Corporate Fraud: Accountancy firm PwC accused of promoting tax avoidance

The UK Government has been called on to take urgent action after MPs accused one of the UK's largest accountancy firms of promoting "tax avoidance on an industrial scale" to several multinational companies.

In a damning report, the Commons' influential Public Accounts Committee censured

PriceWaterhouseCoopers(PwC), whose promotion of tax arrangements, it said, "based on artificially diverting profits to Luxembourg through intra-company loans, bear all the characteristics of a mass-marketed tax avoidance scheme".

A political row over tax avoidance broke out between the Conservatives and Labour this week over hedge funds and donors but one Labour backbencher also hinted that Smythson, the luxury stationers for which Samantha Cameron, the Prime Minister's wife, acts as an adviser, had shifted its headquarters to Luxembourg to lessen its tax burden.

In a speech, Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, touched on the subject, calling on firms to pay more tax in the countries where they made their profits.

Read more: Accountancy firm PwC accused of promoting tax avoidance | Herald Scotland

European Banking Industry: the Netherlands-Depositing cash into your account is not free at major Dutch banks

Paying cash into an ING bank account is to cost €5 a time - after six free deposits - the AD reports on Wednesday.
The bank, which has nine million current account holders, says it is introducing the charges because processing cash is expensive. Children and students will not have to pay a fee.
The Telegraaf says Rabobank has already introduced charges for cash deposits.
- See more at: http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2011/12/depositing_cash_money_no_longe.php#sthash.GGpzLPzc.dpuf

Paying cash into an ING bank account is to cost €5 a time - after six free deposits - the AD reports on Wednesday.
The bank, which has nine million current account holders, says it is introducing the charges because processing cash is expensive. Children and students will not have to pay a fee.
The Telegraaf says Rabobank has already introduced charges for cash deposits.
- See more at: http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2011/12/depositing_cash_money_no_longe.php#sthash.GGpzLPzc.dpuf

Paying cash into an ING bank account is to cost €5 a time - after six free deposits - the AD reports on Wednesday.
The bank, which has nine million current account holders, says it is introducing the charges because processing cash is expensive. Children and students will not have to pay a fee.
The Telegraaf says Rabobank has already introduced charges for cash deposits.
- See more at: http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2011/12/depositing_cash_money_no_longe.php#sthash.GGpzLPzc.dpuf

Depositing cash into their own  bank accounts is costing Dutch Citizens approximately €5 ($6.82) at a time - after they have done six free deposits -

Dutch banks says it had to introduce these charges and fees because "processing cash is expensive". Children and students, they say will not have to pay a fee.

As unbelievable as this may sound it is true and worse is that the Dutch center right coalition Government of Rutte and Samson has not taken any action against this disguised form of "robbery",

Cash still has a "dominant role" when it comes to small-value transactions. It also remains essential form of payment for lower-income consumers who may not have access to alternative payment options, and it is widely used for retail sector payments.

"Small folks" have made businesses, including banks, who they are, and many companies can collapse as a result of the same "little people" united strength. It's really sad that in 2014 - people still constantly need to fight for what is theirs instead of sharing what we have, so we all can gain.

EU-Digest

Business Should Talk To Europe To Cut Red Tape?

It’s the time of the year  when business leaders proclaim yet another ‘Cut Euro Red Tape’ campaign.

Different spokesmen for business queue up to say they want to see less regulation from Europe that they claim is holding back British business.

These are serious men who make serious money. Their view should not be dismissed. As North America and Asia grow strongly Europe does need to ask if every aspect of the way it regulates its economy adds or lessens growth. Europe does have a great number of regulations as do national administrations, professional bodies, regional employer federations and regulatory agencies. But as the more important business leaders troop into Downing Street to tell cabinet ministers what needs to be done they may be making the category error mistake of missionaries throughout the ages – that of preaching to the converted.

Like churches and third world NGOs arguing over the years that the Common Agricultural Policy did damage to third world farmers the UK’s preferred missionary position on EU reform almost always fails to provide satisfaction. The real targets for the CBI, EEF, Marc Bolland of Marks and Spencer, or Simon Walker of the Institute of Directors and other business bosses should be their fellow business leaders in Europe. Telling Iain Duncan Smith or Chris Grayling or Teresa May or the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail there is something wrong with Europe is preaching to the converted.

