The Spider's Web: Britain's Second Empire (2017) - full transcript
How Britain transformed from an imperial power to a financial power.
(dramatic music)
[Newscaster] The British soldier,
all around the globe you'll find him
from Gibraltar to Hong Kong.
Everywhere he stands against
the threatening years,
staunch symbol of our
common will to order.
Up!
(solemn music)
[Narrator] The British Empire,
the largest empire the
world has ever known.
For over 300 years, Britain ruled.
It's army has conquered.
And it's bankers proclaimed
the might of its currency.
But one day, it all began to fall apart.
One by one, countries
declared their independence
from Britain, and no amount of
force could reverse the tide.
(solemn music)
As British elites saw
their wealth, privileges
and empire disintegrate,
they began to search
for a new role in a changing world,
and they found one in finance.
(solemn music)
This is a film about
how Britain transformed
from a colonial power to
a modern financial power
and how this transformation has
shaped the world we live in.
(solemn music)
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In the days of the British
Empire, the City of London
was the world's biggest
global financial center.
The City of London was the
kind of beating financial heart
of the British Empire.
Historians, Cain and Hopkins,
called it the governor
of the imperial engine.
All these countries in the Empire used
to use the sterling currency,
and the City of London was
kind of the financier of this,
not just inside the sterling zone
but outside the sterling zone as well.
[Narrator] As Britain's empire declined,
so too did the City of London.
[Reporter] One British
Army truck is bombed,
killing two soldiers and wounding 12.
As rioting becomes daily,
more widespread on Cypress,
young people of high school
age take an increasing part
in the violence.
Here, a group of girls are being dispersed
after a rock-throwing battle
with British military police.
(solemn music)
[Narrator] With the decline of empire,
British commercial interests
across the globe were under threat.
In 1956, Egypt nationalized
the Suez Canal.
[Reporter] A new
Middle East crisis arises
as President Nasser of Egypt
tells a wildly cheering
crowd in Alexandria
that Egypt has seized the
internationally owned Suez Canal.
France and Britain issue
a 12-hour ultimatum.
Within hours of its expiration,
Britain's war planes are
winging their way to Egypt,
and its bombers attacked five
key cities, including Cairo.
[Narrator] The United States
was opposed to the invasion
and put pressure on Britain and France
to withdraw their troops.
There will be no
United States involvement
in these present hostilities.
It is our hope and intent
this matter will be brought
before the United
Nations General Assembly.
There, the opinion of the
world can be brought to bear
in our quest for a just end
to this tormenting problem.
(solemn music)
[Narrator] Britain was humiliated.
The Suez crisis signified
the end of Britain's role
as one of the world's major powers.
Following the crisis, there was a run
on the sterling, on the UK pound.
Some people suspected
the American government
was encouraging this run on the UK pound.
[Narrator] As financiers
withdrew their money
from Britain, the value
of the pound decreased.
To protect the value of the pound,
Britain limited the
bank's overseas lending.
They were not able to invest abroad.
And obviously, they were unhappy.
And we don't know exactly the context,
but it's very clear that the
banks, or their representative,
made a representation
to the Bank of England, ,
which in itself was
dominated by representing
from the banking industry.
It seems that they have
reached an agreement,
which was never written, that
if the banks intermediated
between two non-residents,
in a foreign currency,
in that case the dollar,
that this particular intermediation,
this particular deal
will not be considered
by the Bank of England
under its own jurisdiction.
[Narrator] The banks
began to create a market
for dollars in London, called
the London Eurodollar market.
To differentiate these
Euromarket activities
from their domestic banking activities,
banks kept two sets of accounts.
The Bank of England, the
UK regulator, declared
that the London Euromarket
accounts were not in London.
They were elsewhere, and
therefore it had no responsibility
for regulating them.
It's about providing a legal space
in which you pretend
activity is taking place.
And the importance of that is
that you pretend it's not taking place
in the economy where it
really is taking place.
So you're taking activity from the place
where it's regulated and taxed
and pretending that it's
happening elsewhere.
Now, where doesn't really matter.
It's just elsewhere.
[Narrator] When American banks realized
that London offered the ability
to avoid US regulations,
they moved their international
operations to the city.
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Around the same time as American banks
were moving their international
operations to London,
another new kind of financial
space began to emerge,
far away from London, in
Britain's overseas jurisdictions,
the last remnants of empire.
Back in the '60s,
the Cayman Islands was
a complete backwater.
The stories go that the
mosquitoes were so thick
in the air sometimes they
were enough to suffocate cows.
That's a legend that you hear
about the Cayman Islands.
I don't know how true it was.
But there was nothing happening there.
[Narrator] Accountants and
lawyers from London arrived
in the Cayman Islands and
other British dependencies
and began to draft a set
of financial secrecy laws and regulations.
Because these jurisdictions'
main selling point was secrecy,
they were called secrecy jurisdictions.
What the Cayman Islands was doing
was straightforwardly illegal activity.
Drug money was coming in, in
huge quantities, tax evasion.
Whatever you wanted, you could have it.
[Narrator] The Bank
of England was observing
the developments from London and noted
in a report market secret,
dated 11th of April, 1969,
"We need to be quite sure that
the possible proliferation
"of trust companies, banks, et cetera,
"which in most cases would be no more
"than brass plates manipulating assets
"outside the islands
does not get out of hand.
"There is of course no objection
"to their providing
boltholes for non-residents,
"but we need to be sure that in so doing,
"opportunities are not
created for the transfer
"of UK capital to the non-sterling
area outside UK rules."
These small territories,
the last remnants of the British Empire,
which are still overseas
territories today,
they are still the last
remnants of the British Empire.
There are 14 of these
overseas territories.
Seven of them are bonafide a tax haven,
including the Cayman Islands, Bermuda,
the British Virgin Islands.
Some of the biggest tax havens
in the world today are still British.
[Narrator] With access to
large amounts of offshore money,
the Euromarket grew rapidly.
By 1980, it had reached $500 billion.
By 1988, $4.8 trillion.
And by 1997, nearly 90% of all
international loans were made
through this market.
The British Empire had sunk,
leaving hardly a trace behind.
But the City of London
adapted and survived.
The City of London,
London's financial district,
is a peculiar place.
It has been called a city within a city,
a state within a state.
It is run by an organization
called the City of London Corporation,
a private company that
performs all the functions
of a local council with
a private police force
and private courts.
Those of you who aren't from the UK,
some of you even who are,
might not be aware just how weird a thing
the little City of London
is within the big London.
The City of London is a separate
entity to the wider London,
and it has its own head, the lord mayor.
He's distinct from the mayor.
He runs the rest of London.
[Narrator] Every November,
the city stages the lord mayor's show,
the world's oldest civic procession.
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The city of London has long
had this curious legal status,
because back in 1066, when
William the Conqueror came over,
the city was one of the
only portions of England
that he failed to conquer,
and he struck a deal
with the city, in 1067, that allowed them
to continue to function.
[Narrator] To this day,
the City of London is exempt
from numerous laws that
govern the rest of Britain.
Its political system derives
from the Middle Ages.
The city's electorate is
dominated not by its residents,
but by the private business
operating within the city.
Its lord mayor is selected by
the heads of medieval guilds.
They have a representative
in the House of Commons
called the Remembrancer.
Apart from the clerks
of the House of Commons,
he's the only unelected person there.
All other lobbyists
have to stop in the lobby.
They're not allowed past the lobby.
[Narrator] The City of London
has a permanent representative
in the House of Commons
whose role is to report back
to the City of London Corporation
and to lobby Parliament
on behalf of the city.
The Corporation of London, clearly,
it's a unique and interesting phenomenon
that should have attracted
many political scientists,
political economists and columnists.
But I don't know if
anyone who has studied,
systematically, the Corporation
of London and its impact
on policy or economic policy.
So we can only surmise.
Some people assume or surmise
that the Corporation of
London is extremely powerful.
It is able in one way or
another to shape British policy,
particularly with international matters.
Clement Attlee, the prime minister
of the Second World War,
had something to say
about the City of London Corporation.
[Paul] He did, yeah.
"Over and over again, we
have seen that there is,
"in this country, another power than
"that which has its seat at Westminster.
"The City of London, a
convenient term for a collection
"of financial interest,
is able to assert itself
"against the government of the country.
"Those who control money
can pursue a policy
"at home and abroad contrary to that
"which is being decided by the people."
[Narrator] At the heart
of the City of London
stands the Bank of England.
The Bank of England is
not just a central bank.
It is also a financial regulator.
At the demise of empire,
the Bank of England used
its regulatory authority
to help attract the
world's banks to London.
In 1972, the Bank of
England issued a license
to the Bank of Credit and
Commerce International,
which set up its head office in London.
Within 10 years, the BCCI grew
into the seventh-largest
bank in the world.
10 years later, the BCCI was bankrupt.
The Deputy Director of
the CIA, Richard Kerr,
said late today that the CIA did use BCCI
to support CIA activities overseas.
[Narrator] But BCCI
had not just collaborated
with the world's intelligence services,
it had also engaged in
extensive financial fraud,
money laundering and terrorist financing.
BCCI constituted
international global crime
of a level that boggles the mind.
[Reporter] BCCI was financing terrorism.
The Bank of England knew
it, says the report,
but instead of supervising it properly,
it tried to prevent the bank's collapse.
I am saying very directly
that the Bank of England
had sufficient information
in front of it to close BCCI
15 months earlier than it did.
Millions of depositors
were hurt in that process.
[Narrator] Numerous
whistleblowers from BCCI
had contacted the Bank of England.
Yet the Bank of England did nothing.
The Bank of England had plenty of time
to intervene and investigate,
but it did not do so,
because the tradition at that time,
which still survives,
is that, well, actually,
you have to just kind of send hints
and talk over lunch tables
with the chaps regulating other chaps,
and all would be well.
[Narrator] Robin
Leigh-Pemberton, the governor
of the Bank of England at the time
of the collapse of BCCI,
commented, "The present system
"of supervision has
served the community well.
"If we closed down a bank every
time we found an incidence
"of fraud, you would
have rather fewer banks
"than we do at the moment."
London was a place for
banks to engage in business
that was not allowed elsewhere,
where senior bankers did not have to worry
about the consequences of their actions.
This is one of the reasons
why today there are more banks
in London than in any
other financial center.
In Britain, nobody goes to jail.
No bankers go to jail.
They generally don't.
They are a protected species.
And that is part of the offshore
business model of the UK,
is to say, "We will protect you.
"Bring your money here,
and we will look after you.
"We're not gonna put you in prison.
"We'll let you do what you want."
[Narrator] Light-touch
regulation was one way
of attracting business to London.
Another was secrecy.
From the 1960s onwards, City
of London institutions began
to establish offshore
branches in former outposts
of the British Empire.
Their aim was to create offshore centers
with strong secrecy legislation in order
to attract capital from across the globe.
Swiss banking secrecy
is the most famous,
the most well-known.
You put your money in a Swiss bank,
and they promise not to tell anybody.
That's one kind of secrecy,
but another kind of secrecy,
which is very British, is the trust.
And the trust is a very
slippery, complicated
and devious mechanism.
Trusts emerged, the legend
has it, from the time
of the Crusades, when the
knights would go off and fight
in foreign lands, and they
would leave their assets
in the care of trusted stewards.
What trusts do, ultimately, is they play
with the concept of ownership.
Ownership is not such a simple thing.
So the settlor, the knight in this case,
would hand over the assets to someone
who these days would be called a trustee.
It's often a lawyer.
Legally, you are separated
from those assets.
They're not yours anymore.
There's a barrier.
You can't be taxed on them.
Nobody's gonna find anything
about your connection to these assets.
[Narrator] In Britain's
offshore jurisdictions,
no qualifications are
necessary to be a trustee.
Anyone can set up a trust
and act as a trustee.
There is no registry of trusts.
There are no bodies to certify
that a trust has been set up.
The only persons who
know about the creation
of this agreement are the
trustee and the settlor.
There's no obligation to register it.
There is no financial
reporting obligation of trusts.
They're not required to
put annual statements
on to account anywhere.
So actually trusts are, to
all intents and purposes,
invisible arrangements.
[Narrator] Economist John Christensen
was an economic adviser to
the secrecy jurisdiction
of Jersey for 10 years.
We're not talking about a few million.
We're talking now about trillions,
trillions of dollars of capital,
which apparently belong to nobody.
For tax purposes and for other purposes,
they belong to nobody.
Everything, works of arts, gold bullion,
horse-race horses, cars, real estate,
not just financial assets but a whole lot
of non-financial assets
belong to these trusts,
sitting there belonging to nobody.
Now think that one through,
'cause we are talking
about maybe as much as $50 trillion
of assets sitting offshore,
behind these instruments.
Well, the Cayman
Islands are among several
British overseas territories
who have signed a new
information exchange agreement
with Britain and the rest of
Europe to tackle tax evasion.
