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I’ve always been of the view that crime does not pay or, to be more exact, that blue-collar crime that involves removing physical objects from people, houses or banks does not pay. White-collar crime such as fraud and tax evasion does pay in some cases because the rewards are higher and the risks lower.

I once wrote a column to this effect, having been reminded that even one famous US jewel thief found it hard to make a decent living. Film heroes who steal things, such as Thomas Crown, always live opulently but I don’t think that reflects reality.

However, a story today in the Los Angeles Times about Doris Payne, a jewel thief who walked into jewellery stores and palmed large diamond rings did make me think. She did not get rich and she was eventually caught and sent to jail but she wore fine clothes and “had lots of fun”. That counts for something.

I have written a Saturday column for the FT about the UK economic downturn. I happen to be in London at the moment to witness it. You can read the column here and comment below.

Incidentally, I start the piece with an anecdote from Margaret Drabble’s The Ice Age, a novel I have always liked, which takes place in the aftermath of the 1974 property crash. In this context, I have a story to relate.

A few weeks ago, I was thinking to myself that I would like to get hold of a copy of The Ice Age because the 1970s crash seems to hold lessons for today. I was in New York and I was wondering how I could do so.

Later that morning, I was walking up Crosby Street in SoHo when I passed a second hand bookshop and looked to my left. There, in the midst of the front window display, bizarrely, sat a hardback copy of The Ice Age.

I went into the store and bought it for $10. There is serendipity for you.

My FT column this week is on Amy Winehouse. Well, not exactly. It is more about the music labels and whether they can survive. I conclude that they probably can, but it does not matter too much anyway. You can read it here and comment below.

Defy the FSA, the SEC, the CFTC or Iosco if you dare. But do not under any circumstances annoy the IRS.

This seems to be the lesson that UBS, the Swiss bank, is now learning as it lurches from the sub-prime credit crisis into another over how it allegedly helped US citizens to evade taxes.

The sub-prime crisis has cost UBS dearly. It has made $38bn in asset write-downs and its former chairman and chief executive have both departed.

But those in Switzerland could at least comfort themselves that UBS’s greatest asset – its wealth management, or private banking, arm – remained unscathed.

Continue reading "Do not tweak the tail of the Internal Revenue Service"

Whatever expectations one has of the Russian government and civil institutions, they always disappoint. The abuse of tax and visa laws to eliminate BP’s hold on its Russian oil joint venture TNK-BP is the latest in a long line of doleful examples.

It has been obvious for some time that the rule of law does not apply in Russia to the international investors and companies which venture into the market in the hope of profiting from its natural resources.

Now comes news that the Moscow authorities, petitioned by BP’s Russian partners, with whom it has fallen out, are squeezing out BP executives by refusing them visas. It calls to mind the way in which Hermitage Capital Management and its founder William Browder have been harassed using visa and tax laws.

Continue reading "Russia behaves badly to foreign investors again"