Journalist said Brexit would worsen situation
AN EXPERT on the Italian mafia and criminal corruption has said the prevalence of offshore holdings in the UK’s financial sector makes it the “most corrupt place on Earth”.
Robert Saviano, author of two investigative books on the Italian criminal underworld, reportedly made the comments at the Hay Literary Festival on Saturday 28 May, where he appeared with a security escort.
Saviano said the UK was the key agent in encouraging the growth of corruption and organised crime due to its permissive attitude to the use of offshore tax havens such as Jersey and the Cayman Islands.
“If I asked you what is the most corrupt place on Earth you might tell me well it’s Afghanistan, maybe Greece, Nigeria, the South of Italy and I will tell you it’s the UK,” he said.
“It’s not the bureaucracy, it’s not the police, it’s not the politics but what is corrupt is the financial capital. 90 per cent of the owners of capital in London have their headquarters offshore.
“Jersey and the Cayman [Islands] are the access gates to criminal capital in Europe and the UK is the country that allows it.”
Saviano, who has required police protection since the publication of his first book on the Camorra crime syndicate in 2006, also spoke out against a ‘Brexit’ vote in the upcoming referendum, in an interview with The Observer.
“Leaving the EU means allowing this to take place. It means allowing the Qatari societies, the Mexican cartels, the Russia Mafia to gain even more power and HSBC has paid £2 billion Euros in fines to the US government, because it confessed that it had laundered money coming from the cartels and the Iranian companies. We have proof, we have evidence.”
Picture courtesy of Bo&Ko
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