All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name.
To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.
Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.
***
Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) are people who hold a public function and as a result present a higher risk of being involved in bribery and corruption. Offshore leaks have revealed time and again that PEPs use British finance and British offshore jurisdictions to launder their wealth, hide their wealth and re-invest that wealth back into the global financial system. London is the place where they buy property, where they take legal action against their critics and where they live when they fall from grace.
Behind Closed Doors investigates three developing world families which have for decades been at the heart of power in their respective countries and have during that time grown fabulously wealthy. The Kenyatta’s of Kenya, the Aliyev’s of Azerbaijan, and the Sharif’s of Pakistan.
All three families have been revealed to have made use of offshore financial secrecy to invest in London property. UK financial services companies have been only too happy to offer their services for these transactions. Rachel Davis-Teka of Transparency International reveals that “it’s very hard to pursue large banks and big firms for money laundering offences, because we do not have a ‘failure to prevent money laundering’ offence within UK law,” she further shares that “Companies House is not empowered to check and verify the information that is submitted to it. It’s quite possible to write down, Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck, …. and no one’s going to check that information.”
We released the trailer to Behind Closed Doors on the 17th of October (2022), within a week one of the main contributors to the documentary, the fearless Pakistani investigative journalist Arshad Sharif, who was a fierce critic of the ruling Sharif family, was shot and killed by the Police in Kenya. Ten days later another participant, the former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan was shot in an assassination attempt. Further to these individuals, the film includes contributions by John-Allan Namu of Africa Uncensored, Tom Stocks of the OCCRP, Emin Huseynov the Azerbaijani journalist who fled to the Swiss embassy in Azerbaijan to escape politically motivated arrest, Shahzad Akbar the former head of the Pakistani Asset Recovery Unit etc…
Behind Closed Doors reveals the barriers that stand in the way when a developing country attempts to have laundered and illicit money returned.
Journalist Phil Miller writes in Declassified UK:
“An important film, coming at a time when Western nations are claiming to crack down on dirty money and oligarchs. It highlights how much more work British authorities need to do if their anti-corruption drive is to go beyond rich Russians.”
Transparency International UK called the documentary “A very timely film that highlights well the key issues with Britain’s role in facilitating corruption overseas.”
Watch the documentary below.
*
Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.
