In his book, the former anti -corruption judge tells how the European Union and the international community find themselves trapped in opaque territories that they have long left prospering. The author calls for a political burst.
by Anne Michel
March 2022, on the Tuscany coast. While Russia has invaded Ukraine and Westerners announce that they will be able to emphasize all the property of the Russian president and oligarchs close to the Kremlin, a super-yacht at $ 600 million, likely to belong to Vladimir Putin, Parade In the seaside resort of Marina Di Carrara. The ship that beats the Caimans pavilion taunts Italian customs because it is backed by a screen company created in the Marshall Islands, which makes it impossible to identify its owner.
in Offshore. In the edifying behind the scenes of the tax havens, published in editions Les Lies who release, Renaud Van Ruymbeke, the former anti -corruption magistrate retired in 2019, places this scene at the opening of his story. It illustrates in a striking way the substance of its remarks: how the European Union and, beyond, the entire international community are now trapped in opaque territories that they have long left prospering.
that a political act as strong as the implementation of sanctions in wartime, and in this case this hunt for Russian assets, stumbles on the pitfall of offshore societies is not to surprise the old judge. Located at the forefront of the fight against corruption and money laundering for twenty years, Renaud Van Ruymbeke spent thousands of hours at the financial pole of the Paris court, to dissect the illicit financial circuits used by criminals in White collar or mafia networks.
paravents
Now, from occult funding of parties to complex tax fraud, including the payment of bribes on the sidelines of international armaments contracts, all the major cases of which he has been responsible for joining a Point: the use of accounts or entities created in more or less exotic territories practicing zero tax and banking secrecy, from Luxembourg to Dubai, operating as paravents compared to the authorities, tax, police, justice.
of the Boulin affair in 1979 to Karachi and Balkany affairs (his last file), the former judge took the reader to the heart of his major investigations. While trying to “follow the money” – French translation of the famous Anglo -Saxon adage “follow the money”, showing that a well -conducted investigation is to go up to the origin of the funds or follow their Destination – Renaud van Ruymbeke saw the opacification techniques become more and more sophisticated.
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