Lenny Harper, former child abuse investigator, says he believes Savile was involved in indecent assault at Jersey institution

The former head of the Jersey child abuse investigation has said he now suspects that Sir Jimmy Savile was implicated in the Haut de la Garenne children's home abuse scandal.

Lenny Harper said he now has "no reason to doubt" that Savile was involved in indecent assault at the notorious Jersey children's home, despite there being insufficient evidence to question the Jim'll Fix It star when he was alive.

The observation came on the day that the BBC's director general, George Entwistle, gave his first interview regarding the row, and indicated that the broadcaster would "take a look properly" and hold its own inquiry once the police investigation into alleged sexual abuse by the late DJ and presenter closes.

Harper, the detective who led Jersey's three-year child abuse probe, told the Guardian that Savile's name came up in the initial police inquiry in 2008 – but there were no specific allegations of abuse against the BBC presenter at the time.

He added: "There definitely wasn't enough even to question him at the time, but in light of all the evidence that has come out then I'm not surprised because it fits perfectly the profile of what was going on."

A solicitor who acted for victims of child abuse in Jersey also told the Guardian that some former Haut de la Garenne residents, both women and men, now claim they were assaulted by Savile in the 1970s.

Alan Collins, a solicitor for several Haut de la Garenne victims, said "a handful" of former residents have now made abuse allegations about Savile. He said Savile's name was mentioned several times during the police investigation of 2008 but that the evidence did not seem to stack up at  the time.

The States of Jersey police confirmed last week that Savile was investigated as part of the 2008 inquiry into abuse at the children's home, following claims from a former Haut de la Garenne resident that Savile was involved in an indecent assault in the 1970s. The BBC entertainer, who died last year aged 84, was never charged with any abuse offences.

Elsewhere at the BBC, Sandi Toksvig on Monday reacted angrily to the way her revelation that she had been groped on air by a celebrity was being used as a way to criticise the corporation.

"It's not about the BBC, and I'm distressed it's being portrayed in that way," the presenter told the Guardian, 24 hours after she disclosed that she had been "very unpleasantly groped by a famous individual" during a broadcast in the 1980s.

"It's being used as a stick to beat the BBC, but it was commonplace, it was the culture," she said.

Toksvig refused to name the man involved. "This is isn't about who he is – I'm going to grant the man who assaulted me the respect he did not grant me, by never naming him. Because otherwise it becomes about that one individual, when in fact it was going on everywhere."

In a statement, Toksvig said that the man who groped her is now dead. She added: "Whilst the recent manifold revelations regarding the abuse and mistreatment of women in broadcasting have focused on the BBC, I would like to clarify that I consider this a culture endemic across the whole of radio and television and is certainly not limited to the BBC."

Entwistle told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Monday that he deeply regretted what had happened and apologised to the women involved for what they have had to endure, but he said he did not want to compromise the police inquiry.

"I think this has to be done in two phases," Entwistle said. "First the police are given the chance to do everything they have to do – that is the only way justice can possibly be done for the women in question. But once the police assure me that they have done everything they have to do, then we can take a look properly."

Last night, the chairman of the BBC Trust, Lord Patten, said it was "no excuse to say 'that was then' in the 1960s, 70s and 80s and attitudes were different then".

He told the Cardiff Business Club: "It's no excuse to say, 'I'm sure the same thing used to happen with pop groups and others at the time'. Those things may be true but they don't provide an excuse.

"So there will be a full police inquiry and we will encourage people to co-operate with it, and when that is completed, we will then look at the issues which still remain to be resolved."

The comedian Freddie Starr has admitted he did appear on Savile's show Clunk Click in the 1970s after earlier denying it.

His lawyers clarified the matter after Channel 4 News broadcast footage of Starr with Karin Ward, the woman who has accused him and Savile of assaulting her.

The lawyers continued: "It would now appear from seeing footage of a Clunk Click show aired in 1974 that in fact Freddie was mistaken and therefore that he had in fact been on a Jimmy Savile show.

"However, this does not detract from the fact that Freddie vigorously denies the awful allegation that has been made by Karin Ward, which despite this footage is still totally unsupported and uncorroborated by any other evidence."

Damian Rzeszowski's wife and children among those he stabbed in a frenzied attack at their home in Jersey last year

A man who killed six people including his wife and two young children in a frenzied knife attack has been jailed for 30 years.

Damian Rzeszowski armed himself with kitchen knives and stabbed his father-in-law Marek Gartska, 56, wife Izabela Rzeszowska, 30, daughter Kinga, five, and two-year-old son Kacper, at their Jersey home on 14 August last year.

The 31-year-old Polish builder also killed his wife's friend, Marta De La Haye, 34, and her five-year-old daughter Julia, who were at the house for a barbecue.

Rzeszowski was convicted of six counts of manslaughter but cleared or murder following a trial at the Royal Court in St Helier, Jersey, last August.

Judge Michael Birt sentenced him to 30 years for each victim, which are to run concurrently.

Judge Birt told the court: "The horror and brutality of these killings is hard to believe. Within a quarter of an hour all six people had died, their lives cruelly cut short at the hand of this defendant.

"The court is in no doubt from the nature of the attacks that you intended to kill all six victims. This was not a case of murder - the court found you guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility - but you still pose a risk of harm to anyone you are in a relationship with."

The court was told that Rzeszowski was still not fully aware of what he did on the day of the killings. It also heard that he had sent letters to the loved ones of some of his victims but had not been able to bring himself to write to his wife's mother.

HMRC is examining leaked list of 4,388 British residents who bank with HSBC in Channel Islands tax haven

UK tax authorities are in the early stages of examining a recently received leaked list of 4,388 British residents who bank with HSBC in the tax haven of Jersey.

HM Revenue and Customs confirmed it was probing the list, following a report that serious criminals were banking in the Channel Islands, for potential tax evasion.

"We can confirm we have received the data and we are studying it," HMRC said in a statement. "Clamping down on those who try to cheat the system through evading taxes and over-claiming benefits is a top priority for us, and we value the information we receive from the public and business community."

The information is the latest in a string of illegal leaks of private offshore financial details from some of Europe's most controversial tax haven jurisdictions. HMRC is reported not to have paid for the information on HSBC accounts, though that could not be confirmed.

The bank insisted on Friday morning it had not been notified of any HMRC investigation. "Should we receive notification, we will co-operate fully with the authorities," HSBC said. "We are investigating the reports of an alleged loss of certain client data in Jersey as a matter of urgency."

John Harris, chief executive of the Jersey Financial Services Commission, told the Guardian: "We are unable to discuss individual [cases] but any concerns about the use of the banking system in Jersey involving money of criminal origin and failures to follow Jersey's [regulatory] reporting obligations will be robustly investigated."

A report in the Daily Telegraph suggested those on the list hold a total of £699m with the bank and may also have billions of pounds in investment schemes. The list is said to include one drug dealer, an individual convicted of possessing more than 300 weapons at his house in Devon and three bankers already accused of fraud.

The leaked information follows HMRC's receipt two years ago of the so-called "Lagarde list" said to contain the names of 6,000 people with HSBC accounts in Switzerland, 500 of whom have been investigated on suspicion of fraud.

