By James Simons-
Newly leaked papers reveal that the current Queen of England- Queen Elizabeth II, has invested some of her private money in offshore tax havens.
According to documents obtained by the International Consortium of Journalists, the queen’s investment managers placed roughly 10 million pounds ($13 million) in offshore portfolios in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. The investments were made by the Duchy of Lancaster, which handles the queen’s finances. The revelation shows Her Royal Highness to be a businesswoman who does not just sit on the thrown enjoying her Royal heritage. She clearly has a desire to put her wealth into good business use and make a worthy profit from it. Last week, it was revealed that the Queen had amassed £6.7m from horse betting in the last 30 years, making her a bit of a guru when it comes to horses.
The recent documents about Elizabeth’s financial holdings are part of a tranche of some 13.4 million records of offshore accounts leaked to German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, and also shared with the International Consortium of Journalists and a network of more than 380 journalists in 67 countries. The world press cannot get enough about the Queen because of her high position in society as head of the British Monarch.
The queen has vast financial assets, including real estate, works of art and jewelry.
This latest leak of the offshore arrangements of many of the world’s richest people, reveals the Duchy of Lancaster – which provides the Queen with a private income – holds funds in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. It has led to criticisms that the money is invested in accounts not affected by UK tax, but also more seriously, that the Queen has investments with an organisation who were only last week reprimanded for unethical behaviour. More bothersome is the revelation that the Duchy made a small investment in the controversial rent-to-buy furniture firm BrightHouse, which was ordered to pay back £14.8m to its customers last week after the Financial Conduct Authority said it had not acted as a “responsible leader”.
The Duchy said its holdings in BrightHouse now equate to just over £3,000 and did not control how the fund made decisions about what to invest in, the BBC reported.
Labour MP Margaret Hodge, the former chairwoman of the Public Accounts Committee, said she was
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“furious” with those who advise the Queen for bringing her “reputation into disrepute”.
She told the BBC:
“Monarchy is one of the most trusted, loved and respected institutions in Britain and it symbolizes that integrity of Britain in the world and to see it sullied by these sort of activities it outrageous.
“It is so obvious that if you are looking after the money of the monarchy that you’ve got to be to be cleaner than clean and you must never go near the dirty world of tax avoidance or making money in dubious ways.”
But anti-monarchy campaign group Republic said the Queen needed to account for the culture of financial secrecy surrounding the royal family.
CEO Graham Smith said:
“The Queen is responsible for her investments, she should have instructed her advisers to ensure her money was invested ethically, and that there was no tax dodging involved.
“The Queen’s personal wealth and investments mean she has a direct interest in government decisions about tax. Yet we have no way of knowing if undue influence has been used by the royal household to protect these investments.
“The Queen now needs to come clean, to set the highest standards of transparency and probity in her financial affairs.
“We need to know where the Queen is making her money and what taxes she is paying. We also need to know if there has been any lobbying of the government regarding tax haven “.
The Queen is reported to have a fortune of £500m.
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