Eleanor Rose

Carter-Ruck partner prosecuted for ‘improper’ threat to sue Claire Gill understood to be facing tribunal over letter attempting to silence victim of a huge fraud scheme, as reported by TBIJ

A partner at Britain’s “most feared” libel firm, Carter-Ruck, is set to be prosecuted at a disciplinary tribunal over an “improper” threat to sue

🚨BREAKING: We’re deeply concerned at the use of counter terrorism powers to target protest groups.

This is the latest in a succession of measures taken by the UK government to clamp down on protest in the UK.

Queen’s lawyer helped manage millions for Rifaat al-Assad, uncle of… Mark Bridges worked for ‘butcher of Hama’ while advising the British monarch

🚨 Queen Elizabeth’s private solicitor spent eight years helping to manage the offshore wealth of the “butcher of Hama” – an uncle of former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad who has repeatedly been accused of war crimes

Queen Elizabeth II’s solicitor managed offshore wealth for Assad’s uncle Exclusive: Mark Bridges of Farrer & Co was trustee for Rifaat al-Assad, who was charged with war crimes in 2024 Queen Elizabeth II’s private solicitor spent eight years helping to manage the offshore wealth of the uncle of the recently deposed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, an investigation has established. Rifaat al-Assad became known as the “butcher of Hama” after allegations he played a key role in a massacre of thousands of Syrians at the city of Hama in 1982. In 2024, Switzerland formally charged him with war crimes. Continue reading...

Queen Elizabeth II’s solicitor managed offshore wealth for Assad’s uncle

Queen Elizabeth II’s solicitor managed offshore wealth for Assad’s uncle Exclusive: Mark Bridges of Farrer & Co was trustee for Rifaat al-Assad, later charged with war crimes in 2024

Another exclusive from the Enablers team's @edsiddons.bsky.social, with David Pegg and the Guardian

Queen Elizabeth II’s private solicitor spent eight years helping manage the offshore wealth of Bashar al-Assad's uncle, later charged with war crimes

www.theguardian.com/law/2025/apr...

Minimum wage for a 9-5 full time job (40 hours a week) is, as of today, £25,396 a year for anyone over 21.

Which is why it's amazing to see journalism jobs requiring a degree, job experience, and driving licence advertised at a "competitive salary" of £22,380. tindlenews.co.uk/careers/jour...

HMRC prosecutes less than five tax evasion enablers in a year Legal actions against facilitators stand at next to nothing – and new figures differ wildly from those previously given

NEW: Prosecutions of the enablers of tax evasion have plummeted by at least 75% in the past five years

It's prompted anger in Parliament because the figures are lower than previously claimed by HMRC

Latest from @edsiddons.bsky.social

www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2025...

Questions Unanswered, Concerns Remain: The UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition calls for clarity and transparency from the SRA - UK Anti-Slapp Coalition The UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition wrote to the SRA seeking answers to a number of outstanding questions regarding its decision-making process as it relates to SLAPPs after it discontinued Eliot Higgins' com...

The SRA discontinued @eliothiggins.bsky.social complaint against Discreet Law who represented the warlord Prigozhin. Too many questions remain, so that is why the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition has written to the regulator. Read the letter here: antislapp.uk/2025/03/28/q... #stopSLAPPs 1/3

UK ministers and officials treated to hospitality 3,500 times in five years, study finds Some of firms providing meals and tickets also among those to secure most meetings in key departments

Pretty remarkable findings from @spotlightcorruption.org, focussing not just on the corporate lobbying of ministers but also officials, meaning Whitehall's doors are being opened several times a week to banks and consultancy companies.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I continue to be appalled at the lack of accountability around the SLAPP case that targeted me. If I can get sued for saying a warlord sanctioned by the EU, UK, and US for his role in Wagner is involved with Wagner then can we really say there's any protection for journalists in the UK from SLAPPs?

"Total b*****ks"

Lord Sugar got a bit prickly when asked about our joint investigation with @thetimes.com into his tax affairs 👀

Spelthorne council report shows local government is on the brink Huge debts, few checks and balances and a culture of denial led Spelthorne council to financial meltdown, just like a similar disaster in nearby Thurrock

"It's not a rotten borough, it's a rotten system"

My analysis of the latest UK local government scandal, this time at Spelthorne in Surrey, and the familiar failings that led to it

The Times reports that the Government will introduce a US-style tax whistleblower scheme. If you report your employer's tax fraud, you'll make up to 25% of the tax recovered.

Quick thread on why it's a good idea, and two caveats.

What happens if she is also using a bot to chat to you, friend?

Huge win! Government announces plan to open up Land Registry This post is by Guy Shrubsole. Today the UK Government has announced plans to open up the Land Registry – which, if delivered, will finally reveal more about who owns land in England and Wale…

Huge win! Government announces plans to open up the Land Registry.

If delivered, will finally reveal more about who owns land in England and Wales.

Read my blog post for more details & how you can write to the Minister to make sure this now happens:

whoownsengland.org/2025/03/06/h...

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More than 170 mothers killed by their sons in 15 years in UK, report reveals Data analysing deaths of all 2,000 women killed by men since 2009 reveals hidden scourge of matricide

Nearly one in 10 of all women killed by men are mothers killed by their sons, new research suggests.

Mental illness is a factor in the majority. Yet there is no specific prevention policy for mothers who are caring for mentally ill sons.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Treasury Department Announces Suspension of Enforcement of Corporate Transparency Act Against U.S. Citizens and Domestic Reporting Companies The Treasury Department is announcing today that, with respect to the Corporate Transparency Act, not only will it not enforce any penalties or fines associated with the beneficial ownership informati...

