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Campaigners and MPs are calling for a parliamentary inquiry into the Loan Charge scandal – accusing HMRC of “airbrushing” its approach to a harsh tax crackdown linked to several suicides.

The Loan Charge Action Group (LCAG) has hit out at the Treasury Committee after it wrote to the tax office requesting information on its approach to contractor loan schemes.

These were widely – but wrongly – promoted by employers as HMRC compliant in the early 2000s, and tens of thousands of workers who signed up for them are now facing life-ruining bills for tax on their salaries which their employer should have paid.

Campaigners said the Treasury Committee letter was “little more than a tick box exercise triggered by all of the recent coverage of the Loan Charge” and an inquiry which hears from victims and tax experts is needed.

Steve Packham, spokesperson for the LCAG, told Sky News: “It is frustrating that instead of holding a full select committee inquiry to hear evidence from those facing the Loan Charge and tax sector professionals, the Treasury select committee has merely written to HMRC.

“It seems that this is little more than a tick box exercise triggered by all of the recent coverage of the Loan Charge, allowing HMRC to pedal the usual misleading and partial responses.”

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Loan scheme causing tax turmoil

He accused the committee of a “failure of parliamentary scrutiny in the same way the Post Office were not properly challenged for too long” – in reference to the Horizon IT scandal.

“What is needed is a full select committee inquiry and we urge committee members to announce one and call a variety of witnesses, including those whose lives have been ruined by HMRC’s approach.”

Sky News has previously reported on how tens of thousands of people across the country are facing crippling tax demands from HMRC in a campaign that has been linked to 10 suicides.

What is the Loan Charge?

It all comes back to a 2016 piece of legislation that made individuals responsible for tax which their employers should have paid – the “Loan Charge”.

HMRC has been criticised by MPs and tax experts for not policing the contractor sector at the time of the schemes.

Employers were paid their salaries in loans – and it was widely marketed as HMRC compliant.

Some people facing the Loan Charge, including nurses, cleaners and teachers, have said they had no choice but to be paid this way when they accepted their jobs, while others insist they were trying to do the right thing and streamline their tax affairs following the introduction of complex self-employment rules.

No scheme promoters prosecuted

In his letter to the treasury committee, Jim Harra, the director of HMRC, confirmed that there have been no prosecutions of individuals “for the promotion and/or operation” of what it now calls Disguised Remuneration (DR) schemes – noting that “promotion or operation of mass-marketed tax avoidance schemes is not by itself a criminal offence”.

He said HMRC did not have figures on how many people had joined the schemes “unwittingly” but “the motives of those engaging in tax avoidance schemes do not affect whether tax is due”.

Mr Harra’s letter also revealed that the median settlement for individuals is £19,000, though noted about 40,000 people have still not settled. Approximately 50,000 people are estimated to be affected in total.

He denied accusations the department operates without scrutiny, saying it is “simply not the case that HMRC is unaccountable” and “we act under the general direction of ministers”.

Taking a firm line on recent criticism of “sinister” new tactics, he said: “We do not accept claims that we have been deliberately heavy-handed. We certainly do not intentionally write to taxpayers on specific days, such as their birthday, to increase the impact of our interventions.

“We do not play with people’s emotions. We recognise that there is a human story behind each one of these cases and we take our Charter responsibilities very seriously.”

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HMRC ‘airbrushing the whole mess’

Chair of the Treasury Committee, Conservative MP Harriett Baldwin, said: “Many of my colleagues have raised concerns about the implementation and management of the Loan Charge by HMRC. As a Committee, we believed it was important that we got answers both for our fellow MPs and their constituents.

“I hope the information contained in Mr Harra’s response makes a useful contribution to the public debate.”

However, fellow Conservative MP Greg Smith, co-chair of the Loan Charge APPG, said while it is “welcome” the committee is raising the Loan Charge “as well as writing to HMRC, it needs to also hear from victims and tax professionals who can show that so much of what HMRC says is simply not an accurate picture of the Loan Charge Scandal”.

Greg Smith. Pic: PA
Image:
Greg Smith. Pic: PA


He said: “As usual, HMRC are airbrushing the whole mess and giving the false impression that they acted at the time and warned users, when the reality is that they failed to police the contracting sector and failed to warn contractors and then invented the Loan Charge so they go back retrospectively, but targeting only the workers, not those who operated the schemes.

“With 10 confirmed suicides and 13 attempted suicides, as well as countless lives already ruined, the Treasury Select Committee should also seek evidence from other parties, to get a more realistic picture of the whole Loan Charge Scandal.”

He warned: “Without a change of approach from HMRC, we are very fearful of the consequences and we hope the Select Committee will join us in properly holding HMRC to account, before more lives are ruined”.

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK.

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US DOJ requests 20-year sentence for Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky

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US DOJ requests 20-year sentence for Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky

US DOJ requests 20-year sentence for Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky

Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of the now-defunct cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius, faces a 20-year prison sentence as the US Department of Justice (DOJ) is seeking a severe penalty for his fraudulent activity.

The US DOJ on April 28 filed the government’s sentencing memorandum against Mashinsky, recommending a 20-year prison sentence due to his fraudulent actions leading to multibillion-dollar losses by Celsius customers.

The 97-page memo mentioned that Celsius users were unable to access approximately $4.7 billion in crypto assets after the platform halted withdrawals on June 12, 2022.

“The Court should sentence Alexander Mashinsky to twenty years’ imprisonment as just punishment for his years-long campaign of lies and self-dealing that left in its wake billions in losses and thousands of victimized customers,” the DOJ stated.

Mashinsky’s personal benefit was $48 million

In addition to listing massive investor losses resulting from the Celsius fraud, the DOJ mentioned that Mashinsky has personally profited from the fraudulent schemes in his role.