The countries are now required
to automatically provide
details of the ownership
of bank accounts and how they're used.
Cayman became the first
signatory last week.
It's important that the Cayman Islands
should be recognized as the
first overseas territory
to sign such an agreement
with the United Kingdom.
And I think this importantly reflects
the constructive approach that
the Cayman Islands has taken
in delivering our shared objective
of rooting out tax evasion.
The trust lies at the core
of the British secrecy model.
They don't use banking secrecy.
The Swiss use banking secrecy.
The British, of course,
are only too willing
to kill off banking secrecy,
because they will then
capture a larger market share.
That's why the Brits are doing this.
[Narrator] Trusts are
the basic building block
of Anglo-Saxon secrecy,
and they form the basis
from which complex offshore
structures are created.
Every secrecy jurisdiction
offers a specific set
of services, from trusts
to shell companies
to secret bank accounts
and nominee directors.
The combination of these services
into complex structures
spanning multiple jurisdictions
enables the creation of secrecy structures
that are almost impossible to penetrate.
An offshore structure
will often have a trust kind
of sitting at the top of it.
The trust will be here,
managing the assets,
kind of controlling the assets.
Underneath it, the trust will
own some shell companies.
Each one might be in a
different jurisdiction.
So you might have a trust
in one jurisdiction.
These trustees are somewhere else,
whose beneficiaries are somewhere else,
which owns offshore
companies somewhere else.
Each of these companies
might then own assets.
So they might own a bank
account, a racehorse, a yacht,
a painting, a portfolio
of shares or whatever.
[Narrator] There are
numerous variations of trusts
and offshore secrecy structures.
There are offshore lawyers
whose work entails the creation
of evermore complex
and obscure structures.
The aim of these structures
is to hide the identity
of the owners of offshore
assets and allow offshore wealth
to be recycled back into global markets.
Looking on the amount
of money being administrated
from tax havens,
you see that it is a
curve going like this.
And all the talking we have been doing,
along with other wonderful people fighting
against tax havens, has
not changed anything.
It is the world where
you say, "Go on talking
"and go on talking.
"You're interesting me."
And I'm going on doing what I want to do.
We know everything today,
because we have had the Panama Papers.
We have seen it, and we are
not able to act upon it.
And we are not able to act upon it,
because this system is really
protecting the few people
that are having benefit from it.
And these are, of course,
in fact, very few people,
but they are powerful.
And I see in the Panama
committee that I'm sitting in,
the only thing that could change this is
to have a public accessible register
of the beneficial ownership of trusts
and of all kind of companies.
It is easy.
[Narrator] The Panama Papers
are a collection of leaks
from the offshore law
firm Mossack Fonseca.
Mossack Fonseca is the
fourth-largest offshore law firm.
The other nine of the 10
largest offshore law firms
are registered in British
overseas jurisdictions.
When countries complained to Britain
about the activities run
out of its offshore havens,
Britain claims that these
places are independent
and that there is nothing it can do.
I'd heard time and time
again from officials in Berlin
and in Paris and in Washington
and in other countries
that they'd been told by
the British government,
yes, they're well aware of
what's going on in Jersey,
and they think it's very unfortunate,
but they don't have the
powers to intervene.
Well, that's a straightforward lie.
They do have the powers to intervene.
They just choose not to.
Britain plays this kind
of game of pretending
when it suits them to pretend
that these places are independent.
At the end of the day,
Britain appoints the governor,
appoints lots of senior
people in these places.
They are responsible for
foreign relations and defense.
And also they can veto
their legislation as well.
So Britain has a massive
degree of control.
Basically it is controlling these places,
allowing them a little
bit of political space.
[Narrator] During his time
as economic adviser to Jersey,
John Christensen frequently
traveled to London
for talks with various British
government departments.
As economic adviser,
I had a lot of contact
with different departments.
Traditionally, UK
governments have tried not
to interfere in the domestic
affairs of places like Jersey.
So it happens in a more
subtle sort of way.
You kind of go and talk to someone,
either at the home office or the treasury.
And they'd say, "We're not
actually, particularly keen
"on this piece of legislation.
"It might be a good idea if
you didn't go down that route."
And over a cup of tea,
that's quite a strong signal.
That's a signal, go back to the island,
and say they don't want you to do this.
[Narrator] The British
government prefers not
to interfere overtly.
Instead, it communicates its desires
through informal discussions.
There is no paper trail
or official statement.
Discussions take place
behind closed doors.
The relationship that these places have
with London is very much about
the British establishment,
and people understanding each other.
I mean, anybody who is British
or knows British people knows
that communication between
us is often very subtle,
and you have to kind of know the codes
when people say stuff.
I mean, a lot of irony involved and a lot
of kind of codified language
for British establishment,
that people kind of
understand how it works.
And I think that is very much the case
with the British relationship
with the tax havens.
I think there's a lot of
understanding of what we can
and can't do without anyone
having to actually spell it out.
[Narrator] By keeping its power hidden,
Britain is able to claim
that these jurisdictions
are politically autonomous.
Independence for Cayman is
not on government's agenda.
That's the message being sent
to the UN Special Committee
on Decolonization.
Attorney Steve McField will
be representing government
at the UN meeting.
The committee was set up to
help colonies around the world
on the road to independence.
But Mr. McField says
he'll be making it clear
that Cayman is not ready
for that transition.
And that message is that the Premier,
his Cabinet, his party has no mandate
from the people of the Cayman
Islands to seek independence.
That is the message
that I will be carrying.
[Narrator] When the
Bahamas declared independence
from Britain in 1967, the
offshore bankers relocated
to the Cayman Islands
and continued their business from there.
It was the British connection
that reassured bankers
and their clients that
their money was safe.
This British bedrock,
that is what has allowed these
places to become so trusted
by the financial services industry
and offshore finance and all these people.
[Narrator] In reality, much
of the wealth administered
in Britain's offshore havens
is controlled from London.
The City of London, by and large,
likes to do its really
dirty work outside London.
There might, Heaven forbid, be a regulator
that actually takes the job seriously
and starts to prosecute
them for fraud in London.
So better to do the frauds
offshore in Gibraltar or Jersey,
where there's much less risk
that a serious prosecution
will ever happen.
[Narrator] Deals are often discussed
and concluded in London but
then registered offshore
for tax transparency
and regulatory purposes.
What they allow the city
to do is to get involved
in dirty business, but
then when the scandal hits,
to say, "Well, they're
kind of independent.
"There's nothing we can
do about those places.
"That's not us.
"That's tax haven activity,
and we're the city.
"We're not involved in
that kind of stuff."
So it's an incredibly kind
of convenient relationship.
The City of London has
shaped the way in which Jersey,
Guernsey and the British
overseas territories
have developed as tax havens.
I see these places as
the Frankensteins created
by the City of London.
[Narrator] Today, the UK is
the world's largest provider
of international financial services.
The UK has an almost unique
role in global finance.
And if you look at data, the kind of data
that we've constructed in
the Financial Secrecy Index,
you can see the relative
shares of each country
in the global provision of
financial services exports.
That's financial services
to non-residents.
Now there are two big centers,
and everything else is
quite small in comparison.
[Narrator] The two large
centers are the United States,
with around 19% of the global market,
and the United Kingdom and
its offshore jurisdictions,
which have around 25%
of the global market.
And if you add to that
other jurisdictions,
ex-colonies, that recently
independent, fairly recently,
by which I mean Hong Kong, Singapore,
maybe even Dubai and Bahrain and Cyprus,
then you reach a figure of nearly 40%.
And I think that figure
represents better the position
of London in the global financial market.
(dramatic music)
And the soldiers left.
The administrators left all the colonies.
But they still kept a
significant degree of control
over the financial flows from
these former parts of empire
and the rest of the world.
So you could describe
it as a second empire,
Britain's second empire, sort
of hidden financial empire,
spanning large parts of the globe.
[Narrator] At the time
of the British Empire,
the City of London was the world's largest
global financial center.
Not only Britain's colonies
but also independent countries
did their banking in London
and used the Empire's currency
for trade and financing.
As the Empire declined, so
too did the City of London.
The establishment of the
London Euromarket enabled
City of London banks to continue
to exploit their empire
era networks and expertise,
and the creation of secrecy
jurisdictions gave banks access
to large amounts of cheap money.
International banks from across
the globe set up branches
in London and Britain's
offshore jurisdictions
in order to take advantage
of this new system.
This system has taken the
place of the occupation,
I mean, up till '62 for France.
I don't know for England,
but about the same time,
England very physically
present in that sort of thing
and other colonies.
And when you look at the money flows
through the tax havens,
they are increasing
when we withdraw from the colonies.
We are still plundering
developing countries
as former colonial powers.
[Narrator] Wealthy
individuals, organized crime
and corporations shifted
their wealth offshore
in exchange for secrecy and no tax.
And as countries around the
world began to deregulate
and open their economies, it
became ever easier to do so.
Today, as much as half
of all global offshore
wealth may be hidden
in Britain's secrecy jurisdictions.
One of the losers is Africa,
whose flight capital flows mostly
into the modern British spider's web.
I think it's no coincidence
that Britain's offshore
empire emerged more or less
at the same time as the
collapse of the formal empire.
We tend to think of Africa
as being a huge net debtor
to the rest of the world,
but that was the extent
of their debts at the end
of 2008, $177 billion.
[Narrator] The debt of
Sub-Saharan African nations stood
at $177 billion in 2008.
Yet the wealth these countries'
elites had moved offshore
between 1970 and 2008 is
estimated at $944 billion,
over five times their foreign debt.
$944 billion, do the maths.
Far from being a net debtor,
Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa,
is a net creditor to
the rest of the world.
[Narrator] As capital moved offshore,
African nations borrowed money
from international banks at high interest.
Over time, these debts became so great
that they may never be repaid.
Secrecy jurisdictions were
starving developing nations
of their wealth
and their tax revenues.
For a long time, a lot
of developing countries,
including recently
Ecuador, have been trying
to set up a UN tax body,
which is of a higher value
than what is currently there,
which is the UN Tax Committee.
And every time this has
happened, it has gotten blocked.
During the financing
for development process
in Addis Ababa last year,
I think it was the UK and the
US that blocked attempts again
to set up this world tax organization.
So why would they not want
to have democratic decision-making
in global decisions
on how tax gets collected across borders?
I don't understand this.
As long as we have cross-border activity
that involves both criminal
and legal activity,
as long as we're unable
to separate the two,
this is going to continue to be a problem.
[Narrator] Western
nations block attempts
to provide greater transparency
of international financial flows
and the implementation of global standards
for the collection of tax across borders,
whilst elites in developing
nations use offshore centers
to hide their wealth offshore.
The oil from Gabon has not
benefited people in Gabon.
And this is true for the
copper in Zambia, for the gold
in Mozambique or in Mali.
They have benefited, the
company that do extract it,
and their shareholders.
It has benefited the corrupt
elite in the country.
In developing countries,
the offshore system
of tax havens has facilitated
the looting of the countries
by their elites.
It has enabled them to steal the money
and keep it safe somewhere else.
Illicit financial flows,
because the anonymity
that drives them creates
incentives for people
in positions of power to be corrupt.
This is why there's a group of countries
where development
progress is so difficult.
It's that the incentives of individuals
and the ability to pursue them
through all the mechanisms
that are underpinning the
shift flows outweigh the type
of mechanisms that lead you
to a powerful, representative,
effective state that can
start to deliver development.
(solemn music)
[Narrator] Worldwide,
developing countries lose
over a trillion dollars every year
in capital flight and tax evasion.
Most of this wealth flows
into large western nations,
like the United States and Britain,
and enables their
currencies to stay strong,
whilst developing nations'
currencies remain weak.
But illicit flows into western nations
also had another unexpected side effect.
The economies of the United States
and Britain began to financialize.
The origins of this financialization
or deindustrialization
go back to the 1960s.
[Reporter] Anti-war demonstrators
protest US involvement
in the Vietnam War in mass marches,
rallies and demonstrations.
President Johnson
meanwhile let it be known
that the FBI is closely
watching all anti-war activity.
[Narrator] In the 1960s,
US economist, Michael Hudson,
was working at Chase
Manhattan Bank on Wall Street
as Chase's balance-of-payments economist.
During the 1960s,
the United States'
balance-of-payments deficit
was entirely a result of
foreign military expenditures.
[Narrator] Dollars were
flowing out of the United States
as a result of the cost
of the Vietnam War.
The United States attempted
to prevent the dollars flowing
to Vietnam from being
deposited in foreign banks.
The government asked Chase
to set up a branch in Saigon
during the Vietnam War,
and as you can imagine,
it didn't have windows.
It was sort of a fortress.
It lost money, but the
government went to Chase,
because it said if you
don't get this money
that's being thrown off by
the military in Vietnam,
then it's going to go into French banks.
