
Offshore in central London: the curious case of 29 Harley Street - sergeant3
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/apr/19/offshore-central-london-curious-case-29-harley-street
======
Animats
Here's the list of all companies at 29 Harley St.[1] If you want to find
accommodation addresses for companies in the UK, you can download the entire
Companies House database for free and start analyzing.[1] I've done a little
of this for SiteTruth, but it's possible to do a lot more.

The UK is much more open with this info than most US states. Some states have
good info, such as CA and NY, and, surprisingly, FL. Nevada and Delaware,
though, operate their state corporation registries like offshore tax havens.

I'm amazed that anyone would do a large transaction without buying a Dun and
Bradstreet report. Business backgrounds are checkable.

[1] [https://cse.google.co.uk/cse?cx=partner-
pub-6032163821936851...](https://cse.google.co.uk/cse?cx=partner-
pub-6032163821936851:9188413724&ie=UTF-8&q=29+Harley+St&sa=Search&ref=www.google.com#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=29%20Harley%20St&gsc.page=1)
[2]
[http://download.companieshouse.gov.uk/en_output.html](http://download.companieshouse.gov.uk/en_output.html)

~~~
rahimnathwani
Thanks. I didn't know about that full data download.

For more in-depth information (e.g. company accounts), you can go here:
[https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/help/welcome](https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/help/welcome)

This information is all on the public record, but was previously only
available on payment of 1 pound per document. Now this trial service makes it
available for free.

------
lmm
> Astute Partners had to declare its shareholder, but that shareholder was a
> trust in Liechtenstein, which does not reveal company ownership, so the
> declaration was meaningless.

I'm inclined to think the blame here lies with Liechtenstein much more than it
does with the UK.

Likewise with the final conclusion and the Seychelles. Short of disallowing
foreign ownership of British corporations, what more can we do than insist
that ownership is disclosed and hope that other countries will do the same?

~~~
esja
Simple: require that beneficial owners (humans) are listed on the title at the
Land Registry. These can be private but they must be real. No name, no sale.

~~~
pjc50
The Land Registry registers land, not companies. Companies house registers
_directors_ , but not owners. There is no general register of company
ownership, and to create one would obliterate the bearer share (which may well
be a good idea) and impose registration transaction costs.

I'd favour a more direct approach of simply banning UK nationals from having
anything to do with companies in tax havens at all, from Panama to the Isle of
Man. No loopholes, no registers to dig through, confiscation if found.

Land reform in Scotland is working on the "beneficial owner" aspect:
[http://news.scotland.gov.uk/News/Transparency-of-land-
owners...](http://news.scotland.gov.uk/News/Transparency-of-land-
ownership-214f.aspx)

~~~
rdancer
> banning UK nationals from having anything to do with companies in tax havens
> at all

What if I buy a few shares in a publicly traded overseas company, and that
company in turn buys a few shares of a company based in a tax haven? Short of
making the UK an insular economy, this is not going to happen.

My take would be that the ease of setting up a business in the UK is a great
thing for the business people, the general public, and the economy. It is sad
that people end up with debts that will never be repaid when a company folds,
but without the institution, there would be much lesser chance of a cheap
product, gainful employment, or profit in the first place. When a company
shields criminal activity, the courts readily bring the people behind it to
justice, as the fine article itself mentions. The only going concern seem to
be the undertaxation stories repeatedly reported in the press — good rage
fodder for the financially illiterate, but they never hold much water under
scrutiny.

------
fiftyacorn
Im in the UK - but this sort of thing must be quite common. There was an
instance in Scotland -

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34445201](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34445201)

Which was linked to a $1Bn fraud in Moldova

------
lawlessone
I had been reading that as Richard Branson instead of Benson for most of the
article. Was very confusing.

------
stevetrewick
This is almost a perfect straight from template Graun piece.

1) Take something which is routine and well known to everyone except the
Guardian's reader demographic (hysterically uneducable middle class outrage
junkies).

2) Find an example of someone abusing it.

3) Blame it on Thatcher.

4) Profit!

3 is becoming increasingly tedious and of course when 4 actually happens, GMG
are careful to use offshore vehicles to avoid paying any tax on it, which is
OK when they do it, because reasons[0]

Guardian columnist strikes me as one of those middle class jobs at risk of
being 'decimated' by cheap AI.

[0]
[http://www.theguardian.com/help/insideguardian/2011/feb/22/b...](http://www.theguardian.com/help/insideguardian/2011/feb/22/blogpost)

~~~
anexprogrammer
Both the Grauniad and the Torygraph have got a bit cliche with more of their
pieces. I suspect this is a function of the move online. Back in the days of
newsprint I'd often alternate to give myself a somewhat wider point of view.

Meanwhile at the Torygraph

1) Take something which is routine and well known to everyone except the
Torygraph's reader demographic (hysterically uneducable free market junkies).

2) Find an example of someone abusing it.

3) Blame it on Labour esp Corbin or The EU

4) Profit!

3 is becoming increasingly tedious

You've basically enumerated "how newspapers work".

~~~
stevetrewick
It's worse at the Torygraph, they've gone all in on buzzfeed SEO lists. "40
things to know before you're 40" and the like. They're a bit behind the curve
with leveraging the Twitter outrage mob for clicks, probably because hardly
anyone ever manages to read to the end of one their articles without dying of
boredom.

------
cr1895
"a Dutch shipping company named Allseas"

Rather, a Swiss-headquartered offshore pipelay company

