Amber Rudd, the current Home Secretary, was caught by a German newspaper partnered with BBC Panorama and The Guardian for being involved in a Bahamas offshore tax haven. While it remains unclear as to whether or not she actually invested in these firms, although she herself denies it, the story releases at a time when the government is seeking increased transparency of the practices taking place in these offshore companies and tax avoidance in general. This is evidenced through them planning to charge considerable fines to tax avoidance accountants associated with companies such as EY and KPMG as part of a crackdown on the issue.
- Her directorships were discovered among details of more than 176,000 companies set up in the Caribbean tax haven that have been leaked to the media.
I see this article as being representative of why exactly investigative journalism is needed in our current world - the story being a Guardian exclusive. People need to be aware of the practices that are being undertaken by the individuals governing over them, whether they're of a positive or more distasteful nature. In this case the latter is likely how it'll be perceived among most of the general public, however it's for a good purpose in that they can now scrutinise and hold their ministers to account things they've done.
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