A fresh leak of tax haven data has named former European commissioner Neelie Kroes as having failed to declare her directorship of an offshore firm in the Bahamas while in office.
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Leaked files from the Bahamas corporate register show Kroes was recruited by a UAE venture named Mint Holdings set up to buy Enron assets, The Guardian, Financieele Dagblad and Trouw reported.
The EU code of conduct states that “commissioners may not engage in any other professional activity, whether gainful or not”.
The company was said to have been funded by the United Arab Emirates, and meant to buy global assets of the energy company Enron. When she joined the Commission, Kroes declared former roles at more than 60 companies and bodies, but did not mention Mint Holdings, according to the leaks.
“One of the best Competition Commissioners ever was the Dutch Commissioner between 2004 and 2010 (Ms Kroes) and she said yesterday that her successor was incorrect on the basis of this ruling because she shouldn’t have used competition law to collect tax retrospectively”, said Finance Minister Michael Noonan this month.
“Mrs Kroes will inform the president of the European commission of this oversight and will take full responsibility for it”, they told the Guardian.
A Commission spokesman noted in reaction that the Dutch former digital commissioner now holds a position at US ride-sharing company Uber, which she had openly supported during her mandate as tech commissioner in its legal battles with taxi drivers’ organisations in Europe.
In response to the claims, Ms Kroes said she did not declare her directorship of the company because it was never operational. “We need genuine transparency around who owns what, otherwise we will have to rely on the fallible memories and record-keeping of politicians”.
Reports in the United Kingdom last night also revealed that Britain’s home secretary Amber Rudd was involved in a Bahamas fund where a fellow director was jailed for making misleading statements to investors.
The files revealed Rudd was a director of two companies, Advanced Asset Allocation Fund and Advanced Asset Allocation Management, between 1998 and 2000.
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The information is contained in list of directors and shareholders at 176,000 companies and trusts given to German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
