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11.16.01. O.E.C.D. Backs Down. A-Letter
THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER
Your Link to Freedom, Prosperity & Privacy in the Offshore World
Friday, November 16, 2001 - Vol. 3 No. 90
In This Issue:
COMMENT: O.E.C.D. Backs Down
OFFSHORE: Swiss Freezer Burn. US-Lux Tax Accord. Liechtenstein, Jersey Cleaners. Free Hong Kong. EU Power Grab.
WEALTH: Terror Ties Denied. Islamic Bankers. French, German Dirty Cash. Gold Soars.
PRIVACY & CIVIL RIGHTS: Terror Redefined. Congress Ignored. Military Courts. Terror Tips. Arrogant Blair's UK Police State.
COMMENT: The O.E.C.D. Backs Down
by Bob Bauman, Editor
You're probably as tired as we are of hearing about the Organization for Economic and Community Development (OECD) and its phony campaign against so-called "harmful tax competition".
A highly paid, tax exempt coterie of Paris bureaucrats financed by the governments of the G-7 and 23 other nations, the OECD acts like a super world nanny always claiming to know best. In fact they front for the US IRS and other tax collectors who want an end to no tax and low tax haven nations.
Money hungry welfare politicians and their leftist governments hate having to compete against tax havens - because they can't. Under the OECD banner their collectivist solution has been; "Abolish tax havens".
Since 1998 the OECD has tried in vain to stifle tax competition, beginning with issuance of it pompous report, "Harmful Tax Competition: An Emerging Global Issue". Last year they presumed to issue a blacklist of 35 tax havens, threatening them with unnamed "sanctions" unless they:
1) abolished low or no tax laws, in effect raising taxes;
2) adopted total "transparency", meaning an end to financial secrecy laws;
3) ended all tax preferences for foreign investors;
The OECD high tax push suffered a mortal blow with the election of George W. Bush as US president. Reversing Clinton's high tax policies Bush's major domestic tax cuts passed the US Congress and the US Treasury quietly told the OECD to end its phony tax crusade. At least consistent, the administration opposed high taxes at home and abroad.
Without the US clout behind it, the OECD bureaucrats folded. Worldwide high taxes, at last for the moment, died.
Still acting as thought it matters, the OECD announced this week that an arbitrary deadline it had tried to impose on blacklisted tax havens would be extended until Feb. 28, 2002. The question is: who cares?
In Washington, D.C., the Center for Freedom and Prosperity responded saying the OECD's anti-tax competition scheme "was wrong three years ago, wrong last year and is wrong today."
Being consistently wrong has never stopped tax financed government bureaucrats before. But for the moment, having been licked, the OECD is licking its wounds.
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LINKS: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=6286
http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=6299
http://www.ananova.com/business/story/sm_449168.html
Text of OECD report LINK: http://www.oecd.org/daf/ctpa
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* OFFSHORE *
SWITZERLAND IN THE NEWS
Swiss police officials says they were rushed into acting against alleged terrorist groups before they were ready.
LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=6237
The head of the Swiss Bankers Assoc. says naming and shaming bankers who violate money laundering laws is the new rule.
LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=6245
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And here's one of those shameful Swiss bankers.
LINK: http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3I7DBH1UC
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SWISS FREEZER BURN
CULLY, Switzerland. Freezing assets here is easy. Thawing out assets is an entirely different story.
LINK (subscribers only): http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=SB1005687846313646880.djm
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U.S. LUXEMBOURG TAX TREATY
The two nations agree on rules for combating tax evasion and double taxation.
LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=6231
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LEICHTENSTEIN SQUEAKY CLEAN
This once secretive principality wants to world to know it is now clean.
LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=6270
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JERSEY CLEANS UP
This once suspect Channel Island has also cleaned up its image, says TIME Magazine.
LINK: http://www.time.com/time/europe/biz/magazine/0,9868,184139,00.html
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FREE OR NOT FREE?
HONG KONG is found to be the freest economy in the world for the 8th straight year.
LINK: http://cjonline.com/stories/111301/bus_hongkong.shtml
But HK also boosts its power to seize cash and assets.
LINK: http://cjonline.com/stories/111301/bus_hongkong.shtml
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SUPER POWER E.U.
The head of the EU wants it to be a super power, but not everyone agrees.
LINKS: Click Here ; Click Here
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And the EU wants total eavesdropping power over the Internet.
LINK: Click Here
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* WEALTH *
ACCUSED BARAKAT BANK DENIES TERROR TIES
LONDON. The chairman of a financial organization accused of funding Osama bin Laden's terrorist network denies the allegations.
LINK: http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3Y6C4P1UC
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ISLAMIC BANKERS CLAIM CLEANLINESS
Muslim bankers say they are less likely than their western counterparts to allow money laundering and tax evasion.
LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=6278
But INDIA's largest, the Bombay-based State Bank of India, is fined $7.5 million by the US government for money laundering.
LINK: http://www.americanbanker.com/cgi-bin/read_tagstory?20011115WASH165
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FRENCH INSURERS SUSPECT
PARIS. French insurance companies are accused of being lax on dirty cash.
LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=6268
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GERMAN FINANCIAL CRIMES SOAR
There's been a huge increase in suspected money laundering and tax evasion cases reported since the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks.
LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=6232
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GOLD IN THE NEWS
Sales of gold as an investment soared 400% after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/14/business/14GOLD.html
And a multi-billion dollar merger is about to create the world's number one gold mining company.
LINK: http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3O8A471UC
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* PRIVACY & CIVIL RIGHTS *
TERRORIST DEFINITION EXPANDS
New US anti-terrorist laws can be used for routine criminal investigations unrelated to terrorism.
LINK: http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0146/hentoff.php
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CONGRESS IGNORED
The Bush administration ignores lawmakers as it makes its own laws.
LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/15/national/15CIVI.html
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MILITARY TAKES OVER COURTS
Bush orders military tribunals to replace US courts.
LINK: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24744-2001Nov13.html
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1 800 + REPORT A TERRORIST
150,000 people have phoned in terrorist tips to the FBI.
LINK: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31607-2001Nov14.html
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BLAIR THE ARROGANT CONTROL FREAK
LONDON. Labour's darling is turning the UK into a police state.
LINK: http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3QC7A30UC
And Amnesty International denounces UK threats to freedom.
LINK: http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT38J6Z20UC
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THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER. E-mail to: info@sovereignsociety.com. * SUBSCRIBE FREE or send to a friend at LINK: http://www.sovereignsociety.com
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THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY Ltd., 5 Catherine St., Waterford, Ireland. TEL: 353-51 844 068 FAX: 353-51 304 561. Copyright (C) 2001. All domestic & international rights reserved.
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