On a central London street renowned for high-class healthcare sits a property that houses 2,159 companies. Why has this prestigious address been used so many times as a centre for elaborate international fraud
The whole saga had been scripted by a conman named Lal Bhatia. Sir Richard Benson was an actor. He had never rescued Buckingham Palace from foreclosure. The billions and the knighthood were fictitious. S&N had no assets, beyond a registered presence at a house in London – 29 Harley Street.
.. Over the decades, doctors like him have imbued Harley Street with an aura of authority; an aura that surrounds any venture based here.
.. The house is currently home to 2,159 companies, for which it operates as a large, ornate and prestigiously located postbox and answerphone. There is nothing illegal in this but some have used this address for improper purposes.
.. Companies are both easy and cheap to establish in Britain – and the process is almost entirely unmonitored. Nobre and Bhatia are far from the only criminals to have realised that they are pretty much the perfect weapon for fraud.
.. It is an article of faith in modern politics that creating companies should be as easy as possible.
.. The sector has expanded, however, in all sorts of directions: most notably by creating “shelf” companies. Shelf companies are ready-made and available for purchase. Their advantage to the purchaser is that they give a reassuring impression of longevity to what is essentially a brand-new operation, since they have documents extending back years.
.. As soon as companies were involved in owning other companies, as well as being their directors and secretaries, it became extremely difficult to discover who really controlled them
.. Edwina Coales, a serial director of companies registered at 29 Harley Street, is or has been an officer at 1,560 of the companies listed on the Companies House website.
.. It has 25,000 shelf companies available for purchase right now, with nominee directors, secretaries and shareholders available too. Yet, its office is not in a tax haven in the Caribbean or the English Channel. It is right in the heart of central London, half an hour’s walk from the Houses of Parliament, churning out companies for whoever wants them.
A Simple Triathlon Story, Until a Reporter Went the Distance
From talking to Dan Empfield, who runs the forum as part of his larger triathlon-related business, I learned that triathletes view cutting a course — deliberately failing to run, swim or bike the whole way, and then lying about it — as the worst thing an athlete can do, far worse than doping.
Finding the Good News in Widespread Tax Cheating
Even the documents reported to be from Mossack Fonseca showed a decline in the number of offshore companies set up by the firm. Ten years ago, the number was around 13,200; in 2015 it was just over 4,300.
.. Mr. Zucman’s book, published last year, asserts that Switzerland and Luxembourg remain powerful magnets to money seeking anonymity. And he argues that efforts relying on bankers to report data, as the O.E.C.D.’s approach does, are likely to fall short.
.. Mr. Zucman is skeptical that the bankers will sufficiently comply. “They have been serving criminals and tax evaders — and they’ve being doing that for decades,” he said.
.. In 2014, the United States obtained a criminal conviction against Credit Suisse, which pleaded guilty to aiding tax evasion and paid $2.6 billion in penalties. That sounds like a lot. Yet the bank’s chief executive said at the time that the punishment did not have “any material impact on our operational or business capabilities.”
Gaming Out Ben Carson’s Fundraising Shakeup
So how to think of the latest move? For that, it’s important to heed the words of that famous analyst of Republican politics, Vladimir Lenin: “When it is not immediately apparent which political or social groups, forces or alignments advocate certain proposals, measures, etc., one should always ask: ‘Who stands to gain?’”
.. The central questions about Carson’s fundraising all along have been (1) is it sustainable? and (2) why is he plowing so much of it back into fundraising?Carson’s campaign told me in October that it was necessary to do that to build fundraising lists and to track down the small-dollar donors he’s done so well with. But skeptics view it as a way to line the pockets of the vendors who are doing the direct mail and telemarketing for the campaign. And Murray is closely connected to them—in fact, he’s the president of a firm called TMA Direct.
.. As Mother Jones noted at the time, American Legacy’s spending in 2013 looked questionable. As of July 15 of that year, it had raised $1.4 million while contributing only $27,500 to actual candidates. The biggest recipient of American Legacy’s cash was InfoCision. TMA Direct also took in about $14,500. American Legacy’s mid-year report for 2015 is even worse. It raised $1.25 million but spent $1.38 million, and gave just $2,500 to candidates.