UK 'anti corruption champion' Margaret Hodge arrives in VI
Speaking ahead of her meetings with government officials and financial and legal sector representatives, scheduled for September 23 and 24, Baroness Hodge said, “The UK is committed to transparency and the international fight against illicit finance. Public beneficial ownership registers are an essential tool that helps us all follow the money so that we can expose corruption and money laundering.''
Hodge continued that in today’s global context, secret corporate structures are not just used to launder money. "They are also used to undermine democracies, fund conflicts, and engage in human rights abuses and terrorism. So transparency is vital for us all, and we share responsibility for ensuring we promote it."
'I look forward to open, collaborative discussions'- Baroness Hodge
The Baroness said her visit is an opportunity to engage constructively with leaders and stakeholders in the Virgin Islands to better understand the challenges they perceive in implementing beneficial ownership registers.
“I look forward to open, collaborative discussions that support our common goal of strengthening financial transparency.”
The Virgin Islands has implemented a system for legitimate access to beneficial ownership registers, but it is not willing to make them public unless it becomes a global standard.
Following her visit, Baroness Hodge will make recommendations on the required next steps to the UK’s Minister of State for the Overseas Territories, Stephen J. Doughty, who oversees the UK’s engagement with the VI on matters, including governance and transparency.
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14 Responses to “UK 'anti corruption champion' Margaret Hodge arrives in VI”
Bank of Asia
Pier park scheme
Bvi air ways
COVID grants
Bi water
Renting to family and friends and fellow politicians
Greedy bill
Politicians doubled pay raise
But the UK done failed us. No one was held accountable
So I mog studying them just a bunch of hot air
Jackie have her hands full with all these white UK people coming in here. She has the governor there fighting her and she won’t open her mouth and talk to the people so they could know what going on. She stay there and supported Mark Collins and he Mark Collins was one of the worse and co****t commissioner and he got away scotch free. Now he has the idiocy to be telling people she ain’t for to be a commissioner when she done make he look good. I tell you all about these people and Jackie won’t listen. Now look what them doing her now and all of them laughing.
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-11-20-dame-margaret-hodge-mp-a-very-british-apartheid-profiteer/
"Open Secrets spoke with Alex Conneely Hughes, who works in the office of Margaret Hodge, following repeated attempts via email, WhatsApp and phone to elicit a written response from Hodge to our questions. Hodge conceded that she was aware of her family’s business in apartheid South Africa. According to her spokesperson, Hodge and her sisters protested this in a letter to their father in 1973. We were not provided with a copy of the letter following a request to do so. According to Hodge their father took no heed of this call. She further claimed that all profits she derived from the South African business between 1973-1994 were given to a charity. However, somewhat curiously, Hodge claims through her spokesperson not to have any recollection of the charities to which she donated her apartheid profits for a period of over 20 years. The spokesperson also couldn’t say how Hodge was able to determine what part of her dividends were made up of profits from South Africa and profits from other jurisdictions.
And while Hodge may have paid dividends to charities she can’t recall, she chose not to sell shares held in her own name. These shares would have increased in value as her family’s company thrived, including in apartheid South Africa."