multinationals continue to shovel their profits into a jurisdiction that's under investigation for deep corruption?
I can't see BVI coverage yet, but here's an interesting flavour of things, with BVI government apparently blocking the Governor - "due to alleged limitations, some announcements from the Governor’s Office have not been posted to the government’s website" " https://bvinews.com/governors-office-allegedly-gets-reduced-access-to-govt-website/
Meanwhile, members of the BVI police force were caught in a major drug bust... http://www.virginislandsnewsonline.com/en/news/officers-in-largest-drugs-bust-were-suspected-of-being-corrupt-cop-matthews
Let us not forget that the BVI was *whitelisted* by the EU less than a year ago... https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/tax-common-eu-list_en
