LONDON: Prime Minister David Cameron has hailed progress on pursuing corrupt individuals at an international summit, but rejected accusations he had failed to deliver transparency on Britain’s overseas tax havens.
More than 40 countries signed a declaration to “pursue and punish” those who perpetrate or facilitate corruption, and individual nations agreed a range of initiatives to open up anonymous company ownership and recover stolen assets.
“Today we have seen the world unite against a shared enemy. Countries have gone further than ever before in condemning corruption and pledging to drive it out,” Cameron said.
The meeting, which included the leaders of Nigeria, Afghanistan, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as well as US Secretary of State John Kerry, was held amid outrage over the revelations in the Panama Papers.
The leak of 11.5 million documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca revealed how global elites use anonymous companies, often incorporated in offshore hubs, to move their money around without being detected.
Cameron announced that Nigeria, France, the Netherlands, Afghanistan and Kenya would, like Britain, be creating public registers of who ultimately owns shell companies.
France goes the farthest, including trusts as well as companies. Six other countries — Australia, Georgia, Indonesia, Ireland, New Zealand and Norway — pledged to work toward a register. Campaigners hailed the move as significant progress, but expressed disappointment that it was not extended to Britain’s overseas territories.
A short walk away from the summit, activists set up a “tropical tax haven” in London’s Trafalgar Square, complete with sand, palm trees and financiers in suits and bowler hats reclining in deck chairs.
Inside, Mo Ibrahim, the Sudan-born telecoms tycoon whose eponymous foundation pushes for better governance in Africa, had described such companies as “getaway vehicles for corruption.”
Earlier, US Secretary of State John Kerry told the summit that corruption was a global challenge akin to terrorism, and said the London meeting represented “the beginning of something different.”
“Corruption, writ large, is as much of an enemy because it destroys nation states as some of the extremists we’re fighting,” he said. Washington is being urged to do more on addressing the situation in states such as Delaware, where anonymous companies can be set up for a few hundred dollars.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani urged the summit to maintain the momentum for change, saying: “Anti-corruption should not be a fashion that is discarded with the next set of elections.”
More than 40 countries signed a declaration to “pursue and punish” those who perpetrate or facilitate corruption, and individual nations agreed a range of initiatives to open up anonymous company ownership and recover stolen assets.
“Today we have seen the world unite against a shared enemy. Countries have gone further than ever before in condemning corruption and pledging to drive it out,” Cameron said.
The meeting, which included the leaders of Nigeria, Afghanistan, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as well as US Secretary of State John Kerry, was held amid outrage over the revelations in the Panama Papers.
The leak of 11.5 million documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca revealed how global elites use anonymous companies, often incorporated in offshore hubs, to move their money around without being detected.
Cameron announced that Nigeria, France, the Netherlands, Afghanistan and Kenya would, like Britain, be creating public registers of who ultimately owns shell companies.
France goes the farthest, including trusts as well as companies. Six other countries — Australia, Georgia, Indonesia, Ireland, New Zealand and Norway — pledged to work toward a register. Campaigners hailed the move as significant progress, but expressed disappointment that it was not extended to Britain’s overseas territories.
A short walk away from the summit, activists set up a “tropical tax haven” in London’s Trafalgar Square, complete with sand, palm trees and financiers in suits and bowler hats reclining in deck chairs.
Inside, Mo Ibrahim, the Sudan-born telecoms tycoon whose eponymous foundation pushes for better governance in Africa, had described such companies as “getaway vehicles for corruption.”
Earlier, US Secretary of State John Kerry told the summit that corruption was a global challenge akin to terrorism, and said the London meeting represented “the beginning of something different.”
“Corruption, writ large, is as much of an enemy because it destroys nation states as some of the extremists we’re fighting,” he said. Washington is being urged to do more on addressing the situation in states such as Delaware, where anonymous companies can be set up for a few hundred dollars.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani urged the summit to maintain the momentum for change, saying: “Anti-corruption should not be a fashion that is discarded with the next set of elections.”
