The investigation found that the so-called “Sark lark”, whereby nominee directors are appointed as company directors of essentially fake companies to assist people in the UK avoid paying tax, is alive and well and in fact thriving in places such as the Caribbean, Dubai, Cyprus and Mauritius – despite UK authorities launching a crackdown a decade ago.
According to an article published in The Guardian yesterday, there are a number of UK firms who are happy to set up these companies for clients to help them “mitigate” tax and an equal number of people willing to be paid to become nominee directors.
One example uncovered by the newspaper was a company called Atlas which has been based in Cyprus, Dubai and now Mauritius. According to The Guardian, Atlas is associated with 12 people who between them have held directorships of 1,578 British Virgin Island-based companies. The paper added that Atlas “frequently work for Cornhill, a company formation agency run in London by Mark Lance”.
To watch the BBC Panorama programme click here
To read The Guardian’s article click here
