Did Premier Smith sell us out @ recent UK Meeting?
In fact, in the statement at the Third Sitting of the Fourth Session of the Second House of Assembly, Dr Smith, the second Premier of the British Overseas Territory, gave statistics to support his claim. He said some 81% did not support the Register of Beneficial Ownership and 71% of respondents rejected the idea of allowing public access to a Register of Beneficial Ownership.
Premier Smith said some of the key reasons cited against the establishment of a central register essentially related to compliance cost that could actually damage the competitive position of the VI vis-à-vis other international finance centers.
Furthermore, Premier Smith, in standing against what he just agreed to in the United Kingdom at the December 1 and 2 meeting with the VI and other Overseas Territories, told the people that one of his objections then in opposing the Register of Beneficial Ownership, was that he was concerned about data security, the increased potential for fraud and the infringement of constitutional rights of privacy.
Did Dr Smith flip flop again?
However, the London media, quoting from a joint communique agreed at a meeting of the Overseas Territories Joint Ministerial Council (JMC) in London late on Wednesday December 2, 2015, said: “We agreed to hold beneficial ownership information in our respective jurisdictions via central registers or similarly effective systems. We discussed the details of how these systems should be implemented, including through technical dialogue between the Overseas Territories and UK law enforcement authorities on further developing a timely, safe and secure information exchange process to increase our collective effectiveness for the purposes of law enforcement.”
What this means in effect is the VI now agreed to what Premier Smith told the people was bad for us and our Financial Services Sector.
The usually public relations zealous National Democratic Party Administration has not said much to the people on what was agreed.
In a Government Information Service (GIS) press release issued to local media house on December 3, 2015, Premier said he updated Overseas Territories Minister James Duddridge MP on changes publicly announced in November to the territory’s anti-money laundering code to reinforce the jurisdiction’s robust regulatory regime; and the launch of the BVI Forward campaign designed to maintain the global competitiveness of the territory’s financial services industry.
The Premier added, “I reiterated the BVI’s continuing commitment to the fight against money laundering, tax evasion, illicit finance and corruption and explained the enhancements we are making to our regulatory regime with respect to beneficial ownership information, which will be held onshore from 2016. I also highlighted the further improvements we are making in order to maintain our global competitiveness in the financial services industry.”
Cayman Islands stood up while VI caved!
The Financial Times of London reported this week that the Cayman Islands flatly refused the UK’s request that they give law enforcement access to beneficial ownership information, arguing that such a basic measure as allowing investigators to trace the proceeds of corruption poses a competitive disadvantage.
The UK Prime Minister, the Rt. Honourable David W. D. Cameron has been calling on the territories to act since 2013 on creating a public Beneficial Ownership central register as he sees it as a way to “track corruption and tax evasion.”
Hon Nigel J. Mills (Amber Valley), an MP within the ruling Conservative Party in Britain, told the London media that the territories need to “take the lead” on the issue rather than wait for competitor countries to implement similar rules.
He said: “Would you agree that our overseas territories should be taking the lead in preventing the flow of corrupt, criminal and terrorist money, rather than waiting for everybody else to do it at the same time?
“Would you therefore set out a timetable for when all the territories will have in place the registers and the access rights that we need?”
Negotiation skills?
It remains unclear why the VI Head of Government Premier D. Orlando Smith has agreed to such masseurs as revealed in the joint communique after the meeting when in-fact he went to London strongly opposing the measures.
While it has been long established that Dr Smith is no Donald J. Trump, Hon Ralph T. O'Neal OBE or Leader of the Opposition Hon Julian Fraser RA, when coming to seasoned and strong negotiations, but maybe in-fact when we do obtain a response from Premier Smith we will learn again that he had the UK “eating out of his hands”.
The Financial Services sector is responsible for up to 60% of the Virgin Islands revenue.
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45 Responses to “Did Premier Smith sell us out @ recent UK Meeting?”
Congratulations to our Premier for a job well done!
Well done Premier Smith!
Lacking the ability to compromise and to negotiate by its members has decimated Fraser,Fahie and the VIP .