Oxfam, Cafod, Save the Children and other excellent campaigners against poverty in developing countries also wasted years of lobbying time telling each other how iniquitous EU trade policies were. They should have caught a flight to Dublin or the Eurostar to Paris to convert the churches and pro-poor lobbies in Ireland or France to call for an end to the CAP. That would have been real missionary work. Similarly, British business needs to find support in German or Dutch or Belgian employers circles for their views. Picking up a megaphone in London and hoping you will be heard in Brussels is a low-return option.

Business leaders also need to ask themselves some tough questions. The most obvious one is to ask why, if EU rules, are so destructive of business do so many competitor firms on the continent thrive on them? If it is EU regulations holding back Britain from competing in the world why are German, or Dutch or Swedish firms operating under the same rules able to export so much more than the UK does?

Read more: Business Should Talk To Europe To Cut Red Tape

Corporate Fraud: Halliburton to plead guilty to destroying Gulf spill evidence

Halliburton Energy Services has agreed to plead guilty to destroying evidence in connection with the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the Department of Justice said Thursday.

Federal officials said in a news release that a criminal information charging Halliburton with one count of destruction of evidence was filed in federal court in Louisiana.

Halliburton has agreed to pay the maximum fine, be on probation for three years and continue to co-operate with the government's criminal investigation, according to the news release, which did not list the amount of the fine.

The Houston-based company has also made a $55 million voluntary contribution to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. It was not a condition of the court agreement, the news release says.

The company said in a statement Thursday night that it had agreed to plead guilty "to one misdemeanor violation associated with the deletion of records created after the Macondo well incident, to pay the statutory maximum fine of $200,000 and to accept a term of three years probation."

Read more: Halliburton to plead guilty to destroying Gulf spill evidence - Business - CBC News

The Netherlands: Dutch lender Rabobank fires 4 employees over Libor rigging

Dutch lender Rabobank has fired four employees between 2008 and last year over the manipulation of interbank lending rates, a scandal which has now engulfed a dozen or more major banks around the world, a Dutch newspaper reported on Friday.

The Dutch agricultural cooperative bank is a member of the panel that sets the London Interbank Offered Rate ( Libor), a benchmark for the rate at which banks lend to each other and which underlies financial contracts from mortgages to complex derivatives worth trillions of dollars.

Two of the employees were dismissed in 2008 following an internal investigation by Rabobank, and the other two late last year, Het Financieele Dagblad reported, citing sources in the financial sector.

Note EU-Digest: the solution is not in firing individual employees but in fixing a malfunctioning and corrupt global banking industry.

Read more: Dutch lender Rabobank fires 4 employees over Libor rigging - The Economic Times

Multi-National Corporations: The Walmart Bribery Scandal: Big Box Boxed In - by Richard Levick

Chalk one up for old-fashioned hard copy investigative reporting. When the New York Times story about alleged bribery of Mexican officials by Walmart hit the newsstands this weekend, it set the “anti-corruption community” abuzz, at the very least providing a dramatic reminder that the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is no paper tiger; that the potential for civil and possibly criminal government action is immense; and that, especially for a retail giant that lives on public loyalty, the brand threat here should be taken very seriously.

For more: The Walmart Bribery Scandal: Big Box Boxed In - Forbes

Multinational Corporations: Samsung, Sharp, Hitachi, Epson, among 7 Asian companies who conspired to inflate prices liquid crystat display screens

Seven companies based in Asia will pay $553 million US to settle allegations by prosecutors in eight U.S. states that they conspired to inflate prices for liquid crystal display screens used in televisions and computer monitors, said New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

The agreement provides $501 million US for partial refunds for consumers in 24 states and the District of Columbia who purchased products with the companies' panels from 1999 through 2006.

The attorney general had alleged that the Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese companies, which make the thin film transistor LCD panels, conspired to keep prices high.

For more: Business - CBC News