The Fight for Transparency: Lessons for Canada

History's most infamous financial criminal -- Martin Bormann

The glittering towers and spartan offices of this international financial capital hold billions of illicit offshore dollars — money belonging to countless anonymous company owners who came here to evade taxes and finance fraud, money laundering and terrorism.

That established model of corporate concealment, adopted by Canada, has met its end in Britain.

Last June, Britain became the world leader in exposing tax cheats by requiring corporate registrations to include the names of the real company owners — or “persons with significant control” — and listing the records in a database that anyone can view for free online.

The British model, while still new, has been hailed as groundbreaking for disarming the most essential weapon for tax evaders: secrecy.

“The objective is to drive illicit money out of the U.K.,” says Donald Toon, the U.K.’s economic crime director. “A publicly open accessible register is valuable. It is valuable because of transparency.”

Britian’s top financial crime cop considers corporate ownership secrecy, “a threat to the economic security of the U.K.”

The Canadian government has displayed no such sense of urgency.  (more...)

Lessons for Canada

Background:

Snow Washing: Canada is the world's newest tax haven

Anyone want to trace Nazi flight capital into Canadian corporations? Crickets.