That list, passed on to the UK authorities by the then French finance minister Christine Lagarde, has resulted in only one conviction as HMRC has argued it is better value in many cases for the taxpayer to reach financial settlements with tax evaders.

The latest leak comes as HSBC braces itself for heavy fines of about $1.5bn in the US relating to repeated breaches of money-laundering rules.

In 2007 the German authorities paid to get hold of stolen trust company details from Liechtenstein relating to tens of thousands of secret structures. US and UK counterparts also paid for the information later. The offshore world reacted with outrage at these payments, describing them as illegal.

Jersey politicians and regulators have repeatedly insisted the island – in contrast to other offshore jurisdictions – is not a haven for drugs money, tax evasion or other crime.

Inquiry follows leak of names of thousands of account holders said to include individuals with history of drug and gun crime

Financial regulators in Jersey have launched an inquiry into HSBC, one of the biggest banks on the island, following a leak of the names of thousands of bank account holders said to include individuals with a history of links to drug and gun crime.

The move follows confirmation that UK tax authorities had also begun eagerly working through the list looking for possible evidence of discrepancies in British offshore depositors' tax affairs.

The leak is highly embarrassing for Jersey, which claims to have comparatively tough regulations for its licensed banks, requiring them to know who their customers are and where their funds come from.

"Jersey has got some of the toughest anti-money laundering regulations in the world, as assessed by the IMF [International Monetary Fund]," said Jersey treasury minister Philip Ozouf. "There are many jurisdictions with banking secrecy and much lower standards than we have. We are a global leader in this area."

Geoff Cook, chief executive of the island's powerful lobby group Jersey Finance, said: "This is a serious matter and we note HSBC's immediate commitment to co-operating with any investigations carried out by the relevant authorities and welcome the clear position taken by the JFSC [Jersey Financial Services Commission, the island's financial regulator] that any failure to adhere to Jersey's clear standards will be robustly investigated and acted upon."

Before joining the financial lobby group Cook was head of wealth management for HSBC and before that worked as deputy chief executive of the bank's operations in Jersey.

HSBC has come in for sharp criticism over failures in its scrutiny of depositors, particularly in relation to organised crime. This week the company said it was braced to receive a fine which could be more than $1.5bn (£938m) from the US authorities. This penalty follows a finding by a Senate committee that the bank had exposed the US financial system to "a wide array of money laundering, drug trafficking and terrorist financing risks due to poor anti-money laundering controls".

Friday's disclosures in the The Telegraph added to the bank's woes as the newspaper named a handful of individuals, with a history of criminal links, who it said were on the leaked list of HSBC Jersey clients.

The paper reported that the onetime owner of a farm near Lewes in East Sussex, where an outbuilding had been used as a £600,000 cannabis farm four years ago, held an account with HSBC Jersey in which more than £250,000 was held. Daniel Bayes' account was said to have been registered to the same address.

It was widely reported in 2009 that Bayes have played a leading role in the cannabis farm – though it was his father, Brian Bayes, who was convicted of managing the operation and of laundering £66,000. Daniel was said to be in Venezuela during the trial and could not attend court because his wife was ill. In sentencing, the judge said: "It is a matter for your son's conscience, not yours. To expose his parents like this is monstrous."

Jersey politicians and regulators point to high-profile convictions, such as that of drugs baron Curtis Warren three years ago, as evidence of their uncompromising approach to organised crime.

HSBC is one of the biggest banks on Jersey, its headquarters on the esplanade dominating the seafront skyline. It routinely caters to many British expats working overseas, notably in the far east, where the bank also has strong ties and there is a substantial British workforce. Many expats use offshore bank accounts at HSBC and elsewhere to legitimately hold their overseas earnings without exposing them to UK tax.

The leaked list of HSBC clients is reported to include names from the oil and mining industries as well as doctors and some celebrities – all groups which typically have significant overseas earnings. "Types and rates of tax vary between countries, so you'll need to understand your tax obligations (at home and abroad) and how to make the most of potential tax efficiencies," the bank advises potential customers moving overseas on its website.

The leaked list of clients has only very recently been sent to Revenue & Customs, where investigators are looking to check that leaked details correspond with the declared tax affairs of the individuals concerned. It is not yet clear whether the information will provide as much evidence of large-scale evasion as the leaking of the so-called "Lagarde list" of HSBC's Swiss clients, some 2,000 of which were British.

That leak, in 2008, is said to have led to hundreds of private settlements with HMRC, but only one prosecution. Tax authorities have argued a pragmatic approach to settling provides the best value for the taxpayer.

The latest leak from Jersey is said to list the identities of 4,388 people giving addresses in Britain who together hold £699m in offshore current accounts. These people may also hold other offshore investments which remain beyond the view of UK tax authorities; however, most are unlikely to be super-rich clients of the kind known to have large fortunes stored in offshore trusts.

Nevertheless, Phil Berwick, a director at law firm Pinsent Masons said it was "inevitable" that HMRC would be looking to use its criminal powers against some of people named on the list. "If people with offshore accounts suspect that they might have a problem, they need to be pro-active. They need to approach HMRC before HMRC approaches them – possibly in the form of a raid of their home or business. HMRC has taken a very interventionist approach in the past year, more than doubling the number of raids they carry out."

A statement from the JFSC suggested the regulator was most urgently seeking to establish that HSBC had not breached rules on who can hold a bank account and where funds can come from. John Harris, chief executive of the regulator, said "The commission is unable to discuss individual licence holder matters but any concerns regarding the use of the banking system in Jersey involving money of criminal origin and failures to follow Jersey's well-known and clearly documented reporting obligations will be robustly investigated with any necessary follow-up action taken in consequence."

HMRC said in a statement: "Clamping down on those who try to cheat the system through evading taxes and over-claiming benefits is a top priority for us, and we value the information we receive from the public and business community."

The information is the latest in a string of illegal leaks of private offshore financial details from some of Europe's most controversial tax haven jurisdictions. HMRC is reported not to have paid for the information on HSBC accounts, though that could not be confirmed.

The bank insisted on Friday morning it had not been notified of any HMRC investigation. "Should we receive notification, we will co-operate fully with the authorities," HSBC said. "We are investigating the reports of an alleged loss of certain client data in Jersey as a matter of urgency."

The latest leaked information follows HMRC's receipt two years ago of the so-called "Lagarde list". Meanwhile, in 2007 the German authorities paid to get hold of stolen trust company details from Liechtenstein relating to tens of thousands of secret structures. US and UK counterparts also paid for the information later. The offshore world reacted with outrage at these payments, describing them as illegal.

BBC programme about the owners of the Daily Telegraph had been deferred by former BBC director general

A Panorama about the owners of the Daily Telegraph, Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, that had been deferred by former BBC director general George Entwistle, is now back on following the departure of the broadcasting chief who had reservations about whether to broadcast the investigative documentary.

The programme, being fronted by journalist John Sweeney, about the reclusive - and often litigious - billionaire twins, was referred up to the embattled director general last week and was effectively put on hold. It had been previously approved by other senior news executives, but such were the sensitivities that this film was sent right up to the top.

Sweeney said that reports in other newspapers that the Panorama had been pulled were "not true" and that he and the production team "were still working on it, and we hope to put it out soon". No broadcast date has been agreed, but the BBC usually chooses the last possible moment to confirm what is airing on Panorama each week.