The US Treasury has announced a halt in enforcing the Corporate Transparency Act. Companies won't have to meet filing deadlines to declare details of beneficial ownership - for now at least

Enabling fraud to boost the economy is an ... interesting move

home.treasury.gov/news/press-r...

Can’t stop thinking about the Trump Zelenskiy meeting and how it was like an embarrassing family argument except with the “leader of the free world” and in the most serious possible forum. What a nightmare we are all entering, especially the people of Ukraine.

The funder landscape for NGOs is under pressure internationally, not only just because of the USAID funding cuts, but developments in The Netherlands as well.

Inside Roman Abramovich's yacht-rental tax scam The oligarch’s scheme to skirt taxes on his boats was enterprising, elaborate – and illegal. Here’s how it worked

Superyachts come with a *lot* of added costs – and some go to great lengths to bring those costs down by sidestepping certain taxes

Roman Abramovich did exactly this, but what precisely did those arrangements entail? And why was it unlawful?

New report in The Times: football clubs have been claiming £millions of tax back using a tax relief intended to boost science and technology

It's a relief that has been widely abused - wrong and fraudulent claims probably cost us all £10bn in lost tax. Were the football clubs really entitled to it?

The Guardian view on Labour and asylum: in retreat from decency | Editorial Editorial: Dread of losing voters to Reform UK is driving the government into a familiar political trap

The Tories’ Rwanda scheme was lurid, but this Labour gov plans to strip legitimate asylum seekers of the possibility of later obtaining citizenship.

This will plunge thousands of lives into administrative limbo. Many will have expected different from Labour.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The world's richest man, Elon Musk, is using a 2019 OCCRP investigation to attack the free press and U.S. humanitarian aid.

The story in question revealed how Rudy Giuliani enlisted questionable associates to dig up dirt in Ukraine.

New British Virgin Isles measures don’t protect businesses or privacy – they protect criminals If overseas territories refuse to implement meaningful corporate transparency reforms, we must use our powers to ensure they do

🗣️ "If overseas territories refuse to implement meaningful corporate transparency reforms, we must use our powers to ensure they do."

An important piece by @joepowell.bsky.social on the need for full public registers in Britain's overseas territories.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

US scores own goal on day one of UN tax negotiations | Tax Justice Network The US walked out alone from an overwhelmingly positive kick off to the UN tax negotiations yesterday, after failing to rally any other country to answer its plea to join a walkout.1 Following an open...

The Trump administration just scored a spectacular own goal on day one of the negotiations, giving the rest of the world an even greater chance of ending global tax abuse. #UNtaxConvention

British Virgin Islands accused of ‘shameful’ attempt to avoid financial crime crackdown MPs write to premier over BVI proposals for new register of who owns firms registered on islands

Exc: The British Virgin Islands (BVIs) have put out their proposals for ending corporate secrecy via a register of company owners. Safe to say the plans have not gone down well with the government and MPs who scrutinise corruption and tax-dodging.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

Alex Cobham, chief executive at the Tax Justice Network, said: “The Trump administration just scored a spectacular own goal on day one of the negotiations, giving the rest of the world an even greater chance of ending global tax abuse. While previous US presidents finessed a double game, promising to cooperate on tax but never doing so, Trump has clumsily given the game away, first pulling the US out of its own sham global tax reforms last month, and now pulling the US out of the most important tax negotiations of our lifetime. “Two weeks ago he was threatening economic war against any country that implements the US’s own global minimum tax proposal. Now the US is calling on countries to lock arms with it and march out of the UN together singing kumbaya. Either the US has lost the plot, or it thinks the rest of the world is too stupid to notice. “Trump has made clear that there is no fair negotiating table at which the US will sit, so countries should have no qualms about pressing on together without the US. In time, the US multinational corporations which were so well represented at Trump’s inauguration will realise that the declared goals of the UN tax negotiations will make it a lot harder for them to cheat on tax. That’s when we’ll see the US coming back to the table, but from a weaker position. Trump has basically handed countries a golden window to push ahead with an ambitious UN tax convention that delivers on the negotiation goals agreed last year.

The US walked out alone from an overwhelmingly positive kick off to the #UNtaxConvention negotiations yesterday, after failing to rally any other country to join a walkout. This is a spectacular own goal for the US and a golden window to end global tax abuse. taxjustice.net/press/us-sco...

Labour dropped plan to ban foreign donors after Lord Alli intervened The party’s fundraising chief, is said to have scuppered the proposal, due to have been announced while it was in opposition

EXC from GET IN

Lord Alli blocked plan by Angela Rayner to ban foreign cash from British politics

She had to scrap December 2023 announcement with Gordon Brown at Chatham House

We obtained papers for policy that would have stopped Musk donations

www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Labour’s deregulatory race to the bottom should worry us all Starmer’s drive to cut red tape could unleash a new wave of dirty money and corporate bad behaviour, writes Spotlight on Corruption’s Sue Hawley.

NEW: Labour says wants to make Britain ‘anti corruption capital of the world’ - but its drive to cut red tape could unleash new wave of dirty money and corporate bad behaviour that fans populist flames

Really important piece from @suehawley.bsky.social democracyforsale.substack.com/p/labours-de...

Written questions and answers - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament Information from UK Parliament on written questions & answers, written statements and daily reports.

UK government spells out its test for whether UK Overseas Territories' beneficial ownership registers are sufficiently accessible or not - "ensure that the conditions of access do not unduly deter effective proactive investigations and analysis" questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-ques...