IT'S NOW TIME TO REDLINE ALL BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS COMPANIES, AFTER BWI GOVERNMENT INTENTIONALLY VIOLATES UK BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP DISCLOSURE DEADLINE

                           

The arrogant locally autonomous leadership of the British Virgin Islands has breached the deadline imposed by the United Kingdom to make its corporate database publicly accessible. Apparently BVI, still smarting from the US conviction of its Premier, ANDREW FAHIE, thinks that the UK Parliament will not pass an Order in Council, forcing its Overseas Territory to discard the opacity which it uses to attract corrupt PEPs, money launderers and other transnational criminals to its financial service providers. Company formation is a highly lucrative endeavour that the BVI will continue to use, in the absence of Parliament asserting its power.

I have lost all patience with any offshore tax haven that runs arriving investigative journalists out of town as soon as they arrive, before they can even begin to ask the hard questions. My advice to compliance officers whose bank client proffer a BVI company at account opening, or during transaction monitoring, is to redline the entire matter as too high risk to complete. Do you really want to get a visit from law enforcement, armed with a subpoena from a pending money laundering investigation, dropped in your face? I doubt it. Redline all the bloody BVI companies you encounter in the future, and cite the failure to be be transparent, and yours truly, as the reason you document to your superiors; And do not back down.