It is not clear precisely what the subject of the programme will be, although another BBC source said that it would be piece of investigative journalism, because Panorama was "not a soft toy factory". But there are some clues emerging elsewhere.

Panorama's filming has already attracted the ire of the man who manages the Barclay's estate on Sark, the channel island, which Brecqhou, the neighbouring island where the twins live, is legally part of. Kevin Delaney, who runs the twins Sark Estate Management, wrote a lengthy article criticising the BBC in his Sark Newsletter.

Writing on October 22, Delaney accused the BBC of being "a deeply flawed and dysfunctional organisation that has failed miserably in its self-regulation". He said that Sweeney had visited Sark on three occasions in the autumn, and after accusing the BBC journalist of "unbecoming drunken antics at the pub" - he complained about his investigation.

"Empowered by the might of the BBC, Mr Sweeney filmed people without their consent. He aggressively invaded my offices and harassed and intimidated my staff in his concerted efforts at staging a hostile confrontation with me on camera - despite being made aware, in writing, that I did not want to be interviewed by him," Delaney wrote.

Delaney added that he had made a complaint to George Entwistle, and other BBC executives, which he said had been ignored or not acknowledged. He said that the production team's behaviour meant that "the British licence payers' money was thus spent to support a campaign to shut down free speech on Sark".

John Sweeney had previously been sued by the Barclay twins in the 1990s after he was filmed landing on their island of Brecqhou, which is next to the channel island of Sark. Both the journalist, and John Birt, the then director general, were sued by the twins in France - and after a lengthy legal action, Sweeney was ordered to pay 20,000 Francs in damages by a court in Rennes.

Move by Simon Nixon likely to spark fresh concern about tax avoidance by British businesspeople and multinational firms

Jersey – you're sooo moneysupermarket.com. The island of Jersey is expected to be the new home of Simon Nixon, the multimillionaire founder of the price comparison site, which would allow him to shelter his £400m fortune from HM Revenue & Customs.

A move by Nixon, who owns just under 50% of the company and who – only two months ago – cashed in some shares to benefit from entrepreneur's tax relief, is likely to spark fresh concern about tax avoidance by British businesspeople and major multinational firms.

Earlier this week, senior executives from Amazon, Starbucks and Google were accused of diverting hundreds of millions of pounds in UK profits to secretive tax havens during a fraught exchange with a committee of MPs.

All three repeatedly denied accusations that they were engaged in aggressive tax avoidance, but were met with derision from members of the committee.

Nixon's relocation to Jersey is likely to save the 44-year-old, who currently lives in Cheshire, millions of pounds in tax that he pays on dividends from moneysupermarket.com.

A spokeswoman for the company, where Nixon is now deputy chairman, confirmed he was considering a move to the island, adding: "It's purely a personal matter where he chooses to live."

Nixon launched moneysupermarket.com in 1999 after dropping out of university to work as a financial adviser. It floated on the stock market in 2007, instantly turning him into Britain's richest entrepreneur aged below 40.

On Thursday, the company reported revenues in the third quarter up by 11% and profits ahead by 12%, helped by a surge in customers hoping to beat the rise in electricity and gas prices by switching suppliers.

In June this year the company paid £87m to buy Martin Lewis's moneysavingexpert.com website. Lewis told the Guardian on Thursday night he had no plans to move to Jersey.

Guy Hands, who once owned EMI, is now based in Guernsey, while Peter Wood, founder of Direct Line, is also understood to be examining a move to Jersey.

Former São Paulo mayor Paulo Maluf took bribes while commissioning public construction works, St Helier court rules

One of Brazil's richest and most powerful men has been found guilty of stealing millions from Brazilian taxpayers and stashing it in a secret bank account in Jersey.

Paulo Maluf, a multimillionnaire businessman and serving congressman in the Brazilian parliament, took bribes and "kickbacks" when commissioning public work projects while the mayor of São Paulo in the 90s, a court in St Helier ruled on Friday.

A judge ruled Maluf, 81, and his son, Flavio, created a "slush fund" to hide cash they had stolen by substantially over-invoicing on a road-building scheme.

About US$10.5m (£6.6m) made from overcharging on the construction of the eight-lane Avenida Água Espraiada in São Paulo found its way into a Deutsche Bank account in Jersey through secret accounts in the British Virgin Islands and New York.

But in his ruling on Friday, the judge, Howard Page QC, said "other public works projects may also have been affected by similar (alleged) frauds" carried out by the pair.

It has previously been reported that Brazilian prosecutors believe Maluf took bribes and construction kickbacks amounting to US$344m during his mayoralty between 1993 and 1996. Father and son have been ordered to pay back the $10.5m, plus interest, to the Federal Republic of Brazil and the Municipality of São Paulo.

Prosecutors in Brazil believe they may have more success in pressing criminal charges against Maluf in his home country. He and his 50-year-old son are wanted by Interpol to face charges of fraud and theft in the US, and cannot leave Brazil for fear of arrest.

Despite the scandals surrounding Maluf, he maintains strong support and sufficient influence to be considered something of a kingmaker in his city. In the recent São Paulo mayoral elections, he was photographed joining hands with the former president and Workers party leader, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, to support the eventual winner, Fernando Haddad.

The suggestion that Maluf's criminality could extend beyond the charges heard in Jersey will not surprise many Brazilians. Fraud and corruption allegations have dogged the latter stages of the political career of this wealthy businessman, who has interests in lumber, plywood and real estate through his company, Eucatex.

Most rumours concern kickbacks he is alleged to have received from energy companies and construction firms for major public works projects, such as the eight-lane Avenida Água Espraiada and the Ayrton Senna Tunnel, which were over budget by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Maluf has been one of the country's most notorious and powerful politicians for more than four decades. Such is his reputation for corruption, evasion of justice and underhand dealings that his name has is become synonymous with corruption.

Rising rapidly to high office, thanks to his close ties with the military dictatorship in the late 1960s, he served as mayor and then state governor of São Paulo. A proponent of lavish road-building projects, his mark is still evident in the concrete, elevated highways that loom over the city centre.

After two failed presidential bids in 1985 and 1989, he returned to his power base in the commercial hub, winning a three-year term as mayor in 1993 and various legislative posts – including federal deputy – as a senior representative of the right-wing Progressive Party of Brazil.

In 2003, a parliamentary inquiry was set up to investigate claims that he laundered money through Jersey. In 2005, police jailed Maluf and Flavio for several weeks for intimidating witnesses.

Two years later, the Manhattan district attorney indicted him for money laundering, prompting Interpol to add them to its "red list". Last month, a court in São Paulo ruled that Maluf must repay $21m of securities he misused. So far, however, he has avoided a prison sentence.

Much of the Brazilian coverage of the Jersey case has focussed on the defeats for Maluf's expensive Swiss legal team and evidence that shows the politician has been lying for years.

Under a headline, "Defence lawyers admit Maluf has money in Jersey", Veja magazine noted: "The admission by the lawyers dismantles the claim Maluf has maintained for years that he has no offshore accounts."

With court cases in Brazil often dragging on for more than a decade, other newspapers revelled in the judge's rejection of defence request for more time as a "cynical tactic" and his refusal to accept an appeal that the São Paulo government had no jurisdiction. The Estado de S Paulo newspaper cited city lawyers, who called this "the biggest victory so far".

