Chancellor Rishi Sunak – A history of egregious banking scandals and tax evasion

• Sunak shone as a partner in the interventionist hedge fund the Children’s Investment Fund (TCI) while it targeted Dutch bank ABN Amro to the point that Royal Bank of Scotland ill-advisedly bought it up in 2007 and needed a £45bn taxpayer-funded bailout the following year. That history may or may not help Sunak clear up his former firm’s mess as he takes charge of the 62 per cent stake in RBS the taxpayer still owns.
• Soon afterwards, in 2009, Sunak left TCI to co-found another hedge fund, the Anglo-American Thélème Partners. It is closely linked to the Cayman Islands – where Thélème funds were supposedly principally managed in the classic tax-avoiding way that hedge funds operate, slashing tax bills from California to Mayfair.
• Just three days before last week’s surprise promotion, the eager-to-please Sunak launched his pet policy for freeports around the UK.
• He first pushed the plan as a relatively new MP in a 2016 paper for the right-wing Centre for Policy Studies. Now he has his hands on the tax controls and can do whatever it takes to entice major investment in the zones (ie big tax breaks and few questions asked).

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