At 04:26 PM 9/10/96 GMT, John Young wrote:
Mr David Bickford, the first British intelligence lawyer to speak publicly in the UK, said at a conference in Cambridge, 50 miles north-east of London, that there "appears to be no justification at all for offshore bank secrecy other than to protect the criminal".
Keeping a client's secrets happens to be an ethical and legal requirement of the legal profession. It used also to be a requirement of the medical and banking professions. If it is good for lawyers to keep secrets why not doctors and banks?
Mr Bickford, who now runs an international legal consultancy, said "endemic corruption" is caused by offshore secrecy, and it is "difficult to see why it is tolerated by any other than those with an unlawful disposition".
So we can retain the ability to say 'fuck you Jack' to fascist bastards such as yourself.
Mr Bickford added that the "justification is put forward at all is an example of the overwhelming subversive corruptive influence of organised crime which has managed to magic a seemingly acceptable position out of the sheer weight of its financial proceeds from narcotics, fraud, extortion and other criminal enterprise".
The definition of a totalitarian is one who wants total involvement in and control of the lives of those he rules. We're just trying to keep you and all the world's rulers from becoming totalitarians. Quite a public service. Our fathers used heavy artillery and bombers rather than offshore bank secrecy to discourage totalitarianism. Pretty mild of us.
Mr Raymond Kendall, secretary general of Interpol told the 14th International Symposium on Economic Crime that governments should commit more resources and step up co-operation to tackle the growing problem of international corruption.
Economic crime = thought crime. DCF