Even if Maluf is found guilty of stealing money from Brazilian taxpayers, he may be too elderly to be sent to jail. But defeat in Jersey will reinforce his image as a representative of a corrupt era that has not yet ended.

President Dilma Rousseff has vowed to crack down on graft. Even before she came to power, prosecutors appeared to have been taking a tougher line. Brazil is in the midst of its biggest corruption trial – the so-called Mensalão (Big Monthly Allowance) case, which has resulted in numerous convictions, including a 10-year sentence for Lula's former righthand man, Jose Dirceu, for fraud and vote buying.

Creditors had used island to sue debt-ridden nations, with latest case involving Democratic Republic of the Congo

Politicians in Jersey have voted to ban so-called vulture funds from using the island's courts to sue the world's poorest countries for historic debts.

Vulture funds, which buy up poor nations' debts on the cheap before suing them for up to 100 times the original amount, had attempted to take cases to Jersey after British law banned the practice.

In the latest case, multimillionaire speculator Peter Grossman used Jersey's courts to sue the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for $100m (£64m) over a decades-old debt that started out at $3.3m. Grossman, who runs the FG Hemisphere fund, was able to take the case to Jersey's courts because the island is a crown dependency not covered by all UK laws.

The Jersey court ruled the DRC's state-owned mining company should pay back the debt, which was originally a loan from the former Yugoslavia to build power lines 30 years ago. The judgment was eventually overturned by the privy council, the final court of appeal for Crown dependencies.

Jersey's chief minister, Ian Gorst, said the island's decision to change its laws so they fall in line with those in the UK sent a clear message that Jersey was a "well-regulated, co-operative and transparent jurisdiction".

All but one of Jersey's parliamentarians voted in favour of changing the law to severely limit vulture funds' claims on debts owed by 40 of the world's poorest countries. The remaining member of the States of Jersey abstained from the vote on Tuesday.

"I am very pleased that the debt relief legislation received such strong support from my fellow States members," Gorst said. "Today's vote shows that Jersey is fully committed to supporting international debt relief efforts."

When the draft legislation was lodged last month, Gorst said the law would show Jersey is "demonstrating its commitment to play its part in the global effort, expressed in the UN Millennium Declaration, to support debt relief efforts intended to assist the world's most heavily indebted poor countries".

Draft legislation states that the change in the law will "prevent the Jersey courts being used to seek to enforce in full, the debts of countries to which the governments of other countries, multilateral lenders and commercial creditors have provided relief under the [heavily indebted poor countries] initiative".

The UK is the only country in the world to have brought in a law to limit vulture funds practices, but other countries are considering similar proposals.

The Treasury estimates the UK Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Act passed in 2010 will save some of the most impoverished countries £145m.

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank estimate that vulture funds are seeking total claims of $1.47bn from countries including Cameroon, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda, and the DRC.

Tim Jones, policy officer at Jubilee Debt Campaign, which is campaigning for the cancellation of debts owed by poor countries, said: "We warmly welcome this legislation to protect 40 countries from odious vulture fund claims in Jersey. However, vulture funds continue to cause havoc across the global economy. One case currently being heard in the US may even force Argentina to default on its debt.

"Global action is needed to make all creditors comply when government debts have to be written off."

Last month, an Argentine naval ship was seized in Ghana as part of an attempt by a hedge fund run by US billionaire Paul Singer to collect on debts arising from the country's defaulted bond swaps in 2005 and 2010.

Argentina has asked the United Nations to order the release of the Libertad tall ship, which has been prevented from leaving Ghana after a local court ruled in favour of Singer's Elliott Capital Management.

During its 2001 economic crisis Argentina defaulted on more than $100bn of debt. Most of the loans were subsequently restructured, giving creditors back about 30p in the pound, but some creditors including Elliott, chose to hold out and pursue the Argentine government through courts across the world.

Channel Islands and Isle of Man will be among those ordered to reveal names behind hidden accounts

Radical plans to force the UK's tax havens to reveal the names behind hidden companies, account holders and trusts have been drawn up by the Treasury.

The news has delighted tax justice campaigners, who predict that the move, which is expected to be unveiled in the chancellor's autumn statement and come into force in 2014, will have major consequences for those trying to hide their money offshore.

A leaked document reveals that the UK plans to impose its own version of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca) on the crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, as well as its overseas territories, such as the Cayman Islands.

Fatca, which will come into force in the middle of next year, requires foreign banks to report American account holders to the US Inland Revenue Service. The draft UK equivalent, seen by the magazine International Tax Review, will require British tax havens to make similar disclosures about UK account holders to UK tax authorities.

"It's a complete bombshell for these places," Richard Murphy, a tax expert who has seen the draft plan, told the Observer. "Some people will try to flee, but this is going to change the whole of the offshore market."

He explained that the draft plan amounted to the UK using US legislation to give tax havens an ultimatum: "It's either they give the UK the same data that they want to give the US or the UK won't pass their laws to let data flow to the US."

The ultimatum is crucial, Murphy suggested. If the UK refuses to pass the laws, its tax havens "might just as well shut up shop since there would be almost no banks or other institutions willing to locate there".

News of the plans is likely to surprise many tax experts. This month, responding to an international development committee report, the government publicly rejected the need for a UK version of Fatca.

Joseph Stead, Christian Aid's senior adviser on economic justice, said that if the draft was implemented it "would be the beginning of the end for tax haven secrecy".

However, he said it was vital that it should not just be the UK which obtains full information disclosure from its tax havens: "We should ensure that other countries get it too, so they can catch up with people and companies hiding money. Otherwise there will be tax haven secrecy for some countries and not others.

"Poor countries lose billions every year to tax dodging and tax havens are often involved. We hope the UK government will use the G8 meeting it is hosting next year to agree action to ensure a global end to tax haven secrecy."

The Treasury declined to comment but confirmed to the Review that it was assisting the UK's crown dependencies and overseas territories to produce their response to Fatca.

However, former Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Lord Oakeshott was sceptical about whether the plan could succeed. "Tax havens really coming clean are as likely as a snowy Christmas day in the Cayman Islands," he said.

Last night the Labour shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, outlined a five-point plan for tackling tax avoidance. In an article for the Huffington Post, Balls writes: "We urgently need to look at how UK tax laws can be made stronger so as to properly deter tax avoidance."

James Ball travels to Nevis searching for Sarah Petre-Mears, who on paper controls more than 1,200 companies

From the Caribbean to Cyprus, former Channel islanders are taking money to disguise the ownership of thousands of companies

Many Britons who make a living from "the signing", as they call it, originate from the tiny Channel island of Sark, a notorious British tax haven. Following scandals more than a decade ago over the "Sark Lark", the group scattered, setting up residence in far-flung jurisdictions such as Cyprus, Dubai, Vanuatu, Mauritius, or Nevis in the Caribbean. Many still keep in touch on Facebook.

They make up teams of sham company directors, according to documents the Guardian has seen, taking money to disguise the real ownership of thousands of international companies. This is not illegal, and they generally say they are helping owners preserve legitimate privacy.

