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09.04.01. Schemes, Scams & Cons. A-Letter.
THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER
Your Link to Freedom, Prosperity & Privacy in the Offshore World
Tuesday, September 4, 2001 - Vol. 3 No. 70
In This Issue:
* COMMENT: Schemes, Scams, and Cons
* OFFSHORE: Caribbean Havens Union. Offshore Tax Evasion. Bermuda Company Limits. Floating Tax Haven. Cook Island Dissent. New Haven Nauru.
* WEALTH: Canada Imitates US Law Mess. Hungary Ends Secret Accounts. Euro Crime Wave. Tobin Tax Nixed. Black Sheep Beats Bank Trustees. Get More Money from Old Trusts.
COMMENT: Schemes, Scams, and Cons
by Bob Bauman, Editor
In the 104 A-Letters published in the last year, 43 issues have contained reports on offshore frauds. The frauds cover the waterfront, from numerous failed banks to stock swindles, almost all involving false promises of huge, unrealistic profits.
This observation is prompted by several news items that came across my PC monitor screen in the last seven days, to wit:
* ST. JOHN'S, ANTIGUA. Thousands of US persons believed promises of investments that yield 100% returns within months. To get those miracle returns, investors sent their money offshore. It's all gone and yet the scam goes on.
LINKS: http://www.miami.com/herald/content/business/digdocs/065301.htm
http://www.miami.com/herald/content/business/digdocs/000919.htm
* REPUBLIC OF PORT MARIA? Search the world atlas and you wont find this "republic." But until its ISP shut it down, it did have its own web site, offering non-existent offshore banking services.
LINK: http://www.iccwbo.org/home/news_archives/2001/virtual_%20country.asp
* ROME. In Cleveland, Ohio a monsignor who served on a board that provides legal counsel to Pope John Paul II was charged in an international insurance scam involving a less than 'charitable' trust in the British Virgin Islands.
LINK: Click Here.
* MIAMI, FLORIDA. A federal judge ruled against the Colombian government on its complaint against a prominent Ecuadorian banker, ending the latest attempt to force US courts to make decisions on foreign based international fraud.
LINK: http://www.miami.com/herald/content/business/digdocs/013523.htm
* SHANGHAI, CHINA. Market capitalization of China's two equities exchanges has swollen to almost $700 billion. China's stock market recently eclipsed Hong Kong's as Asia's second largest, after Japan's. And millions are being swindled by stock manipulation.
LINK: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33418-2001Sep2.html
In a recent statement to the US Senate Finance Committee, asset protection attorney Jay D. ADKISSON laid it on the line : "Our country is faced with a growing industry of scams and frauds...scam artists have little overhead and typically evade the payment of taxes, advantages that make the scam industry very efficient and profitable. In the past, most fraudulent schemes were run by small groups of scam artists and were relatively isolated. Today's fraudulