Whistleblower protection, plutocrats and dark money: the Tax Justice Network’s November 2018 podcast

In the November 2018 Tax Justice Network monthly podcast/radio show, the Taxcast:

• we look at how governments can better protect, encourage and even incentivise whistleblowers.
• what do the latest Brexit developments tell us about dark money, the ‘influence industry’ and plutocracy?
• And, we hear from the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights Philip Alston on his findings from his UK visit.

Featuring:

• Lawyer Mary Inman of Constantine Cannon, specialised in representing whistleblowers in the UK, the EU and worldwide under US American whistleblower reward programmes
• Raphaël Halet, LuxLeaks whistleblower
• John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network
• UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Professor Philip Alston
• Produced and presented  by Naomi Fowler of the Tax Justice Network

the government can audit from the outside all day long but all it takes is one well-placed insider to bring the information to the government and show first-hand what was going on. Prosecutors will tell you their number one enforcement tool that they use is whistleblowers We need to see more and better whistleblower programmes.”

~Lawyer Mary Inman of Constantine Cannon

John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network on the latest Brexit and dark money allegations:

“if this is the case then this is a truly toxic story of radical right wingers in Britain, and the United States working together to use possibly illegal foreign funding to influence a democratic process in the UK with a very distinct possibility that some, or all of this funding was routed through offshore jurisdictions to disguise its origins…plutocrats are rapidly enforcing their grip over the institutions of the State…we now need to start seriously addressing how can we fund elections without involving dark money and the extraordinary resources of the plutocrats.”

Want to download and listen on the go? Download onto your phone or hand held device by clicking ‘save link’ here.

Want more Taxcasts? The full playlist is here and here. Or here.

Want to subscribe? Subscribe via email by contacting the Taxcast producer on naomi [at] taxjustice.net OR subscribe to the Taxcast RSS feed here OR subscribe to our youtube channel, Tax Justice TV OR find us on Acast, Spotify, iTunes or Stitcher.

Further reading and resources:

Saudi prince says he twice saved Trump from bankruptcy

UK Cabinet Minister rejects UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights Philip Alston‘s Report on the UK: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/nov/19/amber-rudd-un-poverty-report-return-frontline-politics

Statement on Visit to the United Kingdom, by Professor Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23881&LangID=E

The Taxcast interview with Philip Alston on his US mission https://taxjustice.net/2018/02/27/killing-american-dream-trumps-tax-reform-february-2018-podcast/

Expert on disinformation Dr Emma Briant’s discovery of emails mentioned in the Taxcast: New Evidence Emerges of Steve Bannon and Cambridge Analytica’s Role in Brexit https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/new-evidence-emerges-of-steve-bannon-and-cambridge-analyticas-role-in-brexit

Dr Emma Briant in Open Democracy UK: Our governments share responsibility for the Cambridge Analytica crisis… and here’s how they should fix it https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/brexitinc/emma-briant/our-governments-share-responsibility-for-cambridge-analytica-crisis-and-her#

Oh look….Global Britain is another completely opaque neo-liberal front parading as a think tank: https://t.co/zs1mTdu3sw. No Board, no trustees no declared donors. Nor is their address visible…except they left it here on the cover of one of their previous reports…….1/, https://t.co/Pv4RFnDeiQ

— Jessica Simor QC (@JMPSimor) November 20, 2018