Sarah and Edward Petre-Mears, who moved from Sark to Nevis, worked through an agency in Northamptonshire. Some of their companies have been registered in the UK at Companies House in Cardiff.

A Petre-Mears neighbour on Sark, Jesse Hester, went to Cyprus to launch a similar operation called Atlas Corporate Services. He then moved on to Dubai with his colleagues Damien Calderbank and Matthew Stokes, and eventually onward to the small Indian Ocean island of Mauritius.

Hester offers his customers "anonymity of the ultimate owners". He tells them: "The prime advantage … is to place the 'management and control' issue firmly outside a high tax jurisdiction." This allows the owners to claim the company is being run from an overseas tax haven, rather than from where they live.

Hester says he is a genuine director. His lawyer said: "Our client has the right not to execute documents, can alter bank mandates, can enter into contracts, and is free to resign." The accountants and intermediaries he works for carry out identity checks on their clients, he said, and he complied with all legal requirements.

Atlas is associated with 12 people who between them have held directorships of 1,578 companies in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) as well as 4,460 UK companies. They frequently work for Cornhill, a company formation agency run in London by Mark Lance.

Lance said his provision of "non-resident directors for legitimate purposes" for occasional clients was not a significant part of the business. "Cornhill does not deny that the use of non-resident directors is open to abuse," but, he said, he obtained "full proof of identity" from all customers.

A second Cyprus nominee operation is run by Sean Lee Hogan, 41, who has put his name to nearly 100 BVI and 743 UK companies. He often works for a north London offshoring agent, the Stanley Davis Group. Hogan did not respond to invitations to comment.

Two other Britons who share a flat in east London, Ted Cocks and Joseph Sparks, signed up with a Moscow agency, GSL, to put their names and UK addresses on more than 450 BVI entities. The companies were subsequently sold on to anonymous Russians. They say their activities were legitimate.

Geoffrey Taylor and his son Ian have acted as directors for 291 BVI companies and a further 442 in the UK. From the Pacific island of Vanuatu, they offer clients an extra choice of UK or New Zealand addresses. "You can pick the jurisdiction that best suits you," Geoffrey Taylor emailed one potential customer.

Taylor's brochure even offered the opportunity of having him on their letterhead as "Lord Stubbington", a UK manorial title he purchased.

"He can act as director and shareholder for clients without arousing suspicion that he is a nominee only," it said. "In this way he can act as your frontman and attract attention away from you. Lord Stubbington provides your activities with credibility."

Ian Taylor said his father had now retired. "Only a small handful" of the companies they acted for were misused, he said. Nominees were used for various legitimate reasons. "Clients of certain nationalities are discriminated against only due to their citizenship. Some clients require privacy to avoid problems from jealous family members."

As long ago as 1999, Britain's sham director industry was officially struck down – or so it seemed. The minister Kim Howells, in the Department of Trade and Industry, boasted: "The government today struck a fatal blow against the practice of so-called 'nominee directorships'."

The government went to court to disqualify one Sark islander, Philip Croshaw, who was signing his name on company documents thousands of times. Howells said: "The trade in providing 'nominee director' services from the island of Sark has been a scandal … The courts have now effectively outlawed this abuse."

The DTI quoted Mr Justice Blackburne, pronouncing at Manchester crown court: "The message must go out that the office of director is one which carries responsibilities ... The court would not tolerate the situation where someone takes on the directorship of so many companies and then totally abrogates responsibility. If tolerated, it would undermine the whole basis of corporate management."

But the investigation shows that Sark's "nominees" simply moved elsewhere, and were never policed by the DTI or its successors, including the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

In name, Sarah Petre-Mears runs a global empire. In reality it is a sham, an offshore network of porn sites and luxury property vehicles linked by PO boxes and letter drops

At the age of 38, Bradford-born Sarah Petre-Mears is running one of the biggest business empires on earth. Or so it would appear.

Official records show her controlling more than 1,200 companies across the Caribbean, the Republic of Ireland, New Zealand and the UK itself. Her business partner, Edward Petre-Mears, is listed as a director of at least a further 1,000 international firms.

But the true headquarters of this major businesswoman remains mysterious. The UK companies register lists 12 addresses for her, several in London. None are real homes: several are PO boxes, collecting mail for hundreds of locations, while others merely house the offices of incorporation agencies.

Only one listed address, a cottage on Sark, seems genuinely residential. Sark is a remote self-governing tax haven in the Channel Islands, a nine-mile ferry-ride from Guernsey.

Sark indeed was once the Petre-Mears' family home. But inquiries reveal the family left town more than a decade ago. As neighbours and friends working within the local offshore financial industry in Sark scattered across the globe, the couple moved to the Caribbean.

John Parker, the owner of a British incorporation agency, explained in an email: "Sarah and Edward Petre-Mears have dual residence – Sark and Nevis … The reason for this is that the UK government is trying its hardest to stop the 'Sark Lark', as it is known, and they decided to do something about it before it was forced upon them."

Nevis is a tropical dot in the Caribbean, more than 3,000 miles from Sark. A volcanic outcrop plagued by hurricanes, it is barely five miles across and its 12,000 population is smaller than that of many English towns.

Getting to Nevis from Sark requires a long, indirect and infrequent flight to the slightly bigger nearby island of St Kitts, followed by an hour's sea-voyage on the Mark Twain, an ageing boat. Donkeys, goats and chickens roam the Nevis streets. The low houses outside the tiny capital, Charlestown, are commonly roofed with corrugated iron.

But even in this very intimate spot, the Petre-Mears' ghostly business empire is hard to pin down. One possible address corresponds simply to a small PO box in the Charlestown post office. Another, called the Henville Building, turns out to be a branch of the local First Caribbean bank.

Finally, a clue emerges. One local responds: "You mean the English lady? Works with the offshores, right?"

On the far side of the island, the Guardian finally finds a prosperous-looking villa, quite deserted for the summer, with spectacular sea views and a noisy, unchained dog in the garden.

This is Sarah Petre-Mears' home in the sun, where she officially claims to be masterminding battalions of international firms. She also finds time to run marathons and cycle races in New York, Florida and Hawaii, and to bring up her two children on the island.

We tried to ask her about the allegations against nominee directors. But she didn't respond to requests for comment. However, the evidence we have gathered suggests her impressive directorships are a complete sham.

A DHL courier has for years been making regular overseas runs, carrying batches of company papers for Petre-Mears simply to sign in return for cash.

John Parker is one of her UK connections, who registers offshore entities for anonymous clients with her as nominee director. Petre-Mears does not appear to need to know much about the people for whom she passes resolutions, allots shares and helps set up bank accounts. All she has to do is sign her name.

Those names appear on activities ranging from Russian luxury property purchases, to porn and casino sites. Sometimes, such nominees even act as shareholders as well as directors.

Two Nevis islanders, Kellee France and Stanley Williams, were also recruited to sign up as nominees in recent years, adding apparent variety to the list of names for sale.

Parker, the owner of Offshore Incorporations Ltd, who says he is a former special constable in Northamptonshire, posted a photograph of himself online in police uniform this month. After the Guardian confronted him with questions, the picture appears to have been removed. He told us: "Sarah Petre-Mears has acted as nominee for BVI [British Virgin islands] companies which this company has formed … As far as we are concerned, she has acted as a genuine nominee."

