Public registers on Premier’s UK agenda
The issue of public registers of beneficial ownership will be on the agenda for officials during the ongoing Joint Ministerial Council (JMC) Meeting in the United Kingdom (UK), Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley has disclosed.
Beneficial owners are persons who enjoy the benefits of ownership in a company even though the title of the company is in another person’s name.
Premier Wheatley recently signalled his intention to discuss the issue with UK officials, and noted at the time that he would be accompanied by Deputy Premier and Minister for Financial Services Lorna Smith, OBE.
According to the Premier, his contingent will reiterate that the Virgin Islands is a jurisdiction that respects fundamental human rights, including the rights to privacy and data protection.
Both of these issues were highlighted by the European Court of Justice in a ruling earlier this year on public registers, the Premier said.
“The position of the Court is that the implementation of public registers should not violate individuals’ right to privacy and data protection,” the Premier stated. “Violation of these fundamental human rights can lead to unwanted legal challenges.”
The Premier noted that the BVI takes this issue very seriously and commented that, along with the Deputy Premier, he intends to discuss the issue further with UK Overseas Territories (OT) Minister David Rutley.
“Notably, as a jurisdiction, the Virgin Islands currently exchanges beneficial ownership information seamlessly with UK law enforcement agencies via the Beneficial Ownership Secure Search System (BOSSS),” the Premier explained.
He described BOSS as a model system for this purpose and stated that the system has proven highly effective.
“We have been able to assist the UK in their investigations using the system, and will continue to be a good international partner in combatting financial crime,” he added.
Back in 2019, the UK government granted its Overseas Territories a reprieve and allowed the BVI to go without implementing the bedevilling public registers of company beneficial ownership until 2023.
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Restoring David Cameron as Foreign Secretary will be bad news. He was always in favour of open registers (especially after his family interests in offshore companies hit the news). He was also involved in a bobbling scandal after he resigned as prime minister. If he had not resigned before the scandal, he would have to have resigned as a consequence of it. He is no friend of the BVI or the other financial services dependent territories.
SOME PEOPLE CAN ONLY SEE THINGS FROM MILLIONS OF MILES AWAY BUT THE THINGS THATS HAPPENING IN THEIR OWN BACK YARD IS TO BIG TO BE SEEN / NEW NAME SAME EGOTISTICAL WIGALO WITH HIS USUAL RACIAL RETHORIC , FLEXING OFF JAWZ / STAY ON YOUR YELLO SITE
The 4 year reprieve ends in 48 days. Time has expired for BVI to institute public registers for all companies and other financial instruments registered in the BVI. The BOSS system is out of date. The EU European Court of Justice does not have jurisdiction in the BVI.
The BVI Court has also ruled that public registers are likely to infringe the constitutional right to privacy. It did so before the European Court’s judgment on similar lines. Public registers will also damage the financial services industry.
This should not even be debated. It needs to be on recorded that the shares of companies that our politicians own. It has nothing to do with human rights but everything with corruption.
If Cindy’s journalism was not corrupt and curry favored allegedly she would have asked Lorna if she or any close relative was a member of the BVI investment club which owns Caribbean Insurance. And does this bear on her indecisiveness not to regulate insurance companies and always making excuses while the people suffer?
The fact that no further comments have been posted (I do not believe this article only garnered a few comments) is a clear demonstration that the BVI media, like BVI News and others, is broken.
No further comments because no one gives a F..k and could careless to comment. The Politicians are nothing more than SLOTHS. The only thing they know how to do is spend the taxpayers money plane hopping, first class tickets, 5 star hotels and accommodations, He over the UK sipping tea and eating scones and the other one is in Paris eating croissants and croque monsieurs. Canoe shoes just got back from Mexico where he filled up on Tacos and guacamole.
I hear you. We in trouble with this bunch. Seems like we always in trouble with these politicians. They are vampires
How much of my TAXPAYING money is spent on first class tickets and five star hotels. He just approve $100,000 dollars for travel. The people is just over it. The people have to take it to the streets, that is the only way they will see that the people is no longer playing. Remember now, the outside is watching and the outside is with the people. The people holds the power, not them. Exercise your power people, take it to the streets and you will get change for the better.
You enter Politics clean you leave Politics dirty. Politicians are vultures.