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Sealand Sticks Up Two Fingers At UK Government

Jeremy Hetherington-Gore, Tax-news.com, London

06 June 2000

"We don't want to harm Britain - I'm British - but we won't run away from a fight." said "Prince" Michael Bates, 47, son of Prince Roy Bates, an British army major who occupied a deserted fortress in the North Sea, seven miles off the British coast, in 1967, and declared it to be the independent principality of Sealand.

Yesterday several UK newspapers reported that Anguillan-registered company HavenCo Ltd has linked with the Bates's to launch Sealand as a tax haven (a bit old-fashioned of them to call it that, haven't they heard about the OECD and the FATF?). HavenCo is said to have invested $3m in the project.

The British Government took Bates to court in 1968 for firing on a Royal Navy ship, but the High Court said that Sealand wasn't within its jurisdiction. In 1987 the UK extended its territorial waters to 12 miles (an oil-driven move) but it is unclear whether that would incorporate Sealand, which had its own constitution by then!

Yesterday the British Government responded incoherently to the affair, saying at first that Sealand was outside their remit, but later on threatening Sealand with a legal challenge, and with its new and very odious Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill - an immediate contradiction of its claim (which nobody believes) that powers under the Bill would only be used in cases of obvious or suspected fraud or criminality.

Last night, Sealand's web-site was overwhelmed with enquiries and offers of help from around the world.

Bill Scannell, spokesman for HavenCo, said: "We've been staggered . . . We have had offers of substantial sums from potential investors, but we aren't accepting any until we have formulated an investor policy. We want to make sure all money is clean before we accept it."

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