New whistleblower claims over £1bn Barclays tax deals (Guardian)

[Anarcho-Socialist]

New whistleblower claims over £1bn Barclays tax deals

• Judge upholds ban on publishing bank's documents
• Insider says tax avoidance central to firm's business

* Felicity Lawrence and David Leigh
* guardian.co.uk, Thursday 19 March 2009 21.50 GMT

Further detailed allegations about tax avoidance schemes set up by Barclays Bank emerged tonight from whistleblowers who said the bank made close to £1bn profit a year from a series of elaborate deals.

The schemes are similar to those detailed in documents published by the Guardian this week which have been the centre of a three-day hearing at the high court, and are the subject of a gagging order.

The internal Barclays memos were leaked by a mole to the Liberal Democrats. The new allegations reiterate claims that the bank's main purpose in entering into these schemes was to make profit from tax avoidance through an intricate circuit of offshore Cayman Islands and Luxembourg companies. The profits are said to be enormous and the deals so complex that HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) struggles to unravel them.

Barclays has vigorously denied the claims and earlier this week won an emergency injunction forcing the Guardian to remove internal bank documents from its website. Earlier today a judge confirmed the ban, saying the documents contained confidential commercial information and legal advice. The Guardian is also banned from giving information about other publicly accessible sources of copies of the documents.

More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/mar/19/new-barclays-tax-whistleblower-claims

[D-Notice]

1. It would be a shame if

someone linked to ...

*whistles nonchalantly*