UNITED KINGDON—Two Caribbean countries were among the offshore havens used by more than 175,000 UK-registered companies with directors giving addresses in those jurisdictions, the UK Guardian reported yesterday. This raises fresh concerns about the scale of Britain’s involvement in offshore secrecy arrangements.
Data obtained by the newspaper from the corporate information service Duedil reveals 177,020 companies have listed directors in jurisdictions such as the Nevis, British Virgin Islands, Channel Islands, Cyprus, Dubai and the Seychelles. More than 60,000 of those companies are listed as currently active on Companies House, the official register of UK businesses.
Having directors in offshore jurisdictions does not indicate a company is doing anything illegal, or that a director is necessarily a sham. British expats who retain directorships of their business would feature in this data, as do “personal services companies” based in the Isle of Man, which help self-employed people incorporate themselves as a limited company.