Michael Anthony Ashcroft
Laundering Lord Ashcroft
- US state department and drug enforcement administration (DEA) documents obtained by the Guardian disclose that the US government fears that Belize's secretive tax haven "created to provide tax shelters for companies owned by Ashcroft" is being easily exploited by money launderers and fraudsters.
- They warn that continued lack of controls may make Belize "an inviting target" for drug traffickers seeking to hide their profits. In one report last year, Washington noted concern over the increase "in the number of individuals found bringing large amounts of currency into the country in briefcases or concealed under clothing".
- Another DEA report in 1999 records intelligence that the quantity of US cash flowing into Belize had "increased dramatically".
- A previous report describes the Ashcroft-inspired offshore legislation as "a mechanism whereby illicit activities could be disguised", giving "drug traffickers freedom in establishment of companies ... to conceal or transfer drug proceeds ... money launderers never have to leave the safety of their own countries". The disclosures reignite the question of Lord Ashcroft's suitability to sit in the House of Lords, where the Tory leader William Hague promoted him. But yesterday Lord Ashcroft's spokesman, Alan Kilkenny, said money laundering in Belize did not occur on a wide scale: "Why pick on Belize?" [1]
