Exploring tax havens
During his tenure as president of Nigeria, Sani Abacha had a standing order to pay $15m a day of stolen government revenues into a Swiss bank account that he controlled. In 1999 the Economist estimated that African dictators held $20bn of stolen wealth in Swiss accounts alone – twice the continent’s annual debt repayment bill.
Enron, that paragon of US turbo-corporatism, had more than 800 secret offshore subsidiaries, allowing it to create one of the biggest accounting and tax frauds in history.
Offshore financial centres – “tax havens”, to use a phrase they don’t like – have been on the defensive in recent years. Small wonder.
So is the whole system corrupt and immoral to the core? Should expatriates hang their heads as they arrange for their salaries to be paid into a Jersey bank?