Saudi Officials Linked to Jihadist Group in WikiLeaks Cables

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22. Checkbook Diplomacy to London and DC - Wikileaks. "London moneylaunder's destination of choice"

https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/92/92370_interview-request-reuters-.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/20/us-pht-newscorp-britain-corruption-idUSTRE76J25L20110720



11:41 20Jul11 -ANALYSIS-Britain: more corrupt than it thinks?

* Scandal shows collusion between politics, media, police

* Campaigners denounce haven for oligarchs, despots

* Despite new laws, Internet scrutiny, UK remains opaque



By Peter Apps, Political Risk Correspondent

LONDON, July 20 (Reuters) - Britons love to lecture the world about
integrity and the rule of law, but the News of the World phone hacking
scandal has laid bare a web of collusion between money, power, media and
the police.

Far from the innocent, upright democracy of its self-image, Britain is
showing a seamy side that anti-corruption campaigners say is getting worse
and may be politically explosive as society becomes more unequal due to
the financial and economic crises.

Behind a facade of probity, London offers a haven for oligarchs and
despots, a place where foreign media magnates have bought access to and
influence over the government.

The scandal engulfing Rupert Murdoch's media empire has already
destroyed a newspaper, cost two top police officers their jobs, seen the
arrest of powerful media figures and embarrassed the prime minister and
political elite.

But it points to a bigger problem in British society -- overly cosy
relationships among elites that are ethically dangerous, even when they
does not involve outright criminality.

Britain says it has been bolstering its legal system and regulatory.
Just this month a new law on bribery tightening rules for UK firms
operating abroad entered force.

But some of the world's leading transparency campaigners say that the
hacking scandal exemplifies unhealthy links between power and money.

"The bottom line... is that for some time there has been undue
influence on UK governments and public policy by powerful private
interests," says Daniel Kaufmann, senior fellow at the Brookings Institute
in Washington DC.

"It is ... often a more sophisticated form of high-level political
corruption. It may not be strictly illegal -- or it may be more subtle --
but that does not mean it is not very costly for society or the economy,"
said Kaufman, a former director of the World Bank Institute and creator of
the closely watched Worldwide Governance Indicators.

If unchecked, "elite capture" of political systems can become
"privatisation of public policy" -- a growing danger in both Britain and
the United States, he said.

As with media barons such as Murdoch, the influence of the financial
services industry is so strong, Kaufmann argued, that politicians have
long avoided questioning it.

That acquiescence contributed to the global financial crisis. It has
also made Britain one of the key banking centres for the world's most
corrupt oligarchs and despots.

Financial secrecy arrangements -- such as Britain's system of financial
"trusts", which allow powerful figures to mask the ownership of assets --
have rarely if ever been challenged by the government, say financiers and
campaigners.



MONEY LAUNDERING "DESTINATION OF CHOICE"

When power elites in the Middle East looked for somewhere to send their
money during the "Arab Spring" uprisings this year, wealth managers told
Reuters London was the prime beneficiary. Much may have been legitimately
earned, some almost certainly not.

Both Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's son Gamal and Libyan leader
Muammar Gaddafi's son Saif owned property in London through complex trusts
and front companies in Panama and the British Virgin Islands.

Through its close links with tax haven satellites such as the Channel
Islands, Gibraltar and the Isle of Man, experts say Britain is at the
centre of many such schemes.

"London has become the money launderers' destination of choice," says
John Christensen, a former economic adviser to the Channel island of
Jersey, who now runs the Tax Justice Network, a group campaigning for
tighter regulation.

"If you look at the way we talk about and measure corruption in the
West, it's either Africa or Asia which comes out worse. But we are using a
distorted prism."

It's not just Britain. A Reuters investigation this month showed how
some U.S. states -- notably Wyoming and Delaware -- were failing to meet
international standards, offering "shelf companies" to help hide assets
and avoid tax. [ID:nN1E75Q0Q4]

Christensen argues that states have been losing control of the
financial system for more than 30 years and now find themselves
increasingly at its mercy.

Even groups such as Transparency International -- which has
traditionally focused on criticising "conventionally" corrupt states in
emerging economies -- are beginning to shift their attention to developed
world corruption.

TI published a report earlier this month entitled "Britain: more
corrupt than you think", showing that a majority of people believed
corruption was worsening in the country.

"It is not that corruption is endemic in the UK as it is in some other
countries but there is a worrying degree of complacency," said
Chandrashekhar Krishnan, Executive Director of Transparency International
UK.

"The focus (now) is on corruption in the media and allegations about
bribing the police... but we are also particularly worried about political
party funding, parliament, sport and the prison system."



RISING BACKLASH AGAINST "CORRUPT ELITE"

Even recent gains are not always what they seem. For example
Transparency International points to the UK Bribery Act.

The law's introduction was delayed after frantic lobbying by companies
who said it would make them uncompetitive, prompting officials to
effectively water down some of the guidance on how rigourously it would be
enforced.

The institution responsible for enforcing it, the Serious Fraud Office,
is also suffering budget cuts -- as are other bodies aimed at tackling
grassroots corruption in prisons, police, local government, and taxation.

The previous government halted bribery investigations into arms sales
to Saudi Arabia (the al-Yamamah slush fund), citing the national interest.

[ . . .]