A Mandy Rice-Davies moment!*
Earlier today the FT's Izabella Kaminska tipped us to the Le Monde story in FT Alphaville's Further Reading post:
nquêteMultinationals, billionaires, artists, sportsmen, criminals : an investigation by Le Monde reveals for the first time exhaustively what the Grand Duchy’s financial centre conceals, thanks to its tax advantages.
...MUCH MORE
And from the AP via the Financial Crime and Corruption Education site:
Luxembourg on Monday denied claims made in international media publications that the nation is a massive tax haven for the world’s rich and famous despite European Union legislation to clamp down on it.
A group of media outlets including France’s Le Monde allege that the Grand Duchy has scores of ghost companies without staff or offices with only the aim in mind to hide or protect funds and wealth from tax collectors or harbor suspect funds. The outlets cite financial data they collated based on publicly available registers of companies.
The Luxembourg government said in a statement Monday it “rejects the claims made in these articles as well as the entirely unjustified portrayal of the country and its economy.”...
....MORE
*Mandy Rice-Davies is was a former model and showgirl known for her role in the Profumo affair.
When informed by the prosecuting attorney that Lord
Astor disputed her version of events and denied having an affair she
responded:
"Well, he would, wouldn't he?"
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project also had their take on the story:
Previously on the wonder that is Luxembourg:
What's the Scam? Why Did Deloitte Set Up Their Art & Finance Practice In Luxembourg?
Luxembourg's ^#@*&! Space Agency and Fund
Luxembourg’s Asteroid Mining Plan
Luxembourg Invests €25 million in Asteroid Mining
Luxembourg’s Bid to Become the Silicon Valley of Space Mining
Luxembourg's New Space Mining Law Is Basically "Finders, Keepers"
Morgan Stanley—"Space: Investing In the Final Frontier"
Swiss space agency boss is kidnapped by hitmen who beat him senseless then tried to burn him alive
Swiss Space Systems founder accused of ‘staging’ own attack
Swiss Space Systems: Just "Fugget About It!"
Swiss Space Systems Declares Bankruptcy-Parabolic Story Arc
Goldman Sachs on Asteroid Mining: As If Luxembourg Wasn't Insufferable Already
Luxembourg, with their #3 in the world GDP per capita (PPP) and their Jean-Claude Juncker and...
Insufferable. It's like Bono and Elevation Partners. Besides being Bono, they ran $90 mil. to $1.5 billion in Facebook.
Billion with a 'B'. As in Bono....
[re the Goldman bit]Huh, I must have been crabby that day.
...It's a 24 minute podcast, something one could listen to while in transit but did anyone bother to tell me about it?
No. That's why we're getting to it a year late, despite my avowed interest in becoming the world's first trillionaire.
And ignoring that Alchemist's Fallacy thing and all.
Here's ZeroHdge from April 19th (yes, they're a year late as well but how does that help moi?):
The World's First Trillionaire Will Be A Space Miner
Anyhoo, onwards:
Dammit! Luxembourg Is Not A Microstate!
From Brilliant Maps:
The map above shows how big Luxembourg is compared to Singapore, Andorra, Malta, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Monaco, and the Vatican.Crabby that day as well.
Luxembourg is 2,586.4 km2 (998.6 sq mi) with a population of 576,249, making it one of the world’s smallest states; 168th by size or 164th by population.
However, it’s still bigger than Singapore, Andorra, Malta, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Monaco, and the Vatican combined!
Here’s how big they are respectively:...MORE
"Oligarchs and Orchestras: Inside Luxembourg’s Secretive Low-Tax ‘Fortress of Art’ Warehouse"
Uh Oh: "Bail-In Blues: Luxembourg Warns of Investor Flight from Europe"
Luxembourg and Switzerland are two of the "Banking-assets-an-order-of-magnitude-bigger-than-GDP" powerhouses....
Short The Swiss (and Luxembourg)
Maybe Liechtenstein too. Never much cared for Doha either. And then there's...
errrmmm, excuse me....
For some reason posting on Luxembourg seems to bring out the worst in me.