Western Offshores Enable Graft In Developing Countries – Journalist

What You Need To Know:

✅  “Offshore isn’t a place, it’s the idea that if you’re very rich, you can pay to live by different rules to the ones that exist in the country, where you happen to be situated;”

✅  Bullough believes it is important to question why individuals chose to set up multiple companies in various countries, creating artificial arrangements to frustrate law enforcement;

✅  “If you’re paying lower tax, that means the money you could be paying is no longer going to pay roads or hospitals or to pay teachers or the army;”

✅  According to Bullough, large amounts of money should be stored in big cities such as New York or London, and not in various tax havens.

According to journalist Olver Bullough, “offshore isn’t a place, it’s the idea that if you’re very rich, you can pay to live by different rules to the ones that exist in the country, where you happen to be situated... And that means you no longer have to obey the same rules as ordinary people.” While offshores are not illegal and there are in fact legitimate reasons to use them, Bullough believes it is important to question why individuals chose to set up multiple companies in various countries, creating artificial arrangements to frustrate law enforcement.

When referring to the impact of offshores on people in countries like Ukraine, those common citizens lose out because of tax evasion: “If you’re paying lower tax, that means the money you could be paying is no longer going to pay roads or hospitals or to pay teachers or the army. It is instead going into your pocket and the pocket of lawyers in Cyprus and bankers in Latvia,” says Bullough.

According to Bullough, large amounts of money should be stored in big cities such as New York or London, and not in various tax havens. “You want to store is somewhere where it will be safe… What you need to spend money on are assets, proper assets, and that is what happens in big capital cities.” And Western jurisdictions need to question where the money came from.

Hromadske’s Nataliya Gumenyuk spoke to Oliver Bullough, journalist, on April 9th, 2016 in Kyiv.