Hexham Debates: Death and taxes: what the UK can do to end tax haven secrecy

The Hexham Debates are at 11.00am – 12.30pm

Saturday 8 June 2013

Mike Lewis Policy advisor on tax justice for Action Aid

Death and taxes: what the UK can do to end tax haven secrecy

Tax havens, and the offshore financial system they maintain, are not just ways to conceal wealth from the taxman. Their secrecy sustains the corporate structures and money-flows that fuel conflict and cause poverty. Mike Lewis will trace the fingerprints of tax havens on malnutrition and war crimes – and suggest what we can do about it.

Mike Lewis  With a background in corporate investigation and humanitarian action, Mike has worked for Oxfam, Amnesty International and the UN, researching international aid, the role of business in conflict, corporate crime and financial secrecy in Africa and Asia. His work has focussed on documenting weapons trafficking, conflict financing, corporate and financial networks, and human rights violations in conflicts. He is a former member of the UN Panel of Experts on Sudan, where he was deployed as a Security Council investigator on the Darfur conflict. He now advises Action Aid’s widely-respected work on tax and tax-avoidance in the developing world.