Jeremy Carver

Jeremy Carver is a London-based consultant with Clifford Chance since 1987 and he heads their Public International Law Group. According to their website, his expertise:

Represents states, government agencies and international organisations in relation to proceedings in England and elsewhere; representing Kuwait's Oil Sector companies in claims to the United Nations Compensation Commission. Areas of expertise include state and diplomatic immunity, status, privileges and immunities of international organisations, upstream oil and gas operations, international economic sanctions, maritime and territorial boundary issues, world trade law, jurisdiction, conflicts of laws, extraterritoriality.

Transparency

He is also a director of Transparency International UK. In a TI 13 February 2007 meeting at the Commonwealth Club, 'Is the UK Government Serious About Fighting International Corruption?', Carver spoke of the Al Yamamah arms deal and BAe outlining the troublesome nature of Article 5 of the OECD Anti bribery Convention:

"...whereby all Contracting States expressly agreed that when considering prosecution in respect of offences under the Convention, i.e. bribery of foreign public officials, no weight must be given to three distinct factors: (1) national economic interest; (2) relations with other States; and (3) the identify of those involved."

Carver goes on to point out:

"According to the UK's government's highest legal adviser, prosecution for bribing foreign public officials is virtually impossible in the UK, whether the person paying the bribes is in the UK or outside, and irrespective of where the bribery took place.[...] so far as the UK's domestic law on corruption is concerned, the UK cannot be taken as "serious" about fighting international corruption. On the contrary, a serious case can be made that the UK government has, by what it has done in misleading parliament, passing Part XII of the 2001 Act and presenting an even weaker Corruption Bill in 2003, and by what it has not done in failing to present clear and compliant legislation as is so manifestly required, the government has done its utmost to undermine the efforts that so many others have been making to combat foreign bribery."

To find out inside information on the deal he could go to Transparency International's 'president', Baroness Chalker of Wallasey and talked about her work with Merchant Bridge and Co. Ltd. They are the advisor to the British Government on the Offset Programme which is a supposed £1 billion economic investment agreement in Saudi Arabia as part of the Al Yamamah ('the Dove') arms deal. MerchantBridge thus became part of the UK Ministry of Defence's Saudi Armed Forces Project — the staff includes a number of secondees from BAe Systems. Merchant Bridge runs the 'Iraq Construction Materials Fund' to finance manufacturers and suppliers of construction materials in Iraq. Materials such as ready mixed concrete: Chalker is a member of the international advisory board of Lafarge et Cie — which, following the acquisition of Blue Circle, became the world's leading cement producer. This interlinked network of directorships is perhaps different to bribery, but it does bring with it both the potential for conflicts of interest and the possibility that 'transparency' might be compromised.

Clifford Chance sponsor the work of the The International Law Discussion Group which organises events at Chatham House. Stuart Popham a Senior Partner of Clifford Chance is a Chatham House director.

...Carver reportedly told Palast: "I went to a DTI reception. I was introduced to someone who identified himself as the chairman of a company and we were talking about corruption. He announced with great pride that he personally handed over the cheque to the government minister for the Pergau dam 'bribe' in Malaysia." Identifying Carver's interlocutor as "the chairman of Balfour Beatty", Palast continues: "The corporate honcho was not confessing, but boasting about the payment which he may have considered not a bribe but just the cost of doing business Malaysian-style."

One of the anomalies of Transparency International's map of corruption is that it appears to ignore that Western companies are alleged to fuel corruption abroad, or factor in the relevant amounts. In Transparency International’s own Bribe Payers’ Index, which measures perceptions of the frequency with which bribes are paid by companies from the 19 leading exporting countries, the US appears in the middle of the ranking. But of the world’s leading exporters, the 'US government is perceived to be the most likely to engage in ‘unfair practices’ to benefit its businesses'.

It is argued that Africa is kept destitute as western firms shift cash to tax havens:

"More than $150bn a year is looted from Africa through tax avoidance by giant corporations and capital flight using 'a pinstripe infrastructure' of western banks, lawyers and accountants, according to the African Union. This £75bn equivalent shortfall easily eclipses pledges made by leaders of the world's richest nations to increase aid and write off debt at the G8 summit in Gleneagles in 2005."

The World Bank (which initiated TI) and the International Monetary Fund have not researched capital flight and tax. Similarly the role of Export Credit Agencies (EVA) is overlooked. Noreena Hertz in The Ecologist argues:

"Not only do ECAs finance self-aggrandising or misguided projects and corrupt elites; they are, historically, rarely subject to any kind of regulatory safeguards. Most export credit agencies, for example, have no legal obligation to screen out projects with adverse environmental and social impacts, no obligation to ensure that their projects comply with human rights, environmental and development guidelines, and no obligation to consider the environmental impact of their investments or the contribution they will make to local development. [...] Western countries use ECAs for 80 per cent of their investment in developing countries. The agencies subsidise corporations and provide risk-free bonuses for the commercial banks lending the investment capital. There is no quid pro quo at all that the businesses favoured should employ the peoples of the subsidising government, invest in its country or fulfil any national interest."

IRC

Carver is also a trustee of the International Rescue Committee-UK. The IRC "serves refugees and communities victimized by oppression or violent conflict worldwide. Founded in 1933, the IRC is committed to freedom, human dignity, and self-reliance. This commitment is expressed in emergency relief, protection of human rights, post-conflict development, resettlement assistance, and advocacy." Its overseers include such peacemakers as: Madeleine K. Albright, Henry A. Kissinger, Colin Powell, James D. Wolfensohn. The British Board includes: Kathleen O’Donovan (Co-Chair), George Biddle, Gillian duCharme, Sir Jeremy Greenstock GCMG, Richard Lambert, John Makinson, CBE, James P. Rubin, Mary Anne Schwalbe.

Writing

• Jeremy P. Carver & Greg Englefield, Oil and Gas Pipelines from Central Asia: A New Approach, World Today 119-121 (June 1994)
• Jeremy P. Carver & Greg Englefield, The Future Development of the Caspian Sea, Russia and the Other States, CIS Newsletter (May 1995).