“Sunny places for shady people”

“Sunny places for shady people”

The author Somerset Maugham once famously described Monaco as “a sunny place for shady people” and the tiny principality has never really lived it down. The phrase has become synonymous with ‘tax havens’, small but usually luxurious off-shore banking centres.

In recent months tax havens have experienced a dramatic shift in how the world treats them. The G20 summit held in London back in April saw the leaders of the world collectively turn on tax havens, with both US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown leading the charge. Gordon Brown closed the summit saying “the banking secrecy of the past must come to an end”. 

But, in the months since, very little real change has been achieved. Places like Jersey, Monaco and Switzerland have made minor changes, but an investigation by Aljazeera has found that all are continuing to function in much the same way they always have. The havens themselves think they’ve been made a scapegoat; Stephane Valeri the President of Monaco’s National Council says “It is very unfair to attack small states on this subject. Particularly my country…Monaco is a symbol, Monaco is well known and maybe a lot of people are jealous of the success of Monaco.” And in any case it is now evident the crackdown launched by the international community has had minimal impact.

Over the next week I’ll be reporting from some of the world’s most famous tax havens, investigating what progress, if any, has been made. You can follow us live on twitter, find analysis on our website, or watch the stories on Aljazeera English.