👉 Next week, we're bringing together key stakeholders for a private roundtable to work out concrete steps to clamp down on these practices and close some of the loopholes that link financial secrecy in the Overseas Territories to harm in our communities. Watch this space for updates on our campaign.

If we want our high streets to be places people are proud to visit, we cannot keep turning a blind eye to the offshore secrecy that props up sham businesses and crowds out honest traders 👇

🚔 Police efforts like Operation Machinize show what determined, joined-up enforcement can achieve, but also how often raided premises can simply phoenix and reopen under a new name hours after being shut down 👇

🏬 But MPs also focused on a less obvious impact: our high streets. The debate heard how dodgy vape shops, fake candy stores, and unlicensed barbers are increasingly used as fronts for money laundering and tax abuse – often enabled by faceless companies registered in secrecy jurisdictions 👇

4/ Follow us☝️ for more updates.

Visit our website to find out more, and to read our Clean Foundations for Growth report.

anticorruption-responsibletax.org/cleanfoundat...

🗣️ 3/ Our APPG held a debate in Westminster Hall this week on the impact of financial secrecy in Britain’s Overseas Territories on UK communities.

🔴🔵🟡 MPs of all stripes agreed one of the biggest impacts is how tax abuse starves communities of vital funds.

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❌ 2/ Worryingly, a recent Public Accounts Committee report found we don't even know how many billionaires pay tax in the UK, or how much they owe.

⚖️ Under a fair tax system, we should all play by the same rules, with no exemptions for the super-wealthy.

committees.parliament.uk/publications...

💷 Billions are lost each year through tax abuse, money laundering and fraud – money that should be funding our NHS, not luxury yachts in Monaco, and empty mansions in Kensington.

Read more here: www.independent.co.uk/news/busines...

The Foreign Policy Centre's new report shows how sanctions only work if enforcement is coordinated, targeted, and backed by political will.

👉 Read more: fpc.org.uk/dealing-with...

We’ve previously raised concerns about Georgia’s democratic backsliding and growing alignment with Russian economic interests - developments with dangerous and far-reaching consequences 👇

The new system must now be legislated for without delay. A stronger, simpler framework is essential if the UK is to maintain credibility as a trusted place to do business.

Read our Clean Foundations for Growth report here 👉 anticorruption-responsibletax.org/cleanfoundat...

The new regime must be adequately resourced, retain the expertise built up under existing bodies, and have the power to take robust enforcement action. In parallel, implementing Publicly Accessible Registers of Beneficial Ownership remains vital – making it harder for illicit actors to hide.

This is a decisive step towards the unified, risk-based system called for in our Clean Foundations for Growth report earlier this year. Consolidating more than 20 fragmented professional body supervisors into a single statutory supervisor should give businesses the regulatory certainty they need.

👉 Our Economic Crime Manifesto II calls for:

📖 Public registers of beneficial ownership in all UK Overseas Territories
🏠 Full transparency of property ownership
💷 A ‘failure to prevent’ offence for money laundering

Read the Manifesto ➡ anticorruption-responsibletax.org/manifesto

👉 Without this, rulebreakers know they will be able to continue to act with impunity, and public trust in politics as a force for good will continue to erode.

www.gov.uk/government/n...