He added: "The nominees [the legal owners] act on behalf of the beneficial owners … Every large financial institution in the world uses exactly the same arrangement."

He said: "All arrangements can be used for fraud and theft but we would not accept any client if we knew or suspected that was their intention."

The government of Nevis, a former UK slave colony that now largely runs its own affairs within the Commonwealth, shows no wish to interfere with the nominee trade.

The Nevis premier's spokeswoman Deli Caines talked frankly about the regime's attitude, while a herd of goats wandered into the grounds of her government offices, housed in a former hotel opposite a derelict petrol station.

"The offshores are one of the reasons Nevis and St Kitts are doing well," she said. "Is it locals complaining, or those from overseas? It's not the locals! If Britain is crying about its tax dollars, that's not really a problem for us."

Jersey's chief minister says Channel Islands and overseas territories discussing agreement modelled on US arrangements

The UK government is exploring whether it can force the British Virgin Islands and other offshore havens for which it is ultimately responsible to share far more information on owners of offshore trusts and companies.

Jersey's chief minister, Ian Gorst, confirmed that Channel Island officials were meeting with the Treasury on Tuesday to discuss an extensive information-sharing agreement modelled on a new law being promoted across the world by the US, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Facta) – and that though it was only Channel Islands officials in the meetings, the new rules were also being discussed with the BVI and others.

"The UK has approached the crown dependencies and the overseas territories with a view to the principles of the US Facta arrangements possibly being more widely applied to an exchange of information with the UK," Gorst said. In separate comments to a Jersey paper on Monday, Gorst said UK officials were threatening to block territories signing up to US deals until they agreed to sign up to a similar information-sharing agreement with the UK – in effect forcing the territories' hand.

Taxation expert and campaigner Richard Murphy, of the Tax Justice Network, said the Guardian's Offshore Secrets coverage highlighted the need for transparency – and, barring loopholes, the information sharing sought by the Treasury might deliver it.

"What the Guardian is highlighting is the vital role of secrecy in offshore abuse. It is the secrecy provided by tax havens that lets people abuse tax law and avoid their creditors. We reckon only around 4% of the total sums invested are subject to information exchange under current rules. My belief is this new arrangement – if it goes through – would raise that to 99%. If it were to be extended to the BVI and Caymans, it would ratchet up to another level altogether."

Tonight's Panorama will surely enrage the notoriously touchy Barclay boys. Sirs David and Frederick Barclay are media tycoons who like to stay out of the media spotlight.

Often described as reclusive, the proprietors of the Telegraph Media Group dislike the term. They prefer to regard themselves as people who merely wish to be private.

Semantics aside, the point is that they have a history of complaining whenever they are treated to the sort of publicity to which other entrepreneurs are routinely subjected.

And they have also taken to the courts. In the 1996, they sued John Sweeney, the journalist who is presenting tonight's programme and the BBC for invading their privacy. In 2005, they went to court in France to sue The Times over a series of articles about their business deals (eventually dropping the action). In 2010, they sued Private Eye for running a spoof Daily Telegraph front page.

So the boyos have form. And I'd guess that they will be watching BBC1 at 8.30pm to see what Sweeney has to say in a Panorama entitled "The tax haven twins." Then again, maybe they cannot receive the programme live in their castle on Brecqhou in the Channel Islands or in their other home in the tax haven of Monaco.

But they have plenty of British-based aides, and lawyers, who will surely be monitoring the broadcast, which the BBC's publicity department says will allege that one of their London hotels, The Ritz, hasn't paid any corporation tax in 17 years.

Panorama has investigated the accounts of the hotel, which was acquired by the Barclays in 1995. It's a profitable business, but the hotel has taken advantage of a series of perfectly legal tax reliefs to ensure its corporation tax bill was zero.

The programme will also raise questions about another of their businesses, the catalogue company Littlewoods, which they bought in 2002. It secured a VAT rebate, plus interest, from the revenue commissioners worth £472m over payments dating back to 1973. But the company has gone to court to demand a further £1bn from the government in compound interest.

It's an important test case for taxpayers because, should Littlewoods win, it could open the door to claims worth billions of pounds from other companies.

The twins say they have had nothing to do with the running of the UK companies since they retired to Monaco more than 20 years ago.

"We have not attended office, management or board meetings in the UK since leaving the country," Sir David Barclay said in a statement. "My brother and I have no editorial, political or economic power in the UK."

Littlewoods, the Ritz and the Telegraph are each controlled by offshore trusts. However, the trusts were set up by the twins and one of the brothers attends trust meetings.

The UK businesses are managed by Sir David's son, Aidan Barclay. On the Littlewoods claim, he said:

"This represents tax taken incorrectly by HMRC and held incorrectly for many years, facts which HMRC publicly recognise and accept.

Directors of companies have legal responsibilities and duties to recover and secure their companies' assets from the perspective of each company itself and its various stakeholders. It would be a dereliction of their duties not to pursue repayments which are properly due from HMRC."

Aidan Barclay told Panorama that Littlewoods lodged its VAT claim before the family took over the company, which is true. But the £1bn test case for compound interest was launched after the Barclays' takeover.

He also explained that the Ritz had reinvested profits made by the hotel, adding: "The Barclay family members and their companies abide by the law and pay the taxes required by UK law and the laws of other relevant countries."

Sir David Barclay said: "We have always acted in a responsible way with regard to taxation and have never been involved in any tax avoidance scheme. We are not responsible for corporate taxes in the UK and are unaware what tax is paid on the Ritz."

Panorama will also touch on the controversy surrounding the Barclays' activities in Sark. the island adjacent to Brecqhou.

As David Leigh has reported, the Sark segment has already attracted complaints from the Barclays' estate manager on the island, Kevin Delaney.

His Sark Newsletter carried a lengthy article on 10 October criticising Sweeney for his (allegedly) "unbecoming drunken antics" during his visits earlier this year to film on the island. He wrote:

"Empowered by the might of the BBC, Mr Sweeney filmed people without their consent.

He aggressively invaded my offices and harassed and intimidated my staff in his concerted efforts at staging a hostile confrontation with me on camera - despite being made aware, in writing, that I did not want to be interviewed by him."

Delaney returned to the attack on the BBC in a bulletin dated yesterday (16 December) in which he alleged that the editor of Panorama, Tom Giles, had repeatedly threatened him with libel proceedings.

Sweeney says he'll let the programme speak for itself.

Source: BBC Full disclosure: I was interviewed for the programme

Online retailer makes move following the UK government's closure of a loophole allowing it to sell VAT-free CDs and DVDs from the Channel Islands

Online retailer Play.com is to shut down its retail business following the UK government's closure of a loophole allowing it to sell VAT-free CDs and DVDs from the Channel Islands.

The company is reportedly making 147 staff redundant in Jersey as well as 67 in its Cambridge and Bristol offices as a result of the move, although the website still plans to continue operating its online marketplace, which allows a host of different retailers to offer their goods for sale.

Via Twitter, Play.com said: "We're only closing our direct retail business. You can buy from our successful Play Marketplace as usual."