It'll get the general to go,
and you know what he's
gonna do every month.
He's gonna cash it in for gold.
That's what the United
States was trying to stop.
[Narrator] The US was not successful
in stopping the outflow of money.
So it began to hatch a different plan.
In 1967, Michael Hudson was handed a memo
by a former State Department employee.
In 1967, I was given
by a former State Department employee,
in the elevator at Chase Manhattan,
a memo from the State Department urging
that Chase Manhattan would take the lead
in helping the United States
become the Switzerland
of the world, meaning the flight capital.
The State Department,
through Chase, asked me
to estimate how much money
do you think is available
if America were to become
the new Switzerland
and how do we do it.
The plan was to organize
offshore banking centers
in the Caribbean and elsewhere.
And the hot money wouldn't
come directly into Chase,
because that wouldn't
be nice and very legal.
What happened was that the
Latin American criminals,
other criminals, drug dealers,
all sorts of organized crime,
would put their money in the
offshore Caribbean banks,
and these offshore banks
would then deposit the inflow
in the head office.
[Narrator] By moving
offshore dollars back
into the United States, the US
was able to stop the outflow
of dollars and support
the value of its currency.
Every country looks to
its foreign exchange rate.
The foreign exchange rate is
not only imports and exports.
It's capital movements, and if you look
at the International Monetary Funds's
monthly International
Financial Statistics,
you have sort of a
steady balance of trade,
a steady immigrant's remittances.
What goes up and down are
called errors and omissions.
What the United Nations
and the IMF call errors
and omissions are flight capital.
It's the reason that it's
omitted is they don't like
to really look at this.
In the 1930s, Roy Ovid Hall,
economist for the US Commerce Department,
wanted to include criminal movements
in the balance-of-payments statistics.
And Congress got very upset.
I was told, in Washington,
the argument was,
"We're a Christian country.
"We don't want to report crime.
"It's just, we don't look at it."
And they forbid him to
include criminal money
in the balance of payments.
I guess now you call it
errors and omissions.
You don't call it criminal
inflow and outflow.
[Narrator] In the 1960s
and '70s, Britain was faced
with a similar dilemma
as the United States.
Money was flowing out,
and this decreased the value of the pound.
Britain realized that it
too could support the value
of its currency by opening
its domestic markets
to the trillions of dollars passing
through its offshore havens.
But just as in the United States,
this had an unexpected side effect.
The British banks today,
just as in the 19th century,
don't put their money into
British manufacturing.
They put their money into
real estate speculation,
into financial speculation,
foreign currency, trade.
So the financialization
of London has helped
deindustrialize the country,
because it's enabled
sterling to be supported
by this huge inflow of hot money,
this inflow of drug-dealing
money and criminal money
and tax evasion money all over the world,
that is going to London instead
of going to Switzerland,
Lichtenstein or the Caribbean.
[Narrator] With the silent
backing of the United States,
Britain's offshore havens grew rapidly.
And before long, the
offshore system developed
into the world's dominant
international financial market.
Few were aware how this market functioned.
In 1986, economist John Christensen
went offshore to investigate.
He applied for a position
at the Jersey office
of one of the world's
major accounting firms.
At Deloitte Touche, I was working
in what's called company
and trust administration,
straightforward, offshore stuff.
I went offshore specifically
to work in that area,
because that's where you're dealing
with the offshore companies,
the shell companies,
the offshore trusts, and
you're administering them.
That way, I could see, from working
inside a big global accounting firm,
exactly what the clients were doing.
I had complete access
to all the client files.
And over the course of
my period of working
with Deloitte Touche,
I investigated over 100
of their clients offshore,
and this is what I found.
There was some insider
traders, some market rigging,
some avoiding disclosure
of conflicts of interest,
illicit arms trading, illicit
political campaign donations,
contract kickbacks, bribery,
fraudulent invoicing,
trade mispricing and, at the
bottom, tax evasion, okay.
This is what the clients were doing.
(solemn music)
And the basis of a sample
of the clients I looked at,
not a single client was
involved in what I would regard
as genuinely legitimate activity.
They were all involved in some
kind of tax dodging or worse.
I met with Carl Levin,
who used to be my senator.
And he made a lot of inquiries
into private banking,
asking question to the bankers.
What do you think the
percentage is among your clients
that are using this companies
for legitimate purposes?
The answer was, "I believe that 99.9%
"of my clients are using these companies
"for illicit purposes."
This is a reality.
This is American bankers
telling what they are doing.
And it's exactly the same
thing with UK bankers,
helping their client to
have accounts in Panama
or in Bermuda or in Cayman Islands.
(solemn music)
[Narrator] Secrecy
jurisdictions are heavily used
for fraudulent and gray-area
financial activities,
areas where secrecy is not
just desirable but a necessity.
Legitimate financial activity has no need
for the secrecy offshore
havens provide, nor a desire
to pay the high fees offshore
banks and law firms charge.
Today, close to half of the
world's secrecy jurisdictions
are British dependencies.
In public, these jurisdictions
claim they are transparent,
and their financial
services sectors are engaged
in legitimate financial activities.
Our economy is not based on secrecy.
It's based on transparency.
It's based on a sound
regulatory environment.
It's based on good governance
and good government
with a British government legal system.
That's what our financial
institutions are based on.
Well, tonight, we have
a response from the head
of Cayman Finance, after a group
of US-based anti-tax evasion
activists announced plans
to travel Cayman to draw attention
to what they feel is
corporate tax evasion.
Finance chairman, Mr. Richard Coles,
says he's encouraging the group to visit
and says, "Our financial
sector has nothing to hide."
I would say if anybody wants to come
to Cayman to find out what's coming,
what we do here, come on down.
We have no secrets here.
When I went to the Cayman
Islands, back in 2008,
I think it was, I called
the government spokesman.
He said, "Okay, we have
had an order from on high
"that nobody is allowed to speak to you.
"You are off limits."
[Narrator] In 2011,
journalist Nicholas Shaxson
released Treasure Islands,
a groundbreaking book
about the offshore system.
The author of a series of
international media reports
says he would welcome a debate
with Cayman Finance Chair Tony Travers.
Mr. Travers recently called
Nicholas Shaxson an imbecile
with the understanding of an 11-year-old.
There are always going
to be the politics of envy.
Now the politics of envy are exacerbated
by imbeciles who don't actually understand
what's going on in the Cayman Islands.
I don't know what he's talking about.
And furthermore, he doesn't
know what he's talking about.
[Narrator] The Cayman Islands
is the fifth-largest
financial center in the world.
It hosts 80,000 registered companies,
over three-quarters of
the world's hedge funds
and $1.9 trillion in deposits.
It has a population of
60,000, roughly equivalent
to New York's homeless population.
(solemn music)
A strange mixture of characters
populate the offshore world,
British ex-public schoolboys,
members of the world's
intelligence services,
global criminals,
assorted lords and ladies
and bankers galore.
(solemn music)
With so much at stake for so many wealthy
and powerful individuals, it may come
as no surprise that
Britain's offshore havens
have developed their
own curious mechanisms
to prevent information from leaking out.
For many people, who work offshore
and who don't like what they're doing,
it's very hard indeed to dissent,
because they will be attacked
personally with a degree
of viciousness which
is quite extraordinary.
Most of the time though, the instruments
of suppression are
relatively sophisticated.
You won't get promotion by
doing this, or you know,
your family won't like it.
It's not generally
let's slam them in prison.
That's far too crude.
We are talking about very
substantially the establishment,
the British establishment, in these cases.
The mechanisms are very, very subtle.
A sort of ostracism is
one way of doing it.
These peculiar mechanisms
for if someone tries
to blow the whistle, you
find all sorts of methods
that aren't the, you don't just fire them.
You give them far too much work to do.
You steer them in a different direction.
[Narrator] One person
who is intimately familiar
with how suppression works
offshore is former Jersey senator
and health minister, Stuart Syvret.
In 2009, he leaked a report
on a rogue nurse suspected
of killing patients at Jersey's hospital.
It all came to a head
during a state's debate
on Tuesday, the 10th of March.
Senator Stuart Syvret brought
the sitting to a standstill,
claiming Senator Jimmy
Perchard had sworn at him
and told him to go and top himself.
Senator Perchard denied the claim saying,
"I absolutely refute that."
But less than a week later,
he was forced to admit he'd lied.
Senator Perchard has now admitted
that on another occasion,
he did tell Senator Stuart Syvret to go
and do everyone a favor
and slit his wrists.
I was arrested at my house one morning
by six plainclothes police officers.
There were another two specialist
data-search police officers on-hand
and also another two police
officers in full body armor
and one of those battering
rams they kind of use
in drugs raids.
So 10 police officers descended on me
without a search warrant.
The property was turned
over from top to bottom.
All of the computers
were seized and searched.
All kinds of private
constituency data was stolen
by the police.
(solemn music)
[Narrator] Shortly
after we began filming,
a police officer exited
the police station.
As he hurried past, he
grinned at the camera.
The officer was on his
way to test the sirens
on his motorbike, which
he did at intervals
throughout much of the
remainder of the interview.
When it came
to prosecuting me--
(siren wails)
[Narrator] Stuart Syvret was prosecuted
under the data protection law.
When the authorities
were prosecuting me,
I claimed that this was a legitimate
public interest disclosure defense.
And I, with an expert witness, was able
to produce a set of reports
that effectively destroyed
(siren wails)
the prosecution case.
[Narrator] In reaction to this,
the magistrates ruled that
Stuart Syvret's defense case,
that he had leaked the report
in the public interest,
would no longer be
admissible but continued
to prosecute him all the
same without a defense case.
Over the past seven years,
Stuart Syvret has been
repeatedly taken to court
and imprisoned three times.
He does not know when or if
the persecution will end,
nor does he know when he will find himself
behind bars again.
To look at Jersey from the outside,
it looks like it's got
a prosecution system.
It looks like it's got a
court and a legislature.
But none of it's real.
It's a Potemkin village.
None of these systems in Jersey meet
the tests of being objective,
(sirens wail)
of being objective or
actually functioning properly.
The experience that
Stuart Syvret had is perhaps
at the blunter end of the scale.
He was simply suppressed
and taken to court
on trumped up charges.
(siren wails)
(speech drowned out by siren)
This is kind of how oppression
happens in Jersey, see.
All kinds of little things
get done to harass people.
They don't often go to
the kinds of extremes
that they did against me in
terms of actually arresting me
and putting me in prison, but
the authorities use all kinds
of other lesser, little methods
to interfere with people,
kind of sabotage things, you know,
obstruct people, make
life difficult for people.
You know, if you annoy the
establishment in Jersey,
you won't get a job here.
Your children won't get decent jobs.
That's kind of how it works, isn't it?
I went to Jersey in March
2009, with Nick Shaxson.
About 24 hours after we arrived
in Jersey, we were there
for several days, Nick said,
"Have you noticed that
we're being followed?
"Ever since we arrived at the
airport, we've been followed."
He said, "Don't look know,
but we're being followed now."
It turns out he was quite correct.
We were being followed.
And I found that very disturbing,
very disturbing indeed.
[Narrator] They have a saying in Jersey.
If you don't like it here,
there's always a boat in the morning.
Jersey finance promotional
literature states,
"Jersey represents an extension
of the City of London."
It's where the City of
London chooses to do many
of their activities which they
couldn't do in London itself.
We're here to talk about this
one company called Appleby.
I'll just read what they
say on their website.
"Members of the firm,
Appleby has gone on not only
"to political office but
also in a number of centers,
"Bermuda, Jersey, the Isle
of Man and the Cayman Islands
"to senior judicial office."
So essentially they're
boasting of the fact
that their staff and their
partners have a real interchange
between the people that are in power
in these offshore financial centers.
[Narrator] The same
lawyers and accountants
who set up and administer offshore trusts
also occupy senior political positions.
In Britain's offshore world,
most politicians are in business.
They lobby for business and
promote business interests.
They draft, refine and pass legislation.
Politicians sit on the boards
of the companies they
are supposed to regulate.
(solemn music)
There is no place for
dirty money in Britain.
Indeed, there should be no
place for dirty money anywhere.
The challenge I'm laying down
for every country today is
to root out the rot of
corruption, to ensure transparency
over what your own companies
are doing, require transparency
for foreign companies
in your country, too,
and work with us to spread this approach
to transparency around the world.
[Narrator] In public,
British politicians claim
they are cracking down
on secrecy jurisdictions
and corruption, but in
practice, they do the opposite.
I talked to politicians in Brussels.
They say that they've had
more lobbyists from London,
and including politicians,
come to them to protect
the City of London's
interests than they've had
from every other European
member state combined,
which gives you some idea of the extent
to which British
politicians see themselves
as essentially lobbyists
for the City of London.
We'll begin with our big story.
