Mauritius has a troubled history when it comes to the annals of global corruption. It’s always been odd that former DPP Keir Starmer, ‘Mr Rules’, has prioritised doing a deal with the current government there…
Now the Mauritius Financial Crimes Commission has announced multiple arrests in a wide-ranging “citizenship fraud and money laundering investigation” that threatens to engulf the Mauritian elite. The case is relevant to the UK as the alleged victims are British. The Mauritius Prime Minister’s Office and Financial Crimes Commission have been decisive with their previous enforcement efforts. The authorities in Mauritius are now investigating – it is unclear what the UK Government response will be…
Two families have dominated Mauritius politics since the country’s independence: the Jugnauths and the Ramgoolams. As the Times of India noted: “The country has long been accused of facilitating tax evasion, but has made efforts to tackle money-laundering and terrorism-financing, earning its removal from the EU’s ‘grey list’ of high-risk countries in 2022.” The fear in Port Louis has always been the risk of going back onto the grey list…
Recent scandals in the country include a wire-tapping case in which the calls of senior officials and politicians were leaked online. Last year, ex-PM Jugnauth was arrested in a money-laundering investigation. He denied the charges through his lawyer and was bailed. Jugnauth was the key figure who oversaw the relations with Starmer on Chagos, and signed the bilateral deal with the UK…
Meanwhile, the British government continues to maintain that there is ‘nothing to see here’ and has repeatedly defended Mauritius in Parliament and in the media. Poised to unravel…
Green Deputy Leader Rachel Millward said:
“The reality is that it’s Zack Polanski who brought the nation, Andy Burnham. And if we hadn’t had the success of the Green Party in this last year since Zack’s been leading, which has been unprecedented, phenomenal success and a growth from about 60,000 members to 230,000, if we hadn’t had that much pressure on Labour, then we’d probably still be in the Starmer regime, which was pretty much ushering in a Reform government with its lurch to the right. So actually, what we’re seeing now is that we’ve set the political agenda and the government is picking that up.”