It has been widely reported that the prosecution alleges the scheme involved funneling money to tax havens using a complex web of shell companies .
According to a Spanish prosecutor’s document, Lionel Messi’s alleged multi-million euro tax evasion scheme (1)relied upon hiding the names of the real owners of companies registered in the UK, Switzerland, Uruguay and Belize.
It has been widely reported that the prosecution alleges the scheme involved funneling money to tax havens using a complex web of shell companies . What’s not so well known however is their allegation that the scheme also relied on keeping the names of the true owners of the companies involved hidden from public scrutiny. The Spanish prosecutor states that the money was routed through UK and Swiss companies and then on to companies in the tax havens of Uruguay and Belize; he also states that all these countries were used because they allow opaque corporate structures. Messi denies the allegations against him, saying that the deals were done by his former agent without his knowledge .
“This shows why it’s so important for the names of the people who ultimately own and control companies to be made public,” said Rosie Sharpe, campaigner at Global Witness. “There is legislation going through the UK parliament right now which, if passed, would make Britain the first country in the world to make company ownership fully transparent. Tax evasion schemes involving British companies will be that bit harder to pull off once this law is in place.”
“Making company ownership transparent is also currently being debated in Brussels. If Spain wants to make it easier to collect the taxes it is due, it should support making the true owners of European companies public,” said Sharpe.
The ownership of the companies allegedly used in this scheme was hidden by the use of:
Nominees (used to hide the ownership of the Swiss company Lazario GmbH and the UK company Sidefloor Ltd). Nominees are people or companies who are listed in official documents as the owners or directors of a company, but who in fact merely own or control the company on behalf of someone else through hidden arrangements.
Having shareholders that are companies that are registered somewhere that keeps ownership details secret (used to hide the ownership of the UK company Sport Enterprises Ltd, which was 50% owned by a Uruguayan company). Not only does Uruguay does not make any information about the owners or directors of its companies public, it does not even require all companies to keep any information as to who they are owned by.
The proposed new UK law would overcome the problems of nominee shareholders and offshore corporate owners: if passed it will require British companies to have to reveal who is behind any nominees and other companies that own more than a quarter of the company. Now other countries need to follow suit and adopt the new corporate transparency standard.