Open Door Consultancy: Take This Seriously!
Recently we have wrote an article throwing a word of caution to travel vloggers, offshore corporate providers and business assistants to go easy on recommending Europe as a jurisdiction for both living and for business. Yes, it has it’s benefits, but generally the continent of Europe is dying a strange, brutal death. Ask any resident born there & they would agree.
I figured I’d reiterate this statement by sharing with you new powers that the Union holds that resemble Stalinist Russia.
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First they get rid of cash, they limit the size of transactions for businesses and individuals, they remove privacy from financial transactions & ban various cryptocurrencies from operating, they force home owners to renovate their house to make it more “climate friendly” (whatever the F that means) under the threat of seizure. Some states have even outright banned private property laws and all of this is on top of the high taxes, regulations, burdens and challenges of navigating their labyrinth of laws.
And Now…
“The Council today adopted a law which sets out EU-wide minimum rules on the tracing, identification, freezing, confiscation and management of criminal property in connection with a wide range of crimes”, which translates to the complete destruction of private property laws throughout the entire Union. The wide range of crimes has no targeted legal definition.
Under the guise of compassion and “fighting crime”, (never mind that they are the largest proponents of crime themselves), they claim this will better equip the EU on fighting financial crimes.
How are they going to do it?
It will oblige EU countries to ensure that authorities have the resources they need for their activities. The rules will also apply to violation of sanctions. “Hey Bulgaria, be good policemen for us or we will punish you”.
Freezing and confiscation
Member states are forced (from their overlords) to enable the freezing of property and [in the event of a final conviction] the confiscation of instrumentalities and proceeds stemming from a criminal offence. To do so, they will have to adopt rules allowing them to confiscate property of a value corresponding to the proceeds of a crime. How convenient, an accusation of a criminal offence is enough to confiscate the wealth directly or at least the value of such. If they need more wealth to cover the thousands of legal officials in Brussels for more spas, private drivers & security? Just take it.
Did you see what they’re doing in Spain??
They have thought it over extensively, too. Where “criminal assets” & property are transferred to a third party–they have extended themselves the legal capacity to steal from the third party directly. This effectively destroys the entire trust and foundation industry in the EU. These corporate structures are a common asset protection tool to store assets outside of someones’ name and hence liability. Now, the third party (say the son or daughter in a trust) is primed to lose too. The claim is that the subject “…should have known that the purpose of the transfer or acquisition was to avoid confiscation”–well, duh! Who wants confiscation of what they own?
Why I relate this to the Soviet Union
The new rules will also enable member states to confiscate unexplained wealth; where such property is [allegedly] linked to conduct committed through a criminal organization and generates substantial economic benefit. The place where this should scare you is the arbitrary legal definition of “unexplained wealth” nor “substantial economic benefit”. Ownership of anything not under the purview of taxation or employment is technically up-for-grabs if it does not satisfy the officers looking at your possessions. Moreover, your success economically has entered into the realm of criminality. Wouldn’t they want everybody to be more economically successful?
For instance, if you were unemployed, but inherited a bunch of money to possess a house, car, watches and gold bars–than this wealth is deemed “unexplained” given your lack of employment. Perhaps you were a resident in Italy and cashed out of a significant number of a shares in a successful Panamanian start-up company. This transaction (since it came from Panama) would become flagged and given it’s “substantial economic benefit” would be for the taking. The limits of this flexible definition will surely target criminal individuals at first but there is a guarantee this will extend to every single EU resident and laws will be created for the purpose of being broken.
Even between EU states, they have that locked as well. Asset recovery offices, in charge of cross-border cooperation, will be reinforced as well to ensure the money will be air-tight in that jurisdiction. The European Union states that, “They [Recovery Offices] will support national authorities and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office in asset tracing investigations. Offices will be given access to relevant databases and registers to perform these tasks”<– further centralization, just like in Moscow.
Closing
From all angles, your assets in the European Union are under constant surveillance and are increasingly under threat. In conjunction with the difficulty of operating, innovating and surviving in the Union–these laws have guillotined the concept of private property within the European Union. In particular, the trust and foundation sector is completely destroyed as there are no asset protection benefits any longer.
Wealth will move into other jurisdictions to escape this tyranny. Funnily enough, this is nothing compared to what we argue is coming to Europe… What do I mean?
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