Premier claims UK was harder on BVI following 2018 ‘public registers’ protest
Premier Andrew Fahie said the British government did not take too kindly the BVI’s protest against the UK for introducing a law that forces the BVI to implement public registers of beneficial ownership.
Concluding the House of Assembly’s debate on whether the BVI should undergo a constitutional review, the Premier said the march did have the effect that was intended.
“They (the UK) were saying, ‘you could march until you want’. That’s the mentality of some of whom we are dealing with. Did you see anything change [after the protest]? As a matter of fact, they came after us even harder,” Fahie told the House on Tuesday.
Not fighting against UK
Despite his remarks, the Premier made it clear that the territory was not fighting against Britain.
“I don’t want anyone to get the impression that we are fighting anyone. We have nothing against the UK. As a matter of fact, I have some good friends from the UK … We know wherever you go there will be some good and some bad,” he said.
He added: “We are concerned about the fraction that don’t have the same mindset as we do in the Virgin Islands but want to dictate to us and don’t want to hear our voice, don’t want to hear our calls, don’t want to hear us even come to the table and say these are the areas we want in the constitutional review.”
Public Registers
Back in May 2018, the territory marched against the United Kingdom about the public registers policy, which directly affects the BVI and other Overseas Territories.
Protest organisers were, effectively, hoping that with enough pressure, the UK would abandon its public registers mandate.
The public register policy is an amendment to the UK’s Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act, which is forcing the BVI and other Overseas Territories to publicise the names of ‘secret’ owners of offshore companies registered in those jurisdictions.
READ: Things to know about the protest
Following that protest, the UK granted its Overseas Territories a reprieve and is now allowing the British Virgin Islands to go without implementing the bedevilling public registers of company beneficial ownership until 2023.
This timeline represents a three-year extension to the initial deadline that the UK had outlined in its Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act. The Act was forcing the BVI to implement what are known as public registers of company beneficial ownership by the year 2020.
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Waaaaaahh. Poor BVI wuz hurt cuz mean old UK was hard on us. Life is hard. Live it.
And the reason you are not fighting the UK is you know you cannot win. Black listing is imminent for that action. So march away….
Just wait until the UK mandates through royal decree and crown action that LGBT rights and gay marriage must be allowed. Holy demonic cats! The nation will again need to be purged by holy water from a cat 5 storm.
FFS…
BVI NEWS is and has been playing with and manipulating the thumbs up and down buttons. I guess they want to control the opinion of the people like Democrats in the US.
The BVI should pray that a Conservative Government remain in power in the UK. Labour is a bunch of socialists who despise people for doing well financially. If a Labour Government return to power you can bet you last dollar that people like Margaret Hodge will bring continue to push for public registers.
The bulk of all offshore accounts exist in the BVI. Other Territories use offshore accounts to help their economies. In the BVI you are solely dependent on it to survive. Perhaps the intent was to cause the Territory to seek other means to keep the economy afloat. It’s called “hard love”. It’s like taking away the scooter until you become responsible to ride it properly. Further, 90% of these offshore accounts are to hide illegal activities. Is it wrong for the U.K. not to want their OT to limit their participation in these illegal activities? Foy, give it a rest. You are creating problems in every direction you turn.
Which banks have all these BVI accounts? Stop talking rubbish! BVI is has over 400,000 business companies registered here that conduct international business. If yoh are looki for the accounts/money, check the same onshore jurisdictions that are calling us down and labelling us a tax haven etc etc. Do some actual research before parroting BS.
same entities who want to and will black list the BVI as safe money havens and laundering are themselves the greatest money launderers and havens of hidden money. Only the uniformed do not know such. The world is full of hypocrisy, especially the former and current neo-colonialsts.
Oh really, 90 percent? Care to cite your sources on that? And explain how you found a way to trace the owners of every single company registered in the BVI AND the activities they are involved in?
You’re a moron. These illegal offshore accounts use the BVI to incorporate companies that don’t exist to keep and launder money. Once the company is established the money can be kept in any bank in the world without scrutiny. Do you think these people would keep their money in banks where the African rules? Are you really that much of a moron.
The African is rulung your thoughts right here and now. Poor thing.
We the people need to march NOW and ask the crown to step into our affairs for directions moving forward. This one ain’t working out before we ALL suffer
You can invite the lion into the sheep pen if you wish. Clearly your worldviews are not informed by history..
Stop stir up people emotions when The country is under national crisis – Leave the constitutional review for now you are not independent enough to EVEN take care of the people of this country . Wait until this crisis had passed to do so . Right now people need food to eat Jobs to pay for their basic needs . Concentrate on dealing with this first before opening up a new issue . Or is this a Deflection from the stimulus package that so many are waiting on and cannot receive
@@We went to college to: including donkey years of retroactive increments owed to its struggling citizens, but they find hundreds of millions to fund an unneded initiative such a constitutional review at this time.
One is gathering that this administration, on all levels and departments, does not care about or have the people’s interest at heart.
Politicians are the same, all the world over. They lie, cheat and steal to their own benefit, or to benefit their friends, who will in time return the favor. Demand that every move they make benefit your community instead. How do these ‘public servants’ become so whealthy? Not by serving the public interest, you can be assured. Be Vigilant, demand accountability, reject fear. Vote.
the british gonna come in and make it mandatory to let gays in.
All of the other Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies(Isle Of Man,Guernsey,Jersey) all have agreed to have the new public registers systems in place by 2023.They clamping down on registration of companies and Trust Funds that facilitate illicit money on in the entire country on awhole.
It’s the new norm. There should only be a small percentage of that lying around if any so the Financial Industry in the BVIs should be able to weather that storm quite easily.