Finance Documentary in Full Length: The Spider's Web: Britain's Second Empire - How Britain transformed from an imperial power to a financial power.
//Summary - Level-C2//
"The Spider's Web: Britain's Second Empire" (2017) is a documentary by Michael Oswald detailing how Britain shifted from a colonial to a financial power. It reveals how the City of London became central to global financial corruption, tax evasion, and money laundering through offshore secrecy jurisdictions, significantly influencing international finance and British democracy.
The Spider's Web: Britain's Second Empire (2017)
Director: Michael Oswald
Release Date: 5 May 2017 (Mexico)
Duration: 78 min
Storyline:
The Spider's Web: Britain's Second Empire is a documentary film that shows how Britain transformed from a colonial power into a global financial power. At the empire's demise, the City of London's financial interests created a web of offshore secrecy jurisdictions that captured wealth from across the globe and hid it behind obscure financial structures in a web of offshore islands.
Today, up to half of global offshore wealth may be hidden in British offshore jurisdictions, and Britain and its offshore jurisdictions are the most prominent global players in international finance. How did this come about, and how does it impact the earth today? This is what the Spider's Web sets out to investigate.
With contributions from leading experts, academics, former insiders and campaigners for social justice, the use of stylized b-roll and archive footage, the Spider's Web reveals how, in the world of international finance, corruption and secrecy have prevailed over regulation and transparency, and the UK is correct at the heart of this.
Reviews:
"This is a fascinating, compelling and well-made film about how the City of London increased its influence by using tax havens after the break up of the British Empire.
The documentary is highly informative and eye-opening, but be warned: It can leave you feeling angry and disillusioned about how successive governments, politicians, and the Establishment have combined to defraud the taxpayer legally.
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Five hundred thousand people have seen my film exposing Britain's tax havens. Here's why it struck a chord
The Spider's Web explores how London became the money laundering capital of the world.
A)
1)
We published The Spider's Web: Britain's Second Empire for free download in mid-September, and nearly half a million people have viewed the film since its release. Here's why I think it's resonating with audiences around the world.
2)
The Spider's Web is a documentary about how the City of London emerged from the decline of the British Empire in the 1950s to re-establish itself as the world's leading financial centre. The mainstream narrative is that British bankers and lawyers are particularly adept at providing financial services to large corporations and wealthy elites worldwide, that British justice is trusted worldwide, and that London offers a politically stable and competitive base for international finance.
3)
Much of this narrative is authentic. Wealthy elites trust British courts to protect their assets, even if they've been looted from poor countries. The City of London has a cluster of specialist banks and law firms that can provide sophisticated tax avoidance services to giant multinationals.
4)
But London also sits at the centre of a global web of offshore secrecy jurisdictions, including Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman, the Channel Islands, Gibraltar, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Guyana and others, which allow the rich and powerful to evade taxes, avoid regulation, launder money, cheat their creditors and engage in a host of corrupt activities with almost total impunity from investigation.
5)
In short, The Spider's Web details how Britain, particularly London, has secretly become the money-laundering centre of choice for crooks worldwide.
B)
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Many people will have sensed that something was amiss with Britain's tax haven empire, and those who have followed the stories of the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers will have read about the critical role played by the British Virgin Islands and Bermuda in the revelations of these high profile scandals.
7)
This was no accident; behind the scenes, from the 1950s onwards, critical players in the City carefully manipulated laws and regulations to their advantage, made all the easier by access to remote islands in the Caribbean and elsewhere beyond the prying eyes of journalists and criminal investigators.
My investigation began in the 1980s when I returned to Jersey to work for one of the world's leading accounting firms. If you watch the film, you will hear what my investigations uncovered.
8)
While working in Jersey, I also witnessed corruption at the highest political level. I ended up helping the Wall Street Journal investigate a banking scandal that the Jersey authorities were desperate to bury. I also met former Jersey Senator Stuart Syvret, who we interviewed for The Spider's Web in aint Helier.
9)
If you watch the film, you will hear from Stuart about what happened when he exposed an ugly scandal at Jersey's main hospital and the lengths to which the authorities went to silence him.
From discussions with audiences in many countries, I know that viewers find the sequence where the good, honest Jersey Bobby tries to drown out the interview with a motorcycle siren, particularly disturbing.
C)
10)
The Spider's Web strikes a chord with audiences because it confronts us with a truth that many people have known all along but have chosen to ignore. Corruption runs through banks, accountancy, law firms, and the offshore secrecy jurisdictions that host them, like a message through a stick of rock.
Our politicians have promised to crack down on Britain's secrecy jurisdictions for decades, but little or nothing has been achieved. This failure has severely damaged democracy and the rule of law in Britain.
11)
Britain's economy is heavily dependent on inflows of dirty money looted from around the world, and it will take a massive and radical change, of course, to escape this over-dependence on tax havens. Efforts to clean up the City will be met with bitter and protracted resistance.
Bankers and lawyers will have to go to jail if we are to convince these professions that their monkey business is up.
12)
The Spider's Web was released in mid-2017, and since then, I've been attending screenings worldwide and discussing it with a wide range of audiences. Any issues have been raised, but the question that comes up most often is straightforward and challenging: "Why didn't The BBC show the Spider's Web?" Good question.
The Spider's Web: Britain's Second Empire | Finance Documentary | History
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYfnkLurLA8
500,000 people have watched my film exposing Britain's tax havens. Here's why it has struck a chord
The Spider's Web explores how London became the money-laundering capital of the world
The Spider's Web: Britain's Second Empire - TV Movie (2017) IMDb 7.7/10
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6483026/
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Panama Papers - Wikipedia
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%91%E3%83%8A%E3%83%9E%E6%96%87%E6%9B%B8
The Panama Papers are classified documents leaked from a law firm in Panama. They contain 11.5 million pieces of information created since the 1970s. They include evidence that large corporations and wealthy individuals have been using tax havens to evade taxes, and their leaks have caused worldwide chaos.
