Lloyds faces offshore allegations

The Guardian is running a story this morning which starts with this:

"The tax authorities are investigating Lloyds Banking Group after evidence emerged that the bank, kept alive by £17bn of taxpayers' money, encourages wealthy customers to avoid tax by channelling money through China."

The story is based on an undercover filming operation by the BBC current affairs programme Panorama. A banker based in (guess where?) Jersey is quoted as saying:

"It's of no interest to us whether you tell the taxman or not. It is not our business."

Which, among other things, makes a joke out of IMF

Read the rest of the story, which speaks for itself. It is one more story highlighting how abuse is facilitated and encouraged by a pinstripe infrastructure to encourage and facilitate abuse. The Guardian highlights the generalised hypocrisy prevalent in Britain:

"At the last G20 meeting, Gordon Brown announced: "There will be an end to tax havens." But not, it seems, for banks funded by UK taxpayers offering tax avoidance schemes."