Mystery of Tony Blair's money solved GUARDIAN

[grassfed]

Mystery of Tony Blair's money solved
The winner of the Guardian's online contest to solve the mystery of Blair's finances is Richard Murphy, a crusading accountant from Tax Research UK. His entry unearthed the small print of the Partnership (Accounts) Regulations 2008 to reveal that Blair has found an unusual method to keep his wealth secret from the rest of us.

A little-known loophole in UK company law is being used by Tony Blair to keep his finances secret, the Guardian can disclose.

Blair would normally have to publish company accounts detailing the millions flowing into his various commercial ventures since he stepped down from office in 2007.

But he has set up a complicated artificial structure which avoids the normal rule. In effect, he is getting the benefits of running a British company without the drawbacks of unwelcome publicity.

His main vehicle is a so-called limited partnership, christened Windrush Ventures No 3 LP.

Thanks to a gap in the Whitehall regulations, this entity is not required to publish any accounts. Such partnerships must normally disclose figures, or face criminal penalties.

Blair sidestepped the rules by inserting a second partnership as one of the notional partners, in a way the regulations do not cover.

This second partnership, Windrush Ventures No 2 LLP, is a so-called limited liability partnership, a type of entity only invented in 2000, which the rules have not been updated to mention.

The LLP in turn controls Blair's operating company, called Windrush Ventures Ltd, which runs his Mayfair office in Grosvenor Square.

The perfectly legal structures Blair has set up to achieve secrecy are so complicated that they have previously baffled analysts.

They involve 12 different entities, six in the Windrush structure and another half-dozen in a more recent parallel structure called Firerush.

more http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/dec/17/mystery-tony-blairs-money-solved

[tabatha]

1. Crook.

[Ignis]

5. People don't go to this much trouble to hide nothing.

Here's to the Guardian for ferreting this out! :toast:

[eppur_se_muova]

2. So WHAT is being hidden, to be worth the effort? nt

[Nothing Without Hope]

4. Yes - and whatever it is, the whole thing was planned far in advance.

Sounds like something from a James Bond movie. I hope they get to the bottom of it, but sounds like this would take some new legislation. I wonder how many other very wealthy people there have benefitted from this careful legal/financial smokescreen? And I wonder what the equivalent fat cats in the US have devised, all with the active assistance of the US government?

[mrbarber]

3. Who the hell cares about Blair?

Maybe we can focus on the massive clusterfuck going on RIGHT NOW in this country over HCR instead of focusing on somewhere else?

[Mithreal]

6. The world can't have Bush's head

Justice for illegal wars or corruption, not something to sneeze at.

Blair is a war criminal and I hope they make his remaining life miserable.