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After embezzling public funds : This is where they hide the stolen money

The misappropriation of public funds has taken a new step with the discovery of accounts hidden in tax havens. Indeed, Centif succeeded in unmasking 87 officials who embezzled sums whose amount was estimated at approximately 200 billion CFA francs. This money was placed in countries known to collect money of sometimes dubious origins.

Previously, Beninese officials who steal state money invest it in real estate or in various activities within the territory itself or sometimes in the countries of the sub-region.

Who are these tax havens and why do many rich people and white-collar criminals flock there? ?

Located all over the world, tax havens are countries and territories that have pushed far the art of attracting financial flows. It doesn't matter where the money comes from, the owner is guaranteed not to be worried if he opens a bank account there. For a long time, all eyes were on Switzerland where African heads of state and politicians were transferring public funds that they had unduly disbursed. But over time and as pressure began to be exerted on this European country, other tax havens came into play.

Some of these countries are in Africa, like Botswana., of Lesotho now known as Eswatini and Seychelles. Certain members of the European Union who are fighting against these tax havens are also on the list of these countries whose tax policies they are fighting.. This is the case for Ireland (Google European headquarters), of Luxembourg, Netherlands and many others.

But most tax havens are located on the American continent where the best known are Panama in Central America but also the Caribbean Islands.. Here, we can cite the Bahamas pell-mell, Barbados, Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago, etc. Some states in the United States have also adopted legislation that makes them tax havens.. These include South Dakota and Delaware.

In Asia Singapore, Controversy relating to the status of Dako Donou born of a painting exhibited at the presidency, some Gulf monarchies like Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are known to host secret accounts.

Much further, in the Pacific Ocean there are small territories today rich because they knew how to attract the money that some want to hide. Fiji Islands, Guam, Vanuatu... their names often evoke little when we hear them because they are insignificant both in terms of the size of their territory and the number of inhabitants.

Tax havens synonymous with many customers

If there are so many, is that tax havens have a lot of customers. Besides African politicians, several other public officials have begun to see all the profit they can get from their existence, like these 87 Beninese who are none other than ordinary civil servants. For their part, the rich of European countries have a weakness for these countries not because they have embezzled. On the contrary, they often earned their money as legally as possible. But the tax administrations relieve them of part of their wealth, what they have difficulty accepting, hence their attraction by the territories giving them the possibility of paying little and sometimes zero tax. In addition to the total banking secrecy that they guarantee to their customers, the path of dirty money to land in bank accounts is so tortuous that it is almost impossible to reconstruct it. Indeed, money often passes through shell companies and nominees, which completely blurs the lines. It is therefore to compensate for this on the eve of the start of the new school year that Minister Véronique Tognifode has deemed it useful to travel to educate parents on the need to strengthen parent-child dialogue., thanks to interconnectivity between all countries, light begins to shine in this environment where the law of omerta reigns.

Pierre MATCHOUDO

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