CBC Visits The Isle of Man - But Not For Tynwald Day!

NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE

It’s the old adage ‘you wait for a bus and then two come along at once’. It seems it’s the same with allegations of impropriety involving the Island’s financial services agency.

First we had Mick Wallace TD standing up in the Dail and alleging murky dealings involving NAMA’s North of Ireland portfolio and a mysterious bank account.

Now we have the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation airing its misgivings about Manx financial affairs.

Normally we are a bit of the beaten track for CBC. I do have to confess that a reporter travelled to the Island some years ago to interview me about explosives dumping and associated environmental problems in the Beaufort Dyke it seems they had the same problem of Newfoundland.

However now it seems CBC, and they assert the Canadian Revenue Agency, may be planning to make a few ‘explosions’ of their own metaphorically speaking.

So what’s it all about? Well the links are here;

http://www.cbc.ca/…/kpmg-tax-sham-could-lead-to-criminal-in…

http://www.cbc.ca/…/federal-probe-of-kpmg-tax-sham-stalled-…

IF you can endure the opening promo on the first video you get a snatch of Manx music and dance but any initial thought this is going to be one of those ‘kippers and cats documentaries’ is swiftly dispelled as the reporter starts door-stepping people about tax matters. Everyone says no comment accept the Speaker of the Keys, Steve Rodan, who should have said ‘bugger off I’m the speaker and this is our National Day!’ (Steve obviously thinks that Tynwald Day wig he was sporting is some sort of Star Wars invisibility cloak).

Then CBC wheel on a tax expert to say ‘allege’ and ‘could’ a few times at this point you realise CBC are taking things seriously and they didn’t just cross the Atlantic with a camera crew, reporter and ‘expert’ to enjoy Tynwald Day.

In the second video (again that annoying promo aside) the tax expert is gone to be replaced by a grim faced lawyer. There’s also graphics of money in the IOM and then piles of money going back to Canada. It’s kind of a Sesame Street delivery to compliment the reporter’s narrative. It looks like this one is going to run and run!

Hard luck Mick (Wallace) looks like this story may trump the NAMA deal. Funny thing is that up to now no local media seems to want to touch it – now that is strange!

A trawl on line reveals that CBC has been exploring offshore tax concerns for sometime. Here is just one link:

http://www.cbc.ca/…/corporate-tax-evasion-crackdown-more-ba…

Now you just know this is going to run and run!

BERNARD MOFFATT

Issued by: The Celtic News

11/09/15

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