The victimisation of Osita Mba is upsetting. He is a revenue solicitor at HMRC who worked on the Goldman Sachs case where the latter fought for 5 years in the courts to avoid a tax liability. But when they finally lost, Dave Hartnett, the Revenue permanent secretary, reached a private deal with them in December 2010 to let them off the £10m charge they were liable to pay in interest for withholding the tax unpaid over the 5 year period.

Mba was clearly shocked at this concession after Goldman had used every legal and accountancy artifice to evade their responsibilities, and acting a whistleblower wrote in March 2011 to the National Audit Office to express his disquiet. As a result the Treasury select committee interviewed Hartnett in September and he insisted the deal had been reached properly. Continue reading →