The hypocrisy behind greylisting
It’s time to call out the hypocrisy in the grey- and blacklisting of countries for financial crime and tax irregularities — larger countries that are regularly exposed fail to feature on such lists, which raises questions about their credibility
One sure way of knowing if your country is a major player in the murky world of tax dodginess, money-laundering or the financing of terrorism, is whether it features on one or other of the lists drawn up by high-minded and righteous oversight bodies. If it is on a list, then chances are it’s not a player — or certainly not a major player.
There are lots of lists. There are greylists and blacklists. There are money-laundering and financing of terrorism lists and there are “unco-operative tax haven” lists. All are carefully curated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD), which specialises in tax matters; the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), focusing on anti-money-laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT); and, more recently, the EU...
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