Cayman's efforts to ensure transparency
in its financial services
sector is being recognized
by the international community.
Earlier this week,
the UK's Prime Minister
David Cameron told Parliament
that the tax haven label placed
on its Crown dependencies
and overseas territories is unfair.
[Narrator] Many British
politicians have personal
and business ties with the City of London
and British secrecy jurisdictions.
Former British Prime Minister
David Cameron's father,
Ian Cameron, was an
expert in offshore funds
and was involved in offshore
trusts from the 1980s onwards.
At this courthouse behind me here
in Saint Helier, we found this.
It's a document called a grant of probate,
and it's attached to the
English will of none other
than Ian Cameron, David Cameron's father.
Say hello to Mom and Dad.
I'm fine, how are you?
Good to see you.
[Reporter] Ian Cameron
was certainly a wealthy man.
In 2009, his personal
fortune was estimated
by researchers for the
Sunday Times Rich List
at 10 million pounds.
Yet when Ian Cameron died in 2010,
his estate was much smaller
than might be expected,
just 2.7 million pounds.
In many cases, it's the
politicians and their cronies
and their families and so
on and the business people
who sponsor the political parties,
who aren't using these
offshore services themselves.
So they've got no personal
interest in closing it down.
If they wanted to close it
down, they could do it tomorrow.
The fact of the matter is
they don't want to do it,
because they themselves are
complicit with the process.
If you come from the
same kind of background,
and you know the right people,
then all the kind of legal
niceties will often fall away.
You can get away with
doing all sorts of things
that they wouldn't just let
any old person, you know,
if you came knocking on the door saying,
"Can you set up an offshore
company to do this,"
they'd tell you to get lost.
But if you're part of the networks,
you can do these kinds of things.
So that's a very important
part of the whole system,
upper-class British public
school kind of establishment,
that has been there since,
you know, for centuries.
[Narrator] The British
establishment, an old-boys network
of privileged elites, had
carved out a lucrative niche
for themselves in the offshore world
after the demise of empire.
They transformed themselves
from administrators of empire
into financial handlers
for the global elite
and multinational corporations.
As more money flowed offshore,
societies around the globe began
to feel the impact of the offshore world.
The reality is not what you believe.
Your prime minister has the
power to decide on the future
of your country.
The power is hidden here.
We have country after
country around the world
where the lack of financial
transparency about taxation,
about ownership, about corruption
has undermined the extent
to which governments deliver
representative policymaking
for their citizens.
We have extreme cases like
the hiding of tax evasion
by people in finance ministries
in Greece, in France,
but we also have this system
that in general is geared
towards anonymous company ownership.
The anonymous ownership of
properties across London,
of half of the land in Scotland.
Do we really think that any circumstances
in which government has work better,
in which markets work better,
in which the distribution
of income and assets is better,
when we allow so much to be hidden.
Who wants to not know who
you're doing business with?
Who wants their government to
have people working for it,
or to be led by people
whose assets are hidden,
whose financial transactions
are conducted anonymously offshore?
This is a bad direction for the world.
We need the citizens to
understand what is happening,
that they are the ones
who is carrying the burden
and that some individuals having the power
are exonerating themselves.
Ordinary people are paying taxes.
Rich people are not.
So this is inequality, and
it is leading up to populism,
because it shows so clearly
that the people today
leading the vote are not able
to take care of the
interest of ordinary people.
Back in the '60s and '70s,
you know, tax evasion or pushing back
against taxation, it was kind of seen
as antiestablishment, so
you know, The Rolling Stones
and Phil Collins, all these
people kind of going offshore,
going away, it was seen as a
sort of rebellious thing to do.
And if you fast forward
to the present day,
now that is the establishment.
The offshore system is the establishment.
[Narrator] Today,
offshore is the way elites
and multinational corporations
conduct their affairs.
Tax evasion is the way business is done.
This kind of sophisticated cheating
requires a huge infrastructure.
We like to talk about the
pinstripe infrastructure
of highly educated people
who think it is their right
to help others to cheat societies.
(solemn music)
We have a new mafia in town.
It does not actually shoot people.
It does not put bullets in their kneecaps,
but its trade is just as deadly.
It deprives people of opportunities
to have healthcare, education, security,
justice and essentially a fulfilling life.
[Narrator] Accountants form the backbone
of the offshore system.
They administer the structures
that allow individuals and corporations
to shift their money
offshore and evade taxes.
There are about 2.5 million
professionally qualified
accountants on this planet.
About 330,000 are in the UK.
Well-known people, well-dressed, well-fed,
highly paid are sitting
in city center offices,
and they are paid to dream
up tax avoidance schemes
for individuals and for corporations.
We can all elect a government,
which says, "Vote for us.
"We will give you better healthcare,
"better education, better security."
And the next day, accountant
says, "Sorry about that, folks.
"You elected this government,
"but we actually got a
tax avoidance scheme.
"The Amazons and the Googles
"and the Microsofts
won't be paying any taxes
"in your jurisdiction.
"Too bad, you voted for it, but actually,
"you're gonna get something else."
So it's a crazy world,
that part of the business model
at big accountancy firms is how
to deny public the services by erosion
of tax revenues.
And these firms are the rewarded
with government-funded contracts.
And the same firms are then advising
local governments and
the central governments,
and the same firms then report
on the company accountant,
tell us all is well.
When I argued this with a
Price Waterhouse partner
in a face-to-face debate,
he said, "Professor Sikka,
"you never give us credit for anything.
"We generate millions
of dollars of revenues,
"and we have lots and
lots of satisfied clients.
"What is your problem?"
And my response is very simply.
"That's the language of
drug-pushers and pimps."
(solemn music)
[Narrator] In Britain, a new breed
of civil servant was rising to the top.
One such civil servant was Dave Hartnett,
who rose to the top of
HMRC, the UK tax authority.
Dave Hartnett had a new
way of collecting tax.
Deals would be negotiated
on an individual basis,
behind closed doors.
In the case of the largest clients,
Dave Hartnett frequently led
the negotiations himself.
British Telecom was one
of the first companies
through the program and received a refund
of over 1 billion pounds.
BT's chief executive, Ben Verwaayen wrote,
"Earnings per share up 14% and nice
to know we have a 1-billion-pound
credit from the taxman."
Dave Hartnett claimed this
approach was more efficient.
Litigation in the courts is
really phenomenally expensive
in this day and age, all over the world
and I think is to be
avoided where possible.
And the artists persuade people to pay
by strength of argument and the like.
[Crowd] Pay your tax,
pay your tax, pay your tax!
[Narrator] After
protests erupted in 2011,
the Treasury Select Committee
questions Dave Hartnett.
Dave Hartnett claimed he
could not give any information
due to taxpayer confidentiality.
What in statute prevents you
from disclosing information to Parliament?
All my advice, Mr.
Barclay, so far has been
that I am prevented, and my
colleagues are prevented,
by the act and by the
decision of the commissioners.
[Narrator] Dave
Hartnett failed to mention
that the legal advice
he had received stated
that the disclosure of information was
at the discretion of the head of HMRC.
The head of HMRC was
Dave Hartnett himself.
Just like the mafia
has penetrated the state,
accountancy firms have
also penetrated the state.
And the head of anti-avoidance
in the UK tax authority is
from one of these firms.
The newly appointed chairman
of Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs,
which is a tax authority,
is a partner from KPMG.
Their partners have penetrated the state.
They are running the Treasury.
(solemn music)
[Narrator] Britain's
financial services industry
had penetrated the state
and began to shape its laws
for its own benefit.
The degree of political
capture by the City of London,
by the big banks and the big
law firms, is so enormous
that the politicians have effectively
become their spokespersons.
(solemn music)
[Narrator] With the government unwilling
to act in the interest of the public,
a group of protestors
confronted Dave Hartnett
at a private event in Oxford.
Hi, everybody, I'm sorry to interrupt.
I'm gonna take a few moments of your time.
Here, tonight, this is Dave,
and your award is the
lifetime achievement award
for services to corporate tax planning.
(audience applauds)
[Woman] Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Dave, you've been a great
friend to the industry
and a great friend to
many of us over the years,
and really we just can't thank you enough
for all you've done.
Obviously, it was at Vodafone,
you know, it saved us
billions off our tax bill.
And our friends at Goldman Sachs as well,
we've also saved us millions as well.
25 million or so.
Everybody, these people
are trespassers and intruders.
[Woman] And I know you've had problems
with those pesky protesters.
And you will go to him.
You will depart immediately
before we set the dogs on you.
♪ For he's a jolly good fellow ♪
♪ For he's a jolly good fellow ♪
♪ So say Goldman Sachs ♪
♪ And so say Goldman Sachs ♪
♪ And so say Goldman Sachs ♪
♪ For he's a jolly good fellow ♪
♪ For he's a jolly good fellow ♪
♪ For he's a jolly good fellow ♪
Let's go, you're trespassing.
[Woman] I'm so sorry.
You are trespassing scum, go.
(door slams)
(solemn music)
[Narrator] After his retirement,
Dave Hartnett moved to the private sector.
One of his positions was at
accountancy firm Deloitte,
where he advises foreign
governments on corporate taxation.
Dave Hartnett is a Companion
of the Order of the Bath,
an honor bestowed on him
by the British monarch.
We have formerly are ministers acting
as advisors to accountancy firms.
Accountancy firms provide jobs
and consultancies for potential ministers.
To my mind really, it's an
indication of corrupt structures.
People are buying and selling influences.
When a former minister works
for an accountancy firm,
he's not providing any
accounting knowledge.
He is opening political
opportunities, home and abroad.
That is what they are doing.
I hope by now you share my views
that I don't trust most bankers.
I don't trust most lawyers.
I don't trust most accounting firms.
I actually think they're engaged
in the conspiracy against public interest.
[Narrator] In Britain, secrecy
and complexity in finance
and government help to obscure
corruption in public office.
Financial structures are often so complex
that even after they
are publicly revealed,
they are not widely
recognized for what they are.
An example of this is PFI, the
private finance initiative.
PFI is private finance initiative.
It is a way of funding
public infrastructure,
things like hospitals,
schools, roads and bridges,
but financing them via the private sector,
rather than the historical method,
which is via central government.
Over a period of 30 or 40 years,
the amounts of kind of
repayment costs will be sort
of three or four times higher overall
than if you'd borrowed it
from the central government
in the first place.
So it's basically a giant accounting scam.
Once the PFI policy has been set up,
you find that's the Big
Four accountancy firms
were actually paid members of staff
within the treasury department
who were then actually
going around and selling
and advising upon the implementation
of PFI contracts by public authorities.
Effectively saying, "Come to
us, and we will show you how
"to derive the most benefit
from it," in other words,
how to perhaps exploit the legislation.
Even the offices
of the state tax authority
are now owned offshore.
HMRC, which is the tax
collector here in the UK,
their offices are owned in Bermuda
by a company called Mapeley Steps.
That's quite incredible.
[Narrator] The company
that owns the PFI contract
to run HMRC's head office borrowed money
from offshore investors at 15% interest.
Because the interest was so high,
the company was losing money.
Therefore, it did not pay tax.
In 2011, HMRC could not prove
that any PFI company was
paying any tax in the UK.
I think we need to have
a serious conversation
about the role of government
in this whole debacle
and how much our government
is being penetrated
by big banks and accountancy firms
and ultimately in whose
interest it operates.
(solemn music)
The reason we were protesting
outside the Africa PPP Conference is
that we wanted to make
sure that citizens back
in Africa should hear about the fact
that such policies have
been a complete failure,
here in the UK.
We know that these products
are not being marketed
to African countries in
their own best interests.
The only motivation is to spread the reach
of financial services into new markets.
And it's all being
promoted in the interests
of the City of London.
What you're seeing is basically
a second form of colonialization.
You've had initially occupation
and resource extraction.
And through that process,
countries like Britain,
which have had a large offshore empire
have developed significant networks,
and now those networks are being used
to promote and exploit financial services.
(solemn music)
[Narrator] The City of London
was the beating financial
heart of the British Empire.
As Britain's empire declined,
the city transformed itself
from a hub operating the
financial machinery of empire
into a global financial center.
Former insignificant outposts
of empire became the basis
for a spider's web of
offshore secrecy jurisdictions
that captured wealth from across the globe
and funneled it to the City of London.
Today, 25% of the international
finance is conducted
on British territory.
Almost half of the world's
secrecy jurisdictions are
under British protection.
Up to half of all offshore
wealth may be hidden
in Britain's offshore havens.
Financial services is how Britain's elites
make their money, and it is also
where former government ministers,
senior civil servants and
retired spooks from MI5
and MI6 receive lucrative
consulting positions
after their time in public service.
Together they have transformed
Britain and its dependencies
into the world's largest tax haven,
harming development throughout the world
and turning Britain itself into a country
that serves, above all, the
interests of its elites.
