Public registers could do more harm than
Public registers could do more harm than
Veteran BVI fraud lawyer Martin Kenny has cautioned that opening up the territory’s company registers to the public could undermine decades of progress in fighting financial crime. His warning comes ahead of next week’s visit by UK transparency campaigner Baroness Margaret Hodge. Baroness Hodge, a former Labour MP and long-time critic of offshore financial centres, is expected to press the case for public access to beneficial ownership information — records that reveal the individuals behind BVI companies.
Groups like Transparency International, Global Witness and Oxfam have long argued that secrecy fuels corruption, money laundering and tax evasion. But Kenny said that making such information freely available could cripple fraud investigations. “It is extremely hard to investigate a case if the other side knows that we’re onto them,” he explained. “The moment suspects realise the BVI has an open register, they will move their business elsewhere, to darker jurisdictions like Delaware, and we will lose the ability to trace stolen assets.” For more than 25 years, Kenny’s firm has used BVI court-supervised disclosure orders to quietly follow stolen money through shell companies and recover it for victims.
An open register, he argued, would tip off wrongdoers and wipe out the value of the territory’s accumulated investigative tools “overnight.” He added that privacy and human dignity are also at stake. “We don’t want the state climbing around our bedrooms or bank accounts without just cause.
There must be a balance between transparency for law enforcement and the right of individuals to be left alone in their private affairs.” The UK has been pressing the Virgin Islands to implement a public register of beneficial ownership, a move the local government has resisted, citing privacy concerns and unfair treatment compared to major onshore centres.
Baroness Hodge’s visit could renew pressure on the territory to comply.
Primary source: BVI News