Goods bought for less than £15 and imported to the UK from outside the EU – including the Channel Islands – were exempt from VAT under the Low Value Consignment Relief (LVCR). The loophole, which was thought to have cost the exchequer about £130m in lost VAT, was shut by the UK government in April 2012 - marking the end of years of campaigning by the Guardian and scores of UK retailers including the music chain Fopp and the healthfood group Holland & Barrett. They had repeatedly told the Treasury they were unable to compete with VAT-free prices online.

In 2006, Jersey claimed to have weeded out UK firms using the Channel Islands as part of what it called a "scam" to avoid tax. Tesco and Amazon were among those who left the island at that time, though both returned with the help of agent firms on the islands, such as Indigo Starfish and The Hut Group.

In September the States of Jersey said about 400 people had lost their jobs elsewhere in the island because of the end of LVCR.

Channel Islanders recreate missing section thought by historians to show coronation of William the Conqueror

The final panels of the Bayeux tapestry featuring the coronation of William the Conqueror and the construction of the Tower of London have been finished by residents of the Channel Island of Alderney.

The original tapestry ends with the death of King Harold and historians believe that other sections depicting the reign of William may have been lost. The tapestry is believed to have been made around 10 years after 1066 and the conquest of England.

Kate Russell, the librarian on Alderney, led 416 residents, around one-fifth of the population, in producing the new tapestry.

"I have been fascinated by the Bayeux tapestry since I first learnt about it. When we thought about it we thought: 'why not make something original to the Channel Islands?'," she told the BBC. "One of my great delights has been watching the reaction of the artist who designed our tapestry. She has put in the stitches herself and felt that it was coming to life in a way that she had not possibly imagined and was thrilled by it."

The Bayeux tapestry was commissioned by William the Conqueror's half-brother Bishop Odo to celebrate his victory over Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

It was unveiled in 1077 at the dedication of the Bayeux Cathedral and shows events from a Norman point of view from the death of King Edward the Confessor to the Norman victory over the English, with the missing section probably showing William's coronation.

The Channel Islands were part of the Duchy of Normandy when William invaded England in 1066 and won the crown.

The tapestry will go on display in Alderney from 1 April but Russell said that she would love for it to be shown alongside the original tapestry in Bayeux.

Watch out, daffodils, house martins and commuters: freezing conditions, Met Office warnings and rail chaos are here again

Snow and icily low temperatures have returned to the UK in force, with blizzards in southern parts of England and the freezing weather threatening even the Channel Islands.

Ferries have been interrupted between Jersey and St Malo, in France, as stormy weather moves along the Channel, possibly bringing snow to all parts of the country by nightfall.

The best of the morning weather has brought bright sunshine to northern England but with snow flurries lending an Alpine feel. Further south, the picture has been far more disrupted, with a spate of accidents on the M40 as blizzards began snowfalls that are expected to reach 10cm (4in) by the evening in the worst-affected areas.

On the Meteorological Office's map of weather warnings, the country is wearing a large yellow shawl, signifying the third, "be aware", level of the standard four alerts.

Jersey airport has been closed by snow that also caused long delays to local and London commuter trains in Sussex and Hampshire. Strong winds have caused traffic problems and road closures from Cumbria to Wales and the West Country, with the winds reaching gale force in some parts of the UK's western seaboard. One lane of the M48 Severn bridge has been closed. Other areas affected include Newquay in Cornwall, Lynton in Dorset and the A353 through Dorset.

No one has escaped scot-free, including the Scots, who have suffered signalling problems to trains in the Carstairs area. The new Arctic spells inflicted the same blow to services run by CrossCountry, East Coast, First TransPennine Express, ScotRail and Virgin Trains.

Other ferries affected include TransEuropa, which is running a reduced service between Ramsgate and Ostend, and Stena, which has scaled down sailings between Holyhead and Dublin and cancelled the 9am Rosslare-to-Fishguard run.

Forecasters said Monday would be the coldest day of the current shift in temperatures, which was expected to continue until Thursday at least. There was an outside prospect of snow at Easter, but the Met Office goes no further than predicting unsettled conditions, with snow on its radar as far as 24 March and colder-than-average conditions into April. Ladbrokes has evens on snow falling in any major UK city on Easter Sunday, and 4/1 against it being the coldest Easter on record.

Julian Mayes, of MeteoGroup, said temperatures would struggle to top 0C (32F) on Monday before climbing back up for the weekend.

"Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights are all expected to be very cold and frosty, with overnight temperatures as low as -6C in places," he said. "But by Friday the wind will have eased off and temperatures could reach 7C. That is still below average for the time of year, but will seem much warmer after this cold snap."

The cold weather came as an unpleasant surprise for burgeoning spring bulbs and migrant birds, which return from Africa and the Mediterranean to breed in the UK in March and April. House martins, usually the earliest arrivals, have been seen in southern England, where conditions will make their foraging for insects difficult.

Grahame Madge, of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said the martins and the related sand martins were certain to face problems: "There's a limit to the amount people can do, but we would ask people to carry on putting food out."

Forty other new arrivals in the UK were more sanguine about the dip in temperatures. They are Royal Marine Commando reservists, who have been taking part in an Arctic exercise, Operation Hairspring, in northern Finland, in temperatures as low as -50C.

The horseracing world was concerned about the effects of the weather on this week's Cheltenham festival, however, and the RAC and other road services were on standby to deal with a 20% rise in callouts over the next three days. The Highways Agency said it was "well prepared", with more than 500 salt spreaders, snowploughs and blowers deployed at 100 depots on the main road network.

Ray Bitar who was charged with bank fraud, money laundering and online gambling offences faced a jail sentence of 65 years

Ray Bitar, the online poker tycoon who ran the world's second largest poker site from servers in Guernsey, has abandoned his defence against criminal charges brought by US prosecutors, striking a plea bargain as he awaits a heart transplant in California.

Bitar, 41, one of the founding figures behind Full Tilt Poker, becomes the second of 11 senior poker executives and payment processor intermediaries charged two years ago with bank fraud, money laundering and online gambling offences.

He was charged in April 2011 on five counts, and faced a maximum jail sentence of 65 years. Full Tilt was shut down and assets frozen. In four and a half years since the US enacted anti-online gambling laws, prosecutors alleged Full Tilt – branded around star players Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer and Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, each of whom had a stake in the business – had taken "at least an estimated $1bn" from the US alone.

However, bank fraud and money laundering allegations turn out to be just the start of Bitar's woes. Detailed investigation led the US authorities to further allege that he and co-conspirators had secretly been plundering purportedly ring-fenced customer accounts, where poker players thought they had safely deposited cash and winnings.

Preet Bharara, US attorney for the southern district of New York, said Full Tilt had become a "Ponzi-style scheme", with a $350m (£228m) black hole. The formidable prosecutor – best known for breaking the insider trading ring linked to New York hedge fund Galleon – said Bitar had "bluffed his player-customers and fixed the game against them as part of an international Ponzi scheme that left players empty-handed."

A fresh indictment was issued and Bitar returned to his native the US last July. At the time he issued a statement through his lawyers saying: "I know that a lot of people are very angry at me. I understand why. Full Tilt should never have gotten into a position where it could not repay player funds."

On Tuesday, his US lawyer John Baughman confirmed to the Guardian that an unusual plea bargain had now been struck, which took account of his exceptional health circumstances. Bitar is said to be awaiting a heart transplant in California. His serious health condition had not been made public previously.

