Is it just me or can we all sense British obsession with hegemonizing Indian economic capital? I also feel that a period of almost two centuries is more than enough to start feeling one’s rights over an entity, individual, culture, or space and ending up obsessing over it. So, here we are, talking about the United Kingdom (UK), our ex-colonizer, and present godfather to Indian tax fraudsters and other fugitive economic offenders. Therefore, the fact we are left with is that our ex still rules and controls us but we haven’t been able to do much about it.
In the 17th annual report released by the World Bank on ‘Ease of Doing Business 2020,’ the United Kingdom was ranked 8 among 190 economies. This is one of the most important aspects which allow us to consider the fact that the UK has proved to be among the favourite destinations for fraudsters, criminals, and offenders to invest in and seek refuge.
“Desiring to make more effective the cooperation of the two countries in the suppression of crime by making further provision for the reciprocal extradition of offenders,” the Gazette of India published the extradition between the Government of the Republic of India and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland under Ministry of External Affairs order on December 30, 1993. Ironically, since September 22, 1992 (when the treaty was signed), only one Indian i.e., Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel (2016) has been extradited while all the other extradition requests remain pending.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) released in the year 2018 that since 2013, 5,500 Indians have sought political asylum in Britain which is quite a number. As a major chunk of this number includes economic offenders who are liable to the taxpayers of the country they committed fraud in, the Fugitives Economic Offenders Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on July 19, 2018. But the law hasn’t been able to produce any productive outcome because of its superficial nature.
Under this Bill, the minimum limit of proceeds of crime has been set at Rs 100 crores (1 billion), equal to or more than which will not be tolerated by the law. This urges us to ask a question, “Is 10 crores or 10 lakhs or even 10 thousand a bad amount to legalize fraud?” Similar to this, other weak sections in the ordinance leave the Indian government’s position in this context, doubtful.
On the other hand, the UK has managed to secure for itself a powerful stance on delivering an ideal platform for foreign investments with the help of cleverly devised British laws. First, being a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights, it is authorized to turn down an extradition request if it thinks that the person to be extradited could face torture or the death penalty in his/her homeland, based on political reasons.
Second, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), an independent, non-government body, known to be Britain’s regulator for the financial sector is believed to go rounds to protect its customers. While preventing misconduct of any sort by financial services companies, it also legitimates their functioning. Responsible for conducting 58,000 businesses and contributing around £65.6 billion in the annual tax revenue of the UK’s economy, it isn’t really in the question of any fraud-related activity. It has been witnessed that for 13 years, despite global pressure, it fully protected its investors and fugitive businessmen against legal scrutiny and has promoted a ‘zero prosecution strategy’.
Third, England is equipped with the best of legal brains, one of which is the Boutique Law LLP, a legal firm co-managed by Anand Doobay. It has been looking into both Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi’s cases along with many others. Therefore, the concerns of human rights, legal benefit, and monetary aid have all been taken care of by the United Kingdom.
David Clarke, the Chairman of Fraud Advisory Panel (FAP), a charitable and independent anti-fraud organization in the UK claims, “With great business comes great investments comes bad people.” Adding to which he says that one cannot simply come into any of the UK banks and open an account but it is important for the fraudster to open a company or companies which is a very easy process there. One doesn’t even have to be a resident of the country. The British bank accounts prove to be helpful as they have allowed the fugitives to launder money to British offshore havens like the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Jersey, and Guernsey, preventing them from paying taxes on their profits, According to the Corruption Watch, as high amount as $800 bn of global wealth at particular risk of laundering is managed by the UK.
Amidst these trends, prominent Indian fugitives like Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Sanjay Bhandari, Rana Kapoor, Sandesara brothers of the Sterling have been able to get through it all without being much bothered about their extradition. The reason could be the expansive investment by UK-based companies in India, employing about 4 lakh Indians and contributing over $2 bn in taxes. Since Brexit, the UK has been very aggressive about its trade relations and India has proved to be a safe resort for it.
If we believe the Deutsche Bank report, fugitive asylum seekers have contributed an amount of $129 bn to Britain between 2006 and 2015. The amount isn’t a small figure and it is important to hold both the Indian and the UK government accountable for this trend because ultimately, people who are both, ideal taxpayers and middle-class income-bearers, are the ones most vulnerable to the falling economy. Radhika Pasrija (_activistjournalist_)
(Cover image courtesy: Business Standard)
Your piece was very revealing.I appreciate your insights.