A journalist who has spent over a decade documenting the criminal dealings of the mafia has named Britain the most corrupt country in the world. 36-year-old Roberto Saviano who wrote the best-selling exposés Gomorrah and ZeroZeroZero, made the comments at the Hay Literary Festival.
He has been living under police protection since publishing revelations about members of the Camorra, a powerful Neapolitan branch of the mafia, in 2006.
He said: “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.
“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’s 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.”
Mr Saviano also weighed in on the EU referendum debate, Britain will go to the polls next month to decide whether to leave the EU or remain and he makes a case for remaining.
He said: “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.”
Source: Independent UK