Full Tilt had operated under a licence from the remote Channel Island of Alderney, though inadequate IT infrastructure meant it was forced to locate its servers on nearby Guernsey. Allegations that player accounts were plundered and that the company had been deeply involved in bank fraud for many years are highly damaging the reputation of the Channel Islands, where the offshore financial industry trades a on a reputation for not tolerating criminality.

While Full Tilt's regulatory and IT functions were largely conducted from the Channel Islands, other operations were located on a business park just south of Dublin. Bitar is said to have spent much of his time between the Channel Islands and Ireland.

Together with market leader PokerStars, Full Tilt came to dominate the multibillion online poker industry after the US introduced tough laws making it illegal for banks to process payments from US citizens for internet gambling.

Scores of websites closed their operations in the US, including Party Poker, now part of London stock market-listed Bwin.party. PokerStars and Full Tilt for years appeared to flout the rules, continuing to take bets from America, which was said to account for almost half of global demand for poker games.

The two sites allegedly used a string of intermediaries who set up sham online retail websites – purporting to sell golf clubs, watches, bicycles, jewellery, clothing, or even settling medical bills. In truth, payments through these sites masked deposits into poker accounts.

PokerStars, based in the Isle of Man, was also targeted by Bharara, but struck a deal last July that saw it forfeit $547m to the US authorities. It had managed to continue trading outside the US, unlike Full Tilt. In addition, PokerStars agreed to rescue Full Tilt, pledging to reimburse $184m owed to the effectively bankrupt group's players outside the US.

The Full Tilt site has since been resurrected and is operated by PokerStars.

Under the terms of its settlement with Bharara, PokerStars had to promise that its founder Isai Scheinberg would step down as a director of the company. Scheinberg, a former Canadian executive with IBM, is one of three facing outstanding criminal charges and is said by the US authorities to still be at large. Two years ago was charged in the US with five offences of variously committing bank fraud, money laundering and online gambling offences. Reputedly resident in the Isle of Man, but with strong links to Israel, he faces a maximum of 65 years in jail.

PM urges havens to 'get our own houses in order' before G8 summit in June, where he claims tax avoidance will be a priority

David Cameron has written to the leaders of Britain's offshore tax havens stressing the need to "get our own houses in order" as he pushes for international action to tackle avoidance schemes.

In a message to 10 crown dependencies and British overseas territories Cameron said he backed their right to be low tax jurisdictions but insisted that rules needed to be set and enforced fairly.

The move comes ahead of next month's G8 summit in Northern Ireland, where Cameron will push for an agreement aimed at clamping down on tax evasion and avoidance.

He said he wanted the G8 to "knock down the walls of company secrecy" to reveal who really owns and controls firms.

Cameron's initiative came as he prepared to raise the issue of corporate tax dodging with Google's boss, Eric Schmidt at a meeting in Downing Street.

The internet fim's executive chairman is a member of Cameron's business advisory group, which has its regular quarterly meeting on Monday, just days after Google was given a mauling by a House of Commons committee over its tax affairs.

The group holds its meetings behind closed doors and Downing Street does not reveal the content of its deliberations but a source inside No 10 confirmed that tax will be up for discussion, insisting that "nothing is off the table" when Cameron meets the group of 16 business leaders.

The PM's letter calling for more transparency about tax information and the ownership of companies was sent to leaders in Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Anguilla, Montserrat, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.

Cameron wrote: "As you know, I have made fighting the scourge of tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance a priority for the G8 summit which the UK is hosting next month.

"With one month to go, this is the critical moment to get our own houses in order. I am looking to all the overseas territories and crown dependencies to continue to work in partnership with the UK in taking the lead on two critical issues: tax information exchange and beneficial ownership."

He told the leaders: "I respect your right to be lower tax jurisdictions. I believe passionately in lower taxes as a vital driver of growth and prosperity for all.

"But lower taxes are only sustainable if what is owed is actually paid – and if the rules to achieve this are set and enforced fairly to create a level playing field right across the world. There is no point in dealing with tax evasion in one country if the problem is simply displaced to another."

He welcomed commitments made by the territories to exchange tax information but said there was also a need to improve its quality and accuracy.

"Put simply, that means we need to know who really owns and controls each and every company," he said.

"This goes right to the heart of the ambition of Britain's G8 to knock down the walls of company secrecy.

"Some of you have already led the way with public commitments to produce action plans on beneficial ownership – and I hope those who have yet to can do so as quickly as possible.

"Getting the right content in these plans will now be critical. These will need to provide for fully resourced and properly managed centralised registries, that are freely available to law enforcement and tax collectors, and contain full and accurate details on the true ownership and control of every company."

Ed Miliband has pledged to write new rules to tackle corporate tax dodgers if he wins the next election, even if there is no international consensus for action.

In an interview with the Observer, he said Cameron's government was "dragging its feet" on the issue.

BBC programme about the owners of the Daily Telegraph had been deferred by former BBC director general

A Panorama about the owners of the Daily Telegraph, Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, that had been deferred by former BBC director general George Entwistle, is now back on following the departure of the broadcasting chief who had reservations about whether to broadcast the investigative documentary.

The programme, being fronted by journalist John Sweeney, about the reclusive - and often litigious - billionaire twins, was referred up to the embattled director general last week and was effectively put on hold. It had been previously approved by other senior news executives, but such were the sensitivities that this film was sent right up to the top.

Sweeney said that reports in other newspapers that the Panorama had been pulled were "not true" and that he and the production team "were still working on it, and we hope to put it out soon". No broadcast date has been agreed, but the BBC usually chooses the last possible moment to confirm what is airing on Panorama each week.

It is not clear precisely what the subject of the programme will be, although another BBC source said that it would be piece of investigative journalism, because Panorama was "not a soft toy factory". But there are some clues emerging elsewhere.

Panorama's filming has already attracted the ire of the man who manages the Barclay's estate on Sark, the channel island, which Brecqhou, the neighbouring island where the twins live, is legally part of. Kevin Delaney, who runs the twins Sark Estate Management, wrote a lengthy article criticising the BBC in his Sark Newsletter.

Writing on October 22, Delaney accused the BBC of being "a deeply flawed and dysfunctional organisation that has failed miserably in its self-regulation". He said that Sweeney had visited Sark on three occasions in the autumn, and after accusing the BBC journalist of "unbecoming drunken antics at the pub" - he complained about his investigation.

"Empowered by the might of the BBC, Mr Sweeney filmed people without their consent. He aggressively invaded my offices and harassed and intimidated my staff in his concerted efforts at staging a hostile confrontation with me on camera - despite being made aware, in writing, that I did not want to be interviewed by him," Delaney wrote.

Delaney added that he had made a complaint to George Entwistle, and other BBC executives, which he said had been ignored or not acknowledged. He said that the production team's behaviour meant that "the British licence payers' money was thus spent to support a campaign to shut down free speech on Sark".

John Sweeney had previously been sued by the Barclay twins in the 1990s after he was filmed landing on their island of Brecqhou, which is next to the channel island of Sark. Both the journalist, and John Birt, the then director general, were sued by the twins in France - and after a lengthy legal action, Sweeney was ordered to pay 20,000 Francs in damages by a court in Rennes.