(solemn music)
(solemn music)
[Newscaster] The British soldier,
all around the globe you'll find him
from Gibraltar to Hong Kong.
Everywhere he stands against
the threatening years,
staunch symbol of our
common will to order.
Up!
(solemn music)
[Narrator] The British Empire,
the largest empire the
world has ever known.
For over 300 years, Britain ruled.
It's army has conquered.
And it's bankers proclaimed
the might of its currency.
But one day, it all began to fall apart.
One by one, countries
declared their independence
from Britain, and no amount of
force could reverse the tide.
(solemn music)
As British elites saw
their wealth, privileges
and empire disintegrate,
they began to search
for a new role in a changing world,
and they found one in finance.
(solemn music)
This is a film about
how Britain transformed
from a colonial power to
a modern financial power
and how this transformation has
shaped the world we live in.
(solemn music)
(dramatic music)
In the days of the British
Empire, the City of London
was the world's biggest
global financial center.
The City of London was the
kind of beating financial heart
of the British Empire.
Historians, Cain and Hopkins,
called it the governor
of the imperial engine.
All these countries in the Empire used
to use the sterling currency,
and the City of London was
kind of the financier of this,
not just inside the sterling zone
but outside the sterling zone as well.
[Narrator] As Britain's empire declined,
so too did the City of London.
[Reporter] One British
Army truck is bombed,
killing two soldiers and wounding 12.
As rioting becomes daily,
more widespread on Cypress,
young people of high school
age take an increasing part
in the violence.
Here, a group of girls are being dispersed
after a rock-throwing battle
with British military police.
(solemn music)
[Narrator] With the decline of empire,
British commercial interests
across the globe were under threat.
In 1956, Egypt nationalized
the Suez Canal.
[Reporter] A new
Middle East crisis arises
as President Nasser of Egypt
tells a wildly cheering
crowd in Alexandria
that Egypt has seized the
internationally owned Suez Canal.
France and Britain issue
a 12-hour ultimatum.
Within hours of its expiration,
Britain's war planes are
winging their way to Egypt,
and its bombers attacked five
key cities, including Cairo.
[Narrator] The United States
was opposed to the invasion
and put pressure on Britain and France
to withdraw their troops.
There will be no
United States involvement
in these present hostilities.
It is our hope and intent
this matter will be brought
before the United
Nations General Assembly.
There, the opinion of the
world can be brought to bear
in our quest for a just end
to this tormenting problem.
(solemn music)
[Narrator] Britain was humiliated.
The Suez crisis signified
the end of Britain's role
as one of the world's major powers.
Following the crisis, there was a run
on the sterling, on the UK pound.
Some people suspected
the American government
was encouraging this run on the UK pound.
[Narrator] As financiers
withdrew their money
from Britain, the value
of the pound decreased.
To protect the value of the pound,
Britain limited the
bank's overseas lending.
They were not able to invest abroad.
And obviously, they were unhappy.
And we don't know exactly the context,
but it's very clear that the
banks, or their representative,
made a representation
to the Bank of England, ,
which in itself was
dominated by representing
from the banking industry.
It seems that they have
reached an agreement,
which was never written, that
if the banks intermediated
between two non-residents,
in a foreign currency,
in that case the dollar,
that this particular intermediation,
this particular deal
will not be considered
by the Bank of England
under its own jurisdiction.
[Narrator] The banks
began to create a market
for dollars in London, called
the London Eurodollar market.
To differentiate these
Euromarket activities
from their domestic banking activities,
banks kept two sets of accounts.
The Bank of England, the
UK regulator, declared
that the London Euromarket
accounts were not in London.
They were elsewhere, and
therefore it had no responsibility
for regulating them.
It's about providing a legal space
in which you pretend
activity is taking place.
And the importance of that is
that you pretend it's not taking place
in the economy where it
really is taking place.
So you're taking activity from the place
where it's regulated and taxed
and pretending that it's
happening elsewhere.
Now, where doesn't really matter.
It's just elsewhere.
[Narrator] When American banks realized
that London offered the ability
to avoid US regulations,
they moved their international
operations to the city.
(solemn music)
Around the same time as American banks
were moving their international
operations to London,
another new kind of financial
space began to emerge,
far away from London, in
Britain's overseas jurisdictions,
the last remnants of empire.
Back in the '60s,
the Cayman Islands was
a complete backwater.
The stories go that the
mosquitoes were so thick
in the air sometimes they
were enough to suffocate cows.
That's a legend that you hear
about the Cayman Islands.
I don't know how true it was.
But there was nothing happening there.
[Narrator] Accountants and
lawyers from London arrived
in the Cayman Islands and
other British dependencies
and began to draft a set
of financial secrecy laws and regulations.
Because these jurisdictions'
main selling point was secrecy,
they were called secrecy jurisdictions.
What the Cayman Islands was doing
was straightforwardly illegal activity.
Drug money was coming in, in
huge quantities, tax evasion.
Whatever you wanted, you could have it.
[Narrator] The Bank
of England was observing
the developments from London and noted
in a report market secret,
dated 11th of April, 1969,
"We need to be quite sure that
the possible proliferation
"of trust companies, banks, et cetera,
"which in most cases would be no more
"than brass plates manipulating assets
"outside the islands
does not get out of hand.
"There is of course no objection
"to their providing
boltholes for non-residents,
"but we need to be sure that in so doing,
"opportunities are not
created for the transfer
"of UK capital to the non-sterling
area outside UK rules."
These small territories,
the last remnants of the British Empire,
which are still overseas
territories today,
they are still the last
remnants of the British Empire.
There are 14 of these
overseas territories.
Seven of them are bonafide a tax haven,
including the Cayman Islands, Bermuda,
the British Virgin Islands.
Some of the biggest tax havens
in the world today are still British.
[Narrator] With access to
large amounts of offshore money,
the Euromarket grew rapidly.
By 1980, it had reached $500 billion.
By 1988, $4.8 trillion.
And by 1997, nearly 90% of all
international loans were made
through this market.
The British Empire had sunk,
leaving hardly a trace behind.
But the City of London
adapted and survived.
The City of London,
London's financial district,
is a peculiar place.
It has been called a city within a city,
a state within a state.
It is run by an organization
called the City of London Corporation,
a private company that
performs all the functions
of a local council with
a private police force
and private courts.
Those of you who aren't from the UK,
some of you even who are,
might not be aware just how weird a thing
the little City of London
is within the big London.
The City of London is a separate
entity to the wider London,
and it has its own head, the lord mayor.
He's distinct from the mayor.
He runs the rest of London.
[Narrator] Every November,
the city stages the lord mayor's show,
the world's oldest civic procession.
(upbeat music)
The city of London has long
had this curious legal status,
because back in 1066, when
William the Conqueror came over,
the city was one of the
only portions of England
that he failed to conquer,
and he struck a deal
with the city, in 1067, that allowed them
to continue to function.
[Narrator] To this day,
the City of London is exempt
from numerous laws that
govern the rest of Britain.
Its political system derives
from the Middle Ages.
The city's electorate is
dominated not by its residents,
but by the private business
operating within the city.
Its lord mayor is selected by
the heads of medieval guilds.
They have a representative
in the House of Commons
called the Remembrancer.
Apart from the clerks
of the House of Commons,
he's the only unelected person there.
All other lobbyists
have to stop in the lobby.
They're not allowed past the lobby.
[Narrator] The City of London
has a permanent representative
in the House of Commons
whose role is to report back
to the City of London Corporation
and to lobby Parliament
on behalf of the city.
The Corporation of London, clearly,
it's a unique and interesting phenomenon
that should have attracted
many political scientists,
political economists and columnists.
But I don't know if
anyone who has studied,
systematically, the Corporation
of London and its impact
on policy or economic policy.
So we can only surmise.
Some people assume or surmise
that the Corporation of
London is extremely powerful.
It is able in one way or
another to shape British policy,
particularly with international matters.
Clement Attlee, the prime minister
of the Second World War,
had something to say
about the City of London Corporation.
[Paul] He did, yeah.
"Over and over again, we
have seen that there is,
"in this country, another power than
"that which has its seat at Westminster.
"The City of London, a
convenient term for a collection
"of financial interest,
is able to assert itself
"against the government of the country.
"Those who control money
can pursue a policy
"at home and abroad contrary to that
"which is being decided by the people."
[Narrator] At the heart
of the City of London
stands the Bank of England.
The Bank of England is
not just a central bank.
It is also a financial regulator.
At the demise of empire,
the Bank of England used
its regulatory authority
to help attract the
world's banks to London.
In 1972, the Bank of
England issued a license
to the Bank of Credit and
Commerce International,
which set up its head office in London.
Within 10 years, the BCCI grew
into the seventh-largest
bank in the world.
10 years later, the BCCI was bankrupt.
The Deputy Director of
the CIA, Richard Kerr,
said late today that the CIA did use BCCI
to support CIA activities overseas.
[Narrator] But BCCI
had not just collaborated
with the world's intelligence services,
it had also engaged in
extensive financial fraud,
money laundering and terrorist financing.
BCCI constituted
international global crime
of a level that boggles the mind.
[Reporter] BCCI was financing terrorism.
The Bank of England knew
it, says the report,
but instead of supervising it properly,
it tried to prevent the bank's collapse.
I am saying very directly
that the Bank of England
had sufficient information
in front of it to close BCCI
15 months earlier than it did.
Millions of depositors
were hurt in that process.
[Narrator] Numerous
whistleblowers from BCCI
had contacted the Bank of England.
Yet the Bank of England did nothing.
The Bank of England had plenty of time
to intervene and investigate,
but it did not do so,
because the tradition at that time,
which still survives,
is that, well, actually,
you have to just kind of send hints
and talk over lunch tables
with the chaps regulating other chaps,
and all would be well.
[Narrator] Robin
Leigh-Pemberton, the governor
of the Bank of England at the time
of the collapse of BCCI,
commented, "The present system
"of supervision has
served the community well.
"If we closed down a bank every
time we found an incidence
"of fraud, you would
have rather fewer banks
"than we do at the moment."
London was a place for
banks to engage in business
that was not allowed elsewhere,
where senior bankers did not have to worry
about the consequences of their actions.
This is one of the reasons
why today there are more banks
in London than in any
other financial center.
In Britain, nobody goes to jail.
No bankers go to jail.
They generally don't.
They are a protected species.
And that is part of the offshore
business model of the UK,
is to say, "We will protect you.
"Bring your money here,
and we will look after you.
"We're not gonna put you in prison.
"We'll let you do what you want."
[Narrator] Light-touch
regulation was one way
of attracting business to London.
Another was secrecy.
From the 1960s onwards, City
of London institutions began
to establish offshore
branches in former outposts
of the British Empire.
Their aim was to create offshore centers
with strong secrecy legislation in order
to attract capital from across the globe.
Swiss banking secrecy
is the most famous,
the most well-known.
You put your money in a Swiss bank,
and they promise not to tell anybody.
That's one kind of secrecy,
but another kind of secrecy,
which is very British, is the trust.
And the trust is a very
slippery, complicated
and devious mechanism.
Trusts emerged, the legend
has it, from the time
of the Crusades, when the
knights would go off and fight
in foreign lands, and they
would leave their assets
in the care of trusted stewards.
What trusts do, ultimately, is they play
with the concept of ownership.
Ownership is not such a simple thing.
So the settlor, the knight in this case,
would hand over the assets to someone
who these days would be called a trustee.
It's often a lawyer.
Legally, you are separated
from those assets.
They're not yours anymore.
There's a barrier.
You can't be taxed on them.
Nobody's gonna find anything
about your connection to these assets.
[Narrator] In Britain's
offshore jurisdictions,
no qualifications are
necessary to be a trustee.
Anyone can set up a trust
and act as a trustee.
There is no registry of trusts.
There are no bodies to certify
that a trust has been set up.
The only persons who
know about the creation
of this agreement are the
trustee and the settlor.
There's no obligation to register it.
There is no financial
reporting obligation of trusts.
They're not required to
put annual statements
on to account anywhere.
So actually trusts are, to
all intents and purposes,
invisible arrangements.
[Narrator] Economist John Christensen
was an economic adviser to
the secrecy jurisdiction
of Jersey for 10 years.
We're not talking about a few million.
We're talking now about trillions,
trillions of dollars of capital,
which apparently belong to nobody.
For tax purposes and for other purposes,
they belong to nobody.
Everything, works of arts, gold bullion,
horse-race horses, cars, real estate,
not just financial assets but a whole lot
of non-financial assets
belong to these trusts,
sitting there belonging to nobody.
Now think that one through,
'cause we are talking
about maybe as much as $50 trillion
of assets sitting offshore,
behind these instruments.
Well, the Cayman
Islands are among several
British overseas territories
who have signed a new
information exchange agreement
with Britain and the rest of
Europe to tackle tax evasion.
