Mafia Expert Says the UK Is the Most Corrupt Country in the World

"It’s not the bureaucracy, it’s not the police, it’s not the politics but what is corrupt is the financial capital. "

Italian journalist Roberto Saviano is best known for writing the non-fiction book Gomorrah: A Personal Journey into the Violent International Empire of Naples’ Organized Crime System, which exposed the region’s criminal underworld. It was turned into a critically acclaimed movie of the same name in 2008, which was miles away from the glamorisation of  Hollywood movies like The Godfather. Saviano’s investigative work was so revealing that he ended up having to go into hiding and leave the country to avoid the mob.

So with that background, when he speaks about corruption, you should probably listen to what he has to say. He recently appeared at the Hay Literary Festival in Wales, where he told the audience:

If I asked you what is the most corrupt place on Earth you might tell me well it’s Afghanistan, maybe Greece, Nigeria, the South of Italy and I will tell you it’s the UK.

Unlike what his has written about in his home country, he says that it is the financial sector that is responsible for the corruption, not the organised crime.

It’s not the bureaucracy, it’s not the police, it’s not the politics but what is corrupt is the financial capital. 90 per cent of the owners of capital in London have their headquarters offshore.

Jersey and the Cayman {Islands} are the access gates to criminal capital in Europe, and the UK is the country that allows it. That is why it is important why it is so crucial for me to be here today and to talk to you because I want to tell you, this is about you, this is about your life, this is about your government.

He also said that leaving the EU would only make it worse:

Leaving the EU means allowing this to take place. It means allowing the Qatari societies, the Mexican cartels, the Russian Mafia to gain even more power and HSBC has paid £2 billion Euros in fines to the US government, because it confessed that it had laundered money coming from the cartels and the Iranian companies. We have proof, we have evidence

[via Independent]

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