As part of his plea in December 2024, Mashinsky admitted that he was the leader of the criminal activity at Celsius, that his crimes resulted in losses in excess of $550 million, and that he personally benefited more than $48 million, the authority said.

US DOJ requests 20-year sentence for Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky
An excerpt from the government’s sentencing memorandum against Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky. Source: CourtListener

The DOJ emphasized that Mashinsky’s guilty plea showed that his crimes were “not the product of negligence, naivete, or bad luck,” but rather the result of “deliberate, calculated decisions to lie, deceive, and steal in pursuit of personal fortune.”

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.

Magazine: Bitcoin $100K hopes on ice, SBF’s mysterious prison move: Hodler’s Digest, April 20 – 26

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Russian ruble stablecoin: Exec lists 7 ‘Tether replica’ features

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Russian ruble stablecoin: Exec lists 7 ‘Tether replica’ features

Russian ruble stablecoin: Exec lists 7 ‘Tether replica’ features

The concept of a Russian ruble stablecoin received special attention at a major local crypto event, the Blockchain Forum in Moscow, with key industry executives reflecting on some of the core features a ruble-backed stablecoin might require.

Sergey Mendeleev, founder of the digital settlement exchange Exved and inactive founder of the sanctioned Garantex exchange, put forward seven key criteria for a potential “replica of Tether” in a keynote at the Blockchain Forum on April 23.

Mendeleev said a potential ruble stablecoin must have untraceable transactions and allow transfers without Know Your Customer (KYC) checks.

However, because one of the criteria also requires the stablecoin to comply with Russian regulations, he expressed skepticism that such a product could emerge soon.

The DAI model praised 

Mendeleev proposed that a potential Russian “Tether replica” must be overcollateralized similarly to the Dai (DAI) stablecoin model, a decentralized algorithmic stablecoin that maintains its one-to-one peg with the US dollar using smart contracts.

“So, any person who buys it will understand that the contract is based on the assets that super-securitize it, not somewhere on some unknown accounts, but free to be checked by simple crypto methods,” he said.

Russian ruble stablecoin: Exec lists 7 ‘Tether replica’ features
Source: Cointelegraph

Another must-have feature should be excess liquidity on both centralized and decentralized exchanges, Mendeleev said, adding that users must be able to exchange the stablecoin at any time they need.

According to Mendeleev, a viable ruble-pegged stablecoin also needs to offer non-KYC transactions, so users are not required to pass their data to start using it.

“The Russian ruble stablecoin should have the opportunity where people use it without disclosing their data,” he stated.

Related: Russia’s central bank, finance ministry to launch crypto exchange

In the meantime, users should be able to earn interest on holding the stablecoin, Mendelev continued, adding that offering this feature is available via smart contracts.

Russia opts for centralization

Mendeleev also suggested that a potential Russian version of Tether’s USDt (USDT) would need to feature untraceable and cheap transactions, while its smart contracts should not enable blocks or freezes.

The final criterion is that a potential ruble stablecoin would have to be regulated in accordance with the Russian legislation, which currently doesn’t look promising, according to Mendeleev.

Russia, KYC, Fiat Money, Tether, Stablecoin, Policy
Sergey Mendeleev at the Blockchain Forum in Moscow. Source: Bits.Media

“Once we put these seven points together […] then it would be a real alternative, which would help us at least compete with the solutions that are currently on the market,” he stated at the conference, adding:

“Unfortunately, from the point of view of regulation, we are currently going in the absolutely opposite direction […] We are going in the direction of absolute centralization, not in the direction of liberalization of laws, but consolidation of prohibitions.”

Possible solutions

While the regulatory side is not looking good, a potential Russian version of USDT is technically feasible, Mendeleev told Cointelegraph.

“Except for anonymous transactions, everything is easy to implement and has already been deployed by several projects, but it’s just not unified in one project yet,” he said.

The crypto advocate specifically referred to interesting opportunities by projects like the ruble-pegged A7A5 stablecoin, unblockable contracts at DAI, and others.

Related: Russian crypto exchange Mosca raided amid cash-to-crypto ban talks

Regulation is necessary but not enough, Mendeleev said, adding that the most difficult part is the trust of users who must see the ruble stablecoin as a viable alternative to major alternatives like USDT.

Recent reports suggest that the deputy head of Russia’s Finance Ministry’s financial policy department urged the government to develop ruble stablecoins.

Elsewhere, the Bank of Russia has continued to progress its central bank digital currency project, the digital ruble. According to Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, the digital ruble is scheduled to be rolled out for commercial banks in the second half of 2025.

Magazine: Bitcoin $100K hopes on ice, SBF’s mysterious prison move: Hodler’s Digest, April 20 – 26

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Trump or Carney – will Starmer have to choose?

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Trump or Carney – will Starmer have to choose?

👉Listen to Politics at Sam and Anne’s on your podcast app👈

The morning political podcast which gives you all need for the day ahead in 20 minutes, usually with Sky News’ Sam Coates and Politico’s Anne McElvoy.

But, for this episode, Anne is somewhere over the Atlantic travelling back from the US so Sam is joined by Politico’s Tim Ross.

Mark Carney’s Liberal Party has won the Canadian election. It’ll give Keir Starmer a centre-left ally at G7 but how will the PM position himself now in the Trump-Carney standoff?

Elsewhere, with political leaders out and about in Bristol, Scunthorpe, South Cambridgeshire and Wiltshire – there are plenty of clues about the biggest target seats in the last 48 hours before local election voting.

To find lists of candidates in all the local elections, you can search here: https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/voter/your-election-information

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