ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the G20 High-Level Principles on Beneficial Ownership Transparency, on state implementation responses. It also focuses on how a very simple, inexpensive offshore device, the non-charitable purpose trust, can be used to render the application of the G20 principles – and accountability in human rights terms – legally impossible. The thesis is simple, but potent. Worldwide, efforts are being made to implement enforcement mechanisms for identifying the beneficial owners of companies and the policies driving this initiative are found in the Principles. Using an Isle of Man non-charitable purpose trust as a case study, the chapter shows that in fact no enforcement mechanism – no matter how robustly crafted – will be of the slightest use if the structure under investigation has in fact no beneficial owner at all. Various tax havens have introduced 'orphan' structures which, by definition, have no beneficial owners at all, the Bahamas Executive Entity introduced under The Executive Entities Act 2011.
