Myners set up tax haven in Bermuda

Published on Saturday 21 March 2009 20:56

THE government minister in charge of stamping out corporate tax avoidance has himself set up a business in the tax haven of Bermuda, a newspaper claimed last night.

Reports said Lord Myners, the politician who approved Sir Fred Goodwin's massive pension from the Royal Bank of Scotland, was part-time chairman of an offshore company which avoided more than 100m a year in taxes.

Details of Myners' involvement in Aspen Insurance Holdings (AIH) have emerged as Gordon Brown seeks to win the backing of heads of government to prise open tax havens at a meeting of the G20 in London on April 2.

Myners, who earned nearly 200,000 from AIH in one year, is also facing questions over share options he accrued during five years as chairman of the Bermuda-based company.

Accounts for AIH show that at the end of 2007, Myners held 318,338 share options. On Friday, the shares, which are listed on the New York Stock Exchange, closed at $21.64, which would value that stake at 4.8m.

Myners, financial services secretary to the Treasury, was awarded the majority of the share options at an exercise price of $16.20 a share in August 2003, a year after he helped to start the company.

Last night it was reported that when he was approached about the matter, Myners declined to say whether he had exercised the shares.

Later yesterday afternoon, a Treasury spokesman said that Myners had not exercised the share options and owned no stock in Aspen.

Although any share transactions made by Myners while he was a director would have had to have been declared, these rules cease to apply once a director leaves the board.

A filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission discloses that Myners, who is also leading the government's clampdown on City bonuses, received a farewell bonus of 50,000 for his final four months at Aspen.