The countries are now required
to automatically provide
details of the ownership
of bank accounts and how they're used.
Cayman became the first
signatory last week.
It's important that the Cayman Islands
should be recognized as the
first overseas territory
to sign such an agreement
with the United Kingdom.
And I think this importantly reflects
the constructive approach that
the Cayman Islands has taken
in delivering our shared objective
of rooting out tax evasion.
The trust lies at the core
of the British secrecy model.
They don't use banking secrecy.
The Swiss use banking secrecy.
The British, of course,
are only too willing
to kill off banking secrecy,
because they will then
capture a larger market share.
That's why the Brits are doing this.
[Narrator] Trusts are
the basic building block
of Anglo-Saxon secrecy,
and they form the basis
from which complex offshore
structures are created.
Every secrecy jurisdiction
offers a specific set
of services, from trusts
to shell companies
to secret bank accounts
and nominee directors.
The combination of these services
into complex structures
spanning multiple jurisdictions
enables the creation of secrecy structures
that are almost impossible to penetrate.
An offshore structure
will often have a trust kind
of sitting at the top of it.
The trust will be here,
managing the assets,
kind of controlling the assets.
Underneath it, the trust will
own some shell companies.
Each one might be in a
different jurisdiction.
So you might have a trust
in one jurisdiction.
These trustees are somewhere else,
whose beneficiaries are somewhere else,
which owns offshore
companies somewhere else.
Each of these companies
might then own assets.
So they might own a bank
account, a racehorse, a yacht,
a painting, a portfolio
of shares or whatever.
[Narrator] There are
numerous variations of trusts
and offshore secrecy structures.
There are offshore lawyers
whose work entails the creation
of evermore complex
and obscure structures.
The aim of these structures
is to hide the identity
of the owners of offshore
assets and allow offshore wealth
to be recycled back into global markets.
Looking on the amount
of money being administrated
from tax havens,
you see that it is a
curve going like this.
And all the talking we have been doing,
along with other wonderful people fighting
against tax havens, has
not changed anything.
It is the world where
you say, "Go on talking
"and go on talking.
"You're interesting me."
And I'm going on doing what I want to do.
We know everything today,
because we have had the Panama Papers.
We have seen it, and we are
not able to act upon it.
And we are not able to act upon it,
because this system is really
protecting the few people
that are having benefit from it.
And these are, of course,
in fact, very few people,
but they are powerful.
And I see in the Panama
committee that I'm sitting in,
the only thing that could change this is
to have a public accessible register
of the beneficial ownership of trusts
and of all kind of companies.
It is easy.
[Narrator] The Panama Papers
are a collection of leaks
from the offshore law
firm Mossack Fonseca.
Mossack Fonseca is the
fourth-largest offshore law firm.
The other nine of the 10
largest offshore law firms
are registered in British
overseas jurisdictions.
When countries complained to Britain
about the activities run
out of its offshore havens,
Britain claims that these
places are independent
and that there is nothing it can do.
I'd heard time and time
again from officials in Berlin
and in Paris and in Washington
and in other countries
that they'd been told by
the British government,
yes, they're well aware of
what's going on in Jersey,
and they think it's very unfortunate,
but they don't have the
powers to intervene.
Well, that's a straightforward lie.
They do have the powers to intervene.
They just choose not to.
Britain plays this kind
of game of pretending
when it suits them to pretend
that these places are independent.
At the end of the day,
Britain appoints the governor,
appoints lots of senior
people in these places.
They are responsible for
foreign relations and defense.
And also they can veto
their legislation as well.
So Britain has a massive
degree of control.
Basically it is controlling these places,
allowing them a little
bit of political space.
[Narrator] During his time
as economic adviser to Jersey,
John Christensen frequently
traveled to London
for talks with various British
government departments.
As economic adviser,
I had a lot of contact
with different departments.
Traditionally, UK
governments have tried not
to interfere in the domestic
affairs of places like Jersey.
So it happens in a more
subtle sort of way.
You kind of go and talk to someone,
either at the home office or the treasury.
And they'd say, "We're not
actually, particularly keen
"on this piece of legislation.
"It might be a good idea if
you didn't go down that route."
And over a cup of tea,
that's quite a strong signal.
That's a signal, go back to the island,
and say they don't want you to do this.
[Narrator] The British
government prefers not
to interfere overtly.
Instead, it communicates its desires
through informal discussions.
There is no paper trail
or official statement.
Discussions take place
behind closed doors.
The relationship that these places have
with London is very much about
the British establishment,
and people understanding each other.
I mean, anybody who is British
or knows British people knows
that communication between
us is often very subtle,
and you have to kind of know the codes
when people say stuff.
I mean, a lot of irony involved and a lot
of kind of codified language
for British establishment,
that people kind of
understand how it works.
And I think that is very much the case
with the British relationship
with the tax havens.
I think there's a lot of
understanding of what we can
and can't do without anyone
having to actually spell it out.
[Narrator] By keeping its power hidden,
Britain is able to claim
that these jurisdictions
are politically autonomous.
Independence for Cayman is
not on government's agenda.
That's the message being sent
to the UN Special Committee
on Decolonization.
Attorney Steve McField will
be representing government
at the UN meeting.
The committee was set up to
help colonies around the world
on the road to independence.
But Mr. McField says
he'll be making it clear
that Cayman is not ready
for that transition.
And that message is that the Premier,
his Cabinet, his party has no mandate
from the people of the Cayman
Islands to seek independence.
That is the message
that I will be carrying.
[Narrator] When the
Bahamas declared independence
from Britain in 1967, the
offshore bankers relocated
to the Cayman Islands
and continued their business from there.
It was the British connection
that reassured bankers
and their clients that
their money was safe.
This British bedrock,
that is what has allowed these
places to become so trusted
by the financial services industry
and offshore finance and all these people.
[Narrator] In reality, much
of the wealth administered
in Britain's offshore havens
is controlled from London.
The City of London, by and large,
likes to do its really
dirty work outside London.
There might, Heaven forbid, be a regulator
that actually takes the job seriously
and starts to prosecute
them for fraud in London.
So better to do the frauds
offshore in Gibraltar or Jersey,
where there's much less risk
that a serious prosecution
will ever happen.
[Narrator] Deals are often discussed
and concluded in London but
then registered offshore
for tax transparency
and regulatory purposes.
What they allow the city
to do is to get involved
in dirty business, but
then when the scandal hits,
to say, "Well, they're
kind of independent.
"There's nothing we can
do about those places.
"That's not us.
"That's tax haven activity,
and we're the city.
"We're not involved in
that kind of stuff."
So it's an incredibly kind
of convenient relationship.
The City of London has
shaped the way in which Jersey,
Guernsey and the British
overseas territories
have developed as tax havens.
I see these places as
the Frankensteins created
by the City of London.
[Narrator] Today, the UK is
the world's largest provider
of international financial services.
The UK has an almost unique
role in global finance.
And if you look at data, the kind of data
that we've constructed in
the Financial Secrecy Index,
you can see the relative
shares of each country
in the global provision of
financial services exports.
That's financial services
to non-residents.
Now there are two big centers,
and everything else is
quite small in comparison.
[Narrator] The two large
centers are the United States,
with around 19% of the global market,
and the United Kingdom and
its offshore jurisdictions,
which have around 25%
of the global market.
And if you add to that
other jurisdictions,
ex-colonies, that recently
independent, fairly recently,
by which I mean Hong Kong, Singapore,
maybe even Dubai and Bahrain and Cyprus,
then you reach a figure of nearly 40%.
And I think that figure
represents better the position
of London in the global financial market.
(dramatic music)
And the soldiers left.
The administrators left all the colonies.
But they still kept a
significant degree of control
over the financial flows from
these former parts of empire
and the rest of the world.
So you could describe
it as a second empire,
Britain's second empire, sort
of hidden financial empire,
spanning large parts of the globe.
[Narrator] At the time
of the British Empire,
the City of London was the world's largest
global financial center.
Not only Britain's colonies
but also independent countries
did their banking in London
and used the Empire's currency
for trade and financing.
As the Empire declined, so
too did the City of London.
The establishment of the
London Euromarket enabled
City of London banks to continue
to exploit their empire
era networks and expertise,
and the creation of secrecy
jurisdictions gave banks access
to large amounts of cheap money.
International banks from across
the globe set up branches
in London and Britain's
offshore jurisdictions
in order to take advantage
of this new system.
This system has taken the
place of the occupation,
I mean, up till '62 for France.
I don't know for England,
but about the same time,
England very physically
present in that sort of thing
and other colonies.
And when you look at the money flows
through the tax havens,
they are increasing
when we withdraw from the colonies.
We are still plundering
developing countries
as former colonial powers.
[Narrator] Wealthy
individuals, organized crime
and corporations shifted
their wealth offshore
in exchange for secrecy and no tax.
And as countries around the
world began to deregulate
and open their economies, it
became ever easier to do so.
Today, as much as half
of all global offshore
wealth may be hidden
in Britain's secrecy jurisdictions.
One of the losers is Africa,
whose flight capital flows mostly
into the modern British spider's web.
I think it's no coincidence
that Britain's offshore
empire emerged more or less
at the same time as the
collapse of the formal empire.
We tend to think of Africa
as being a huge net debtor
to the rest of the world,
but that was the extent
of their debts at the end
of 2008, $177 billion.
[Narrator] The debt of
Sub-Saharan African nations stood
at $177 billion in 2008.
Yet the wealth these countries'
elites had moved offshore
between 1970 and 2008 is
estimated at $944 billion,
over five times their foreign debt.
$944 billion, do the maths.
Far from being a net debtor,
Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa,
is a net creditor to
the rest of the world.
[Narrator] As capital moved offshore,
African nations borrowed money
from international banks at high interest.
Over time, these debts became so great
that they may never be repaid.
Secrecy jurisdictions were
starving developing nations
of their wealth
and their tax revenues.
For a long time, a lot
of developing countries,
including recently
Ecuador, have been trying
to set up a UN tax body,
which is of a higher value
than what is currently there,
which is the UN Tax Committee.
And every time this has
happened, it has gotten blocked.
During the financing
for development process
in Addis Ababa last year,
I think it was the UK and the
US that blocked attempts again
to set up this world tax organization.
So why would they not want
to have democratic decision-making
in global decisions
on how tax gets collected across borders?
I don't understand this.
As long as we have cross-border activity
that involves both criminal
and legal activity,
as long as we're unable
to separate the two,
this is going to continue to be a problem.
[Narrator] Western
nations block attempts
to provide greater transparency
of international financial flows
and the implementation of global standards
for the collection of tax across borders,
whilst elites in developing
nations use offshore centers
to hide their wealth offshore.
The oil from Gabon has not
benefited people in Gabon.
And this is true for the
copper in Zambia, for the gold
in Mozambique or in Mali.
They have benefited, the
company that do extract it,
and their shareholders.
It has benefited the corrupt
elite in the country.
In developing countries,
the offshore system
of tax havens has facilitated
the looting of the countries
by their elites.
It has enabled them to steal the money
and keep it safe somewhere else.
Illicit financial flows,
because the anonymity
that drives them creates
incentives for people
in positions of power to be corrupt.
This is why there's a group of countries
where development
progress is so difficult.
It's that the incentives of individuals
and the ability to pursue them
through all the mechanisms
that are underpinning the
shift flows outweigh the type
of mechanisms that lead you
to a powerful, representative,
effective state that can
start to deliver development.
(solemn music)
[Narrator] Worldwide,
developing countries lose
over a trillion dollars every year
in capital flight and tax evasion.
Most of this wealth flows
into large western nations,
like the United States and Britain,
and enables their
currencies to stay strong,
whilst developing nations'
currencies remain weak.
But illicit flows into western nations
also had another unexpected side effect.
The economies of the United States
and Britain began to financialize.
The origins of this financialization
or deindustrialization
go back to the 1960s.
[Reporter] Anti-war demonstrators
protest US involvement
in the Vietnam War in mass marches,
rallies and demonstrations.
President Johnson
meanwhile let it be known
that the FBI is closely
watching all anti-war activity.
[Narrator] In the 1960s,
US economist, Michael Hudson,
was working at Chase
Manhattan Bank on Wall Street
as Chase's balance-of-payments economist.
During the 1960s,
the United States'
balance-of-payments deficit
was entirely a result of
foreign military expenditures.
[Narrator] Dollars were
flowing out of the United States
as a result of the cost
of the Vietnam War.
The United States attempted
to prevent the dollars flowing
to Vietnam from being
deposited in foreign banks.
The government asked Chase
to set up a branch in Saigon
during the Vietnam War,
and as you can imagine,
it didn't have windows.
It was sort of a fortress.
It lost money, but the
government went to Chase,
because it said if you
don't get this money
that's being thrown off by
the military in Vietnam,
then it's going to go into French banks.
