Journalist and world-renowned expert on the Italian mafia Roberto Saviano has called the UK “the most corrupt country in the world,” and said that Brexit may
make the situation even more disastrous.
“If I asked you what is the most corrupt place on Earth, you might well tell me it’s Afghanistan, maybe Greece, Nigeria, the South of Italy, and I will tell you it’s the
UK,” Saviano told the audience at Britain’s Hay Literary Festival.

“It’s not the bureaucracy, it’s not the police, it’s not the politics, but what is corrupt is the financial capital. Ninety percent of the owners of capital in London
have their headquarters offshore,” he added.
The UK is Europe’s “criminal capital” when it comes to allowing corruption, the journalist thinks, with the trust funds in Jersey and British Overseas Territory the Cayman Islands being its “access
gates.”
“That is why it is important, why it is so crucial for me to be here today and to talk to you because I want to tell you, this is about you, this is about your life, this is
about your government,” the 36-year-old
journalist told the audience.

Saviano has been living under police protection for over 10 years, after he revealed secrets of Italy’s Camorra
mafia clan in his two exposés, Gomorrah and ZeroZeroZero.

Another major issue Saviano spoke out about was Brexit. In the event that the UK leaves the EU, he believes it would let the corruption continue: “Leaving the EU means allowing [corruption] to take
place. It means allowing the Qatari societies, the Mexican cartels, the Russian mafia to gain even more power, and [London-based bank] HSBC has paid €2 billion in fines to the US government, because it confessed that it had laundered money coming from the cartels and the Iranian companies. We have proof, we have evidence.” It’s not the first statement criticizing the UK this week at the Hay Festival. On Sunday, former CIA chief Michael Hayden said that the British demand
less privacy and transparency from the intelligence services than US citizens.

“You as a population are far more tolerant of aggressive action on the part of your intelligence services than we are in the United States,” he said. Privacy revelations along the lines of those from Edward Snowden have
started a conversation which had “hit the beach” in the US, but it “has not hit the beach here in Great Britain,” Hayden added.

The statements at the festival come about two months after it was revealed that UK Prime Minister David Cameron benefited from an offshore fund set up
by his later father, following the publication of the Panama Papers.

Cameron has also often come under fire for not dealing with offshore tax havens operating on UK overseas territories. In March, Britain’s pro-Brexit justice
minister, Dominic Raab, told the Guardian that the EU’s failure to move against corruption and “systematic
fraud” is in “violation of international law.”

The EU hasn’t adopted the UN
convention against corruption, Raab
said. Cameron also faced embarrassment earlier in May when he was overheard referring to Nigeria and Afghanistan as “fantastically corrupt,” in comments he made to the Queen ahead of an international anti-corruption conference in London.

Cc : lalasticlala, appleyard nairaminted



https://www.rt.com/uk/344839-uk-corrupt-country-journalist/

Every Dick and Harry before now, and even before the Panama papers came calling, knows that the UK is the hub of financial crimes, the world safe house for all forms of financial illegality you can immagine. Therefore, when that son of a thief called David Cameron told the world that Nigerian and Afghanistan are ''fantastically'' corrupt, it became clear to the logical mind that, there really is something positive in the semantic collocation of the term 'fantastic', as used by him. One may ask: was this really just bad taste or sarcassicm, ill-advised flippancy, or really a Freudian slip from the deep structure of British elitism? These questions are valid taking into consideration the views of some anti-corruption researchers that, the systematic transfer of funds to the UK from various parts of the developing world has been 'fantastic' for its economy. Yeah, thats rightly so.

The fact that one single former Nigerian military head of state, Abacha, siphoned up to $5bn out of the country and more than half of that amount infamously made its way to the UK and was subsequently laundered in five other Western countries, was perhaps 'fantastic' for many banks in the UK.
Of course public officers in Nigeria are amazingly corrupt. This perhaps is why Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari refused to throw a tantrum over the characterisation of his country and opted to hit Britain back where it could hurt, by responding that: "I am not demanding an apology from anybody, I am demanding a return of assets."
Now, even going by the commonly accepted Transparency International Corruption Index, Nigeria in 136th position out of 167 is statistically not one of the 'two most corrupt' countries in the world. Neither is Afghanistan. North Korea and Somalia occupies those two unenviable positions. Yet, Cameron made such a remark. It thus entails the logical irony that he was actually celebrating the corruption which is ''fantastic,'' as far as Britain is concern, because, it is always very good for its economy. And that is why once this monies get into the country, (despite knowing where it came from,) they then formulate financial policies and rules round the money as such that it get trapped within the financial walls of UK. That explain why up till date, Nigeria and other developing nations still are unable to recover most of the looted funds, like the Abacha loot; because it is ''fantastic'' for the criminal British economy.

It is no longer a mere assumption that this systematic funnelling of corrupt wealth pouring into the UK is deliberately designed - or deliberately tolerated and left unplugged. Furthermore the international mischief caused by tax havens and offshore banking jurisdictions - many of which are British-controlled - is finally common knowledge.
Britain remains "by far the most important part of the global offshore system of tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions". This has brought untold suffering to many nations and their financial fortunes.

David Cameron is a man whose father's name appeared on the Panama scandal regarding a fortune he profited from. Yet, he had the guts to assemble a global summit on corruption, even in the most corrupt financial capital; and the hypocritical audacity to label others as fantastically corrupt.

Hypocritical bigot!

What would be fantastic is David Cameron hastening the return of Nigeria's stolen wealth that Nigeria and other developing states have been asking for expedited action for decades now. Britain should first remove the mothe in its national eyes before accusing others for there own. Then we can take them serious.

Till then, Britain remains the most corrupt nation on the planet.

Am just wondering how the UK economy would look like if all looted funds by politicians are returned back to their various countries.

bonechamberlain:
Am just wondering how the UK economy would look like if all looted funds by politicians are returned back to their various countries.

Don't mind the crooked nation.