Corruption

Martin Kenney: Crooks are (predictably) avoiding open company registers 

I have no problem at all with outing fraudsters or corrupt dealers. But this is the job of law enforcement, not campaigners. If Mr. Toon had contacted the Government of the British Virgin Islands, he could have accessed all the UBO identification material he needed within two hours (in an emergency), and in 24 hours for a routine request.

Also, in well-regulated financial centers (such as the BVI and Cayman), the UBO identification data is collected and housed en-mass, under a multi-layered regulatory system involving scores of AML compliance officers employed by regulated trust companies (or licensed company formation agencies); plus a regulator supervising those trust companies by means of regular AML compliance field audits; as well as the courts.

In contrast, the UK’s open UBO register is a complete free-for-all -- any old rubbish can be filed as a UBO -- and only six employees at Companies House check the accuracy of such UBO data against four million companies. That is a completely ludicrous model of AML compliance.