It'll get the general to go,
and you know what he's
gonna do every month.
He's gonna cash it in for gold.
That's what the United
States was trying to stop.
[Narrator] The US was not successful
in stopping the outflow of money.
So it began to hatch a different plan.
In 1967, Michael Hudson was handed a memo
by a former State Department employee.
In 1967, I was given
by a former State Department employee,
in the elevator at Chase Manhattan,
a memo from the State Department urging
that Chase Manhattan would take the lead
in helping the United States
become the Switzerland
of the world, meaning the flight capital.
The State Department,
through Chase, asked me
to estimate how much money
do you think is available
if America were to become
the new Switzerland
and how do we do it.
The plan was to organize
offshore banking centers
in the Caribbean and elsewhere.
And the hot money wouldn't
come directly into Chase,
because that wouldn't
be nice and very legal.
What happened was that the
Latin American criminals,
other criminals, drug dealers,
all sorts of organized crime,
would put their money in the
offshore Caribbean banks,
and these offshore banks
would then deposit the inflow
in the head office.
[Narrator] By moving
offshore dollars back
into the United States, the US
was able to stop the outflow
of dollars and support
the value of its currency.
Every country looks to
its foreign exchange rate.
The foreign exchange rate is
not only imports and exports.
It's capital movements, and if you look
at the International Monetary Funds's
monthly International
Financial Statistics,
you have sort of a
steady balance of trade,
a steady immigrant's remittances.
What goes up and down are
called errors and omissions.
What the United Nations
and the IMF call errors
and omissions are flight capital.
It's the reason that it's
omitted is they don't like
to really look at this.
In the 1930s, Roy Ovid Hall,
economist for the US Commerce Department,
wanted to include criminal movements
in the balance-of-payments statistics.
And Congress got very upset.
I was told, in Washington,
the argument was,
"We're a Christian country.
"We don't want to report crime.
"It's just, we don't look at it."
And they forbid him to
include criminal money
in the balance of payments.
I guess now you call it
errors and omissions.
You don't call it criminal
inflow and outflow.
[Narrator] In the 1960s
and '70s, Britain was faced
with a similar dilemma
as the United States.
Money was flowing out,
and this decreased the value of the pound.
Britain realized that it
too could support the value
of its currency by opening
its domestic markets
to the trillions of dollars passing
through its offshore havens.
But just as in the United States,
this had an unexpected side effect.
The British banks today,
just as in the 19th century,
don't put their money into
British manufacturing.
They put their money into
real estate speculation,
into financial speculation,
foreign currency, trade.
So the financialization
of London has helped
deindustrialize the country,
because it's enabled
sterling to be supported
by this huge inflow of hot money,
this inflow of drug-dealing
money and criminal money
and tax evasion money all over the world,
that is going to London instead
of going to Switzerland,
Lichtenstein or the Caribbean.
[Narrator] With the silent
backing of the United States,
Britain's offshore havens grew rapidly.
And before long, the
offshore system developed
into the world's dominant
international financial market.
Few were aware how this market functioned.
In 1986, economist John Christensen
went offshore to investigate.
He applied for a position
at the Jersey office
of one of the world's
major accounting firms.
At Deloitte Touche, I was working
in what's called company
and trust administration,
straightforward, offshore stuff.
I went offshore specifically
to work in that area,
because that's where you're dealing
with the offshore companies,
the shell companies,
the offshore trusts, and
you're administering them.
That way, I could see, from working
inside a big global accounting firm,
exactly what the clients were doing.
I had complete access
to all the client files.
And over the course of
my period of working
with Deloitte Touche,
I investigated over 100
of their clients offshore,
and this is what I found.
There was some insider
traders, some market rigging,
some avoiding disclosure
of conflicts of interest,
illicit arms trading, illicit
political campaign donations,
contract kickbacks, bribery,
fraudulent invoicing,
trade mispricing and, at the
bottom, tax evasion, okay.
This is what the clients were doing.
(solemn music)
And the basis of a sample
of the clients I looked at,
not a single client was
involved in what I would regard
as genuinely legitimate activity.
They were all involved in some
kind of tax dodging or worse.
I met with Carl Levin,
who used to be my senator.
And he made a lot of inquiries
into private banking,
asking question to the bankers.
What do you think the
percentage is among your clients
that are using this companies
for legitimate purposes?
The answer was, "I believe that 99.9%
"of my clients are using these companies
"for illicit purposes."
This is a reality.
This is American bankers
telling what they are doing.
And it's exactly the same
thing with UK bankers,
helping their client to
have accounts in Panama
or in Bermuda or in Cayman Islands.
(solemn music)
[Narrator] Secrecy
jurisdictions are heavily used
for fraudulent and gray-area
financial activities,
areas where secrecy is not
just desirable but a necessity.
Legitimate financial activity has no need
for the secrecy offshore
havens provide, nor a desire
to pay the high fees offshore
banks and law firms charge.
Today, close to half of the
world's secrecy jurisdictions
are British dependencies.
In public, these jurisdictions
claim they are transparent,
and their financial
services sectors are engaged
in legitimate financial activities.
Our economy is not based on secrecy.
It's based on transparency.
It's based on a sound
regulatory environment.
It's based on good governance
and good government
with a British government legal system.
That's what our financial
institutions are based on.
Well, tonight, we have
a response from the head
of Cayman Finance, after a group
of US-based anti-tax evasion
activists announced plans
to travel Cayman to draw attention
to what they feel is
corporate tax evasion.
Finance chairman, Mr. Richard Coles,
says he's encouraging the group to visit
and says, "Our financial
sector has nothing to hide."
I would say if anybody wants to come
to Cayman to find out what's coming,
what we do here, come on down.
We have no secrets here.
When I went to the Cayman
Islands, back in 2008,
I think it was, I called
the government spokesman.
He said, "Okay, we have
had an order from on high
"that nobody is allowed to speak to you.
"You are off limits."
[Narrator] In 2011,
journalist Nicholas Shaxson
released Treasure Islands,
a groundbreaking book
about the offshore system.
The author of a series of
international media reports
says he would welcome a debate
with Cayman Finance Chair Tony Travers.
Mr. Travers recently called
Nicholas Shaxson an imbecile
with the understanding of an 11-year-old.
There are always going
to be the politics of envy.
Now the politics of envy are exacerbated
by imbeciles who don't actually understand
what's going on in the Cayman Islands.
I don't know what he's talking about.
And furthermore, he doesn't
know what he's talking about.
[Narrator] The Cayman Islands
is the fifth-largest
financial center in the world.
It hosts 80,000 registered companies,
over three-quarters of
the world's hedge funds
and $1.9 trillion in deposits.
It has a population of
60,000, roughly equivalent
to New York's homeless population.
(solemn music)
A strange mixture of characters
populate the offshore world,
British ex-public schoolboys,
members of the world's
intelligence services,
global criminals,
assorted lords and ladies
and bankers galore.
(solemn music)
With so much at stake for so many wealthy
and powerful individuals, it may come
as no surprise that
Britain's offshore havens
have developed their
own curious mechanisms
to prevent information from leaking out.
For many people, who work offshore
and who don't like what they're doing,
it's very hard indeed to dissent,
because they will be attacked
personally with a degree
of viciousness which
is quite extraordinary.
Most of the time though, the instruments
of suppression are
relatively sophisticated.
You won't get promotion by
doing this, or you know,
your family won't like it.
It's not generally
let's slam them in prison.
That's far too crude.
We are talking about very
substantially the establishment,
the British establishment, in these cases.
The mechanisms are very, very subtle.
A sort of ostracism is
one way of doing it.
These peculiar mechanisms
for if someone tries
to blow the whistle, you
find all sorts of methods
that aren't the, you don't just fire them.
You give them far too much work to do.
You steer them in a different direction.
[Narrator] One person
who is intimately familiar
with how suppression works
offshore is former Jersey senator
and health minister, Stuart Syvret.
In 2009, he leaked a report
on a rogue nurse suspected
of killing patients at Jersey's hospital.
It all came to a head
during a state's debate
on Tuesday, the 10th of March.
Senator Stuart Syvret brought
the sitting to a standstill,
claiming Senator Jimmy
Perchard had sworn at him
and told him to go and top himself.
Senator Perchard denied the claim saying,
"I absolutely refute that."
But less than a week later,
he was forced to admit he'd lied.
Senator Perchard has now admitted
that on another occasion,
he did tell Senator Stuart Syvret to go
and do everyone a favor
and slit his wrists.
I was arrested at my house one morning
by six plainclothes police officers.
There were another two specialist
data-search police officers on-hand
and also another two police
officers in full body armor
and one of those battering
rams they kind of use
in drugs raids.
So 10 police officers descended on me
without a search warrant.
The property was turned
over from top to bottom.
All of the computers
were seized and searched.
All kinds of private
constituency data was stolen
by the police.
(solemn music)
[Narrator] Shortly
after we began filming,
a police officer exited
the police station.
As he hurried past, he
grinned at the camera.
The officer was on his
way to test the sirens
on his motorbike, which
he did at intervals
throughout much of the
remainder of the interview.
When it came
to prosecuting me--
(siren wails)
[Narrator] Stuart Syvret was prosecuted
under the data protection law.
When the authorities
were prosecuting me,
I claimed that this was a legitimate
public interest disclosure defense.
And I, with an expert witness, was able
to produce a set of reports
that effectively destroyed
(siren wails)
the prosecution case.
[Narrator] In reaction to this,
the magistrates ruled that
Stuart Syvret's defense case,
that he had leaked the report
in the public interest,
would no longer be
admissible but continued
to prosecute him all the
same without a defense case.
Over the past seven years,
Stuart Syvret has been
repeatedly taken to court
and imprisoned three times.
He does not know when or if
the persecution will end,
nor does he know when he will find himself
behind bars again.
To look at Jersey from the outside,
it looks like it's got
a prosecution system.
It looks like it's got a
court and a legislature.
But none of it's real.
It's a Potemkin village.
None of these systems in Jersey meet
the tests of being objective,
(sirens wail)
of being objective or
actually functioning properly.
The experience that
Stuart Syvret had is perhaps
at the blunter end of the scale.
He was simply suppressed
and taken to court
on trumped up charges.
(siren wails)
(speech drowned out by siren)
This is kind of how oppression
happens in Jersey, see.
All kinds of little things
get done to harass people.
They don't often go to
the kinds of extremes
that they did against me in
terms of actually arresting me
and putting me in prison, but
the authorities use all kinds
of other lesser, little methods
to interfere with people,
kind of sabotage things, you know,
obstruct people, make
life difficult for people.
You know, if you annoy the
establishment in Jersey,
you won't get a job here.
Your children won't get decent jobs.
That's kind of how it works, isn't it?
I went to Jersey in March
2009, with Nick Shaxson.
About 24 hours after we arrived
in Jersey, we were there
for several days, Nick said,
"Have you noticed that
we're being followed?
"Ever since we arrived at the
airport, we've been followed."
He said, "Don't look know,
but we're being followed now."
It turns out he was quite correct.
We were being followed.
And I found that very disturbing,
very disturbing indeed.
[Narrator] They have a saying in Jersey.
If you don't like it here,
there's always a boat in the morning.
Jersey finance promotional
literature states,
"Jersey represents an extension
of the City of London."
It's where the City of
London chooses to do many
of their activities which they
couldn't do in London itself.
We're here to talk about this
one company called Appleby.
I'll just read what they
say on their website.
"Members of the firm,
Appleby has gone on not only
"to political office but
also in a number of centers,
"Bermuda, Jersey, the Isle
of Man and the Cayman Islands
"to senior judicial office."
So essentially they're
boasting of the fact
that their staff and their
partners have a real interchange
between the people that are in power
in these offshore financial centers.
[Narrator] The same
lawyers and accountants
who set up and administer offshore trusts
also occupy senior political positions.
In Britain's offshore world,
most politicians are in business.
They lobby for business and
promote business interests.
They draft, refine and pass legislation.
Politicians sit on the boards
of the companies they
are supposed to regulate.
(solemn music)
There is no place for
dirty money in Britain.
Indeed, there should be no
place for dirty money anywhere.
The challenge I'm laying down
for every country today is
to root out the rot of
corruption, to ensure transparency
over what your own companies
are doing, require transparency
for foreign companies
in your country, too,
and work with us to spread this approach
to transparency around the world.
[Narrator] In public,
British politicians claim
they are cracking down
on secrecy jurisdictions
and corruption, but in
practice, they do the opposite.
I talked to politicians in Brussels.
They say that they've had
more lobbyists from London,
and including politicians,
come to them to protect
the City of London's
interests than they've had
from every other European
member state combined,
which gives you some idea of the extent
to which British
politicians see themselves
as essentially lobbyists
for the City of London.
We'll begin with our big story.
Cayman's efforts to ensure transparency
in its financial services
sector is being recognized
by the international community.
Earlier this week,
the UK's Prime Minister
David Cameron told Parliament
that the tax haven label placed
on its Crown dependencies
and overseas territories is unfair.
[Narrator] Many British
politicians have personal
and business ties with the City of London
and British secrecy jurisdictions.
Former British Prime Minister
David Cameron's father,
Ian Cameron, was an
expert in offshore funds
and was involved in offshore
trusts from the 1980s onwards.
At this courthouse behind me here
in Saint Helier, we found this.
It's a document called a grant of probate,
and it's attached to the
English will of none other
than Ian Cameron, David Cameron's father.
Say hello to Mom and Dad.
I'm fine, how are you?
Good to see you.
[Reporter] Ian Cameron
was certainly a wealthy man.
In 2009, his personal
fortune was estimated
by researchers for the
Sunday Times Rich List
at 10 million pounds.
Yet when Ian Cameron died in 2010,
his estate was much smaller
than might be expected,
just 2.7 million pounds.
In many cases, it's the
politicians and their cronies
and their families and so
on and the business people
who sponsor the political parties,
who aren't using these
offshore services themselves.
So they've got no personal
interest in closing it down.
If they wanted to close it
down, they could do it tomorrow.
The fact of the matter is
they don't want to do it,
because they themselves are
complicit with the process.
If you come from the
same kind of background,
and you know the right people,
then all the kind of legal
niceties will often fall away.
You can get away with
doing all sorts of things
that they wouldn't just let
any old person, you know,
if you came knocking on the door saying,
"Can you set up an offshore
company to do this,"
they'd tell you to get lost.
But if you're part of the networks,
you can do these kinds of things.
So that's a very important
part of the whole system,
upper-class British public
school kind of establishment,
that has been there since,
you know, for centuries.
[Narrator] The British
establishment, an old-boys network
of privileged elites, had
carved out a lucrative niche
for themselves in the offshore world
after the demise of empire.
They transformed themselves
from administrators of empire
into financial handlers
for the global elite
and multinational corporations.
As more money flowed offshore,
societies around the globe began
to feel the impact of the offshore world.
The reality is not what you believe.
Your prime minister has the
power to decide on the future
of your country.
The power is hidden here.
We have country after
country around the world
where the lack of financial
transparency about taxation,
about ownership, about corruption
has undermined the extent
to which governments deliver
representative policymaking
for their citizens.
We have extreme cases like
the hiding of tax evasion
by people in finance ministries
in Greece, in France,
but we also have this system
that in general is geared
towards anonymous company ownership.
The anonymous ownership of
properties across London,
of half of the land in Scotland.
Do we really think that any circumstances
in which government has work better,
in which markets work better,
in which the distribution
of income and assets is better,
when we allow so much to be hidden.
Who wants to not know who
you're doing business with?
Who wants their government to
have people working for it,
or to be led by people
whose assets are hidden,
whose financial transactions
are conducted anonymously offshore?
This is a bad direction for the world.
We need the citizens to
understand what is happening,
that they are the ones
who is carrying the burden
and that some individuals having the power
are exonerating themselves.
Ordinary people are paying taxes.
Rich people are not.
So this is inequality, and
it is leading up to populism,
because it shows so clearly
that the people today
leading the vote are not able
to take care of the
interest of ordinary people.
Back in the '60s and '70s,
you know, tax evasion or pushing back
against taxation, it was kind of seen
as antiestablishment, so
you know, The Rolling Stones
and Phil Collins, all these
people kind of going offshore,
going away, it was seen as a
sort of rebellious thing to do.
And if you fast forward
to the present day,
now that is the establishment.
The offshore system is the establishment.
[Narrator] Today,
offshore is the way elites
and multinational corporations
conduct their affairs.
Tax evasion is the way business is done.
This kind of sophisticated cheating
requires a huge infrastructure.
We like to talk about the
pinstripe infrastructure
of highly educated people
who think it is their right
to help others to cheat societies.
(solemn music)
We have a new mafia in town.
It does not actually shoot people.
It does not put bullets in their kneecaps,
but its trade is just as deadly.
It deprives people of opportunities
to have healthcare, education, security,
justice and essentially a fulfilling life.
[Narrator] Accountants form the backbone
of the offshore system.
They administer the structures
that allow individuals and corporations
to shift their money
offshore and evade taxes.
There are about 2.5 million
professionally qualified
accountants on this planet.
About 330,000 are in the UK.
Well-known people, well-dressed, well-fed,
highly paid are sitting
in city center offices,
and they are paid to dream
up tax avoidance schemes
for individuals and for corporations.
We can all elect a government,
which says, "Vote for us.
"We will give you better healthcare,
"better education, better security."
And the next day, accountant
says, "Sorry about that, folks.
"You elected this government,
"but we actually got a
tax avoidance scheme.
"The Amazons and the Googles
"and the Microsofts
won't be paying any taxes
"in your jurisdiction.
"Too bad, you voted for it, but actually,
"you're gonna get something else."
So it's a crazy world,
that part of the business model
at big accountancy firms is how
to deny public the services by erosion
of tax revenues.
And these firms are the rewarded
with government-funded contracts.
And the same firms are then advising
local governments and
the central governments,
and the same firms then report
on the company accountant,
tell us all is well.
When I argued this with a
Price Waterhouse partner
in a face-to-face debate,
he said, "Professor Sikka,
"you never give us credit for anything.
"We generate millions
of dollars of revenues,
"and we have lots and
lots of satisfied clients.
"What is your problem?"
And my response is very simply.
"That's the language of
drug-pushers and pimps."
(solemn music)
[Narrator] In Britain, a new breed
of civil servant was rising to the top.
One such civil servant was Dave Hartnett,
who rose to the top of
HMRC, the UK tax authority.
Dave Hartnett had a new
way of collecting tax.
Deals would be negotiated
on an individual basis,
behind closed doors.
In the case of the largest clients,
Dave Hartnett frequently led
the negotiations himself.
British Telecom was one
of the first companies
through the program and received a refund
of over 1 billion pounds.
BT's chief executive, Ben Verwaayen wrote,
"Earnings per share up 14% and nice
to know we have a 1-billion-pound
credit from the taxman."
Dave Hartnett claimed this
approach was more efficient.
Litigation in the courts is
really phenomenally expensive
in this day and age, all over the world
and I think is to be
avoided where possible.
And the artists persuade people to pay
by strength of argument and the like.
[Crowd] Pay your tax,
pay your tax, pay your tax!
[Narrator] After
protests erupted in 2011,
the Treasury Select Committee
questions Dave Hartnett.
Dave Hartnett claimed he
could not give any information
due to taxpayer confidentiality.
What in statute prevents you
from disclosing information to Parliament?
All my advice, Mr.
Barclay, so far has been
that I am prevented, and my
colleagues are prevented,
by the act and by the
decision of the commissioners.
[Narrator] Dave
Hartnett failed to mention
that the legal advice
he had received stated
that the disclosure of information was
at the discretion of the head of HMRC.
The head of HMRC was
Dave Hartnett himself.
Just like the mafia
has penetrated the state,
accountancy firms have
also penetrated the state.
And the head of anti-avoidance
in the UK tax authority is
from one of these firms.
The newly appointed chairman
of Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs,
which is a tax authority,
is a partner from KPMG.
Their partners have penetrated the state.
They are running the Treasury.
(solemn music)
[Narrator] Britain's
financial services industry
had penetrated the state
and began to shape its laws
for its own benefit.
The degree of political
capture by the City of London,
by the big banks and the big
law firms, is so enormous
that the politicians have effectively
become their spokespersons.
(solemn music)
[Narrator] With the government unwilling
to act in the interest of the public,
a group of protestors
confronted Dave Hartnett
at a private event in Oxford.
Hi, everybody, I'm sorry to interrupt.
I'm gonna take a few moments of your time.
Here, tonight, this is Dave,
and your award is the
lifetime achievement award
for services to corporate tax planning.
(audience applauds)
[Woman] Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Dave, you've been a great
friend to the industry
and a great friend to
many of us over the years,
and really we just can't thank you enough
for all you've done.
Obviously, it was at Vodafone,
you know, it saved us
billions off our tax bill.
And our friends at Goldman Sachs as well,
we've also saved us millions as well.
25 million or so.
Everybody, these people
are trespassers and intruders.
[Woman] And I know you've had problems
with those pesky protesters.
And you will go to him.
You will depart immediately
before we set the dogs on you.
♪ For he's a jolly good fellow ♪
♪ For he's a jolly good fellow ♪
♪ So say Goldman Sachs ♪
♪ And so say Goldman Sachs ♪
♪ And so say Goldman Sachs ♪
♪ For he's a jolly good fellow ♪
♪ For he's a jolly good fellow ♪
♪ For he's a jolly good fellow ♪
Let's go, you're trespassing.
[Woman] I'm so sorry.
You are trespassing scum, go.
(door slams)
(solemn music)
[Narrator] After his retirement,
Dave Hartnett moved to the private sector.
One of his positions was at
accountancy firm Deloitte,
where he advises foreign
governments on corporate taxation.
Dave Hartnett is a Companion
of the Order of the Bath,
an honor bestowed on him
by the British monarch.
We have formerly are ministers acting
as advisors to accountancy firms.
Accountancy firms provide jobs
and consultancies for potential ministers.
To my mind really, it's an
indication of corrupt structures.
People are buying and selling influences.
When a former minister works
for an accountancy firm,
he's not providing any
accounting knowledge.
He is opening political
opportunities, home and abroad.
That is what they are doing.
I hope by now you share my views
that I don't trust most bankers.
I don't trust most lawyers.
I don't trust most accounting firms.
I actually think they're engaged
in the conspiracy against public interest.
[Narrator] In Britain, secrecy
and complexity in finance
and government help to obscure
corruption in public office.
Financial structures are often so complex
that even after they
are publicly revealed,
they are not widely
recognized for what they are.
An example of this is PFI, the
private finance initiative.
PFI is private finance initiative.
It is a way of funding
public infrastructure,
things like hospitals,
schools, roads and bridges,
but financing them via the private sector,
rather than the historical method,
which is via central government.
Over a period of 30 or 40 years,
the amounts of kind of
repayment costs will be sort
of three or four times higher overall
than if you'd borrowed it
from the central government
in the first place.
So it's basically a giant accounting scam.
Once the PFI policy has been set up,
you find that's the Big
Four accountancy firms
were actually paid members of staff
within the treasury department
who were then actually
going around and selling
and advising upon the implementation
of PFI contracts by public authorities.
Effectively saying, "Come to
us, and we will show you how
"to derive the most benefit
from it," in other words,
how to perhaps exploit the legislation.
Even the offices
of the state tax authority
are now owned offshore.
HMRC, which is the tax
collector here in the UK,
their offices are owned in Bermuda
by a company called Mapeley Steps.
That's quite incredible.
[Narrator] The company
that owns the PFI contract
to run HMRC's head office borrowed money
from offshore investors at 15% interest.
Because the interest was so high,
the company was losing money.
Therefore, it did not pay tax.
In 2011, HMRC could not prove
that any PFI company was
paying any tax in the UK.
I think we need to have
a serious conversation
about the role of government
in this whole debacle
and how much our government
is being penetrated
by big banks and accountancy firms
and ultimately in whose
interest it operates.
(solemn music)
The reason we were protesting
outside the Africa PPP Conference is
that we wanted to make
sure that citizens back
in Africa should hear about the fact
that such policies have
been a complete failure,
here in the UK.
We know that these products
are not being marketed
to African countries in
their own best interests.
The only motivation is to spread the reach
of financial services into new markets.
And it's all being
promoted in the interests
of the City of London.
What you're seeing is basically
a second form of colonialization.
You've had initially occupation
and resource extraction.
And through that process,
countries like Britain,
which have had a large offshore empire
have developed significant networks,
and now those networks are being used
to promote and exploit financial services.
(solemn music)
[Narrator] The City of London
was the beating financial
heart of the British Empire.
As Britain's empire declined,
the city transformed itself
from a hub operating the
financial machinery of empire
into a global financial center.
Former insignificant outposts
of empire became the basis
for a spider's web of
offshore secrecy jurisdictions
that captured wealth from across the globe
and funneled it to the City of London.
Today, 25% of the international
finance is conducted
on British territory.
Almost half of the world's
secrecy jurisdictions are
under British protection.
Up to half of all offshore
wealth may be hidden
in Britain's offshore havens.
Financial services is how Britain's elites
make their money, and it is also
where former government ministers,
senior civil servants and
retired spooks from MI5
and MI6 receive lucrative
consulting positions
after their time in public service.
Together they have transformed
Britain and its dependencies
into the world's largest tax haven,
harming development throughout the world
and turning Britain itself into a country
that serves, above all, the
interests of its elites.
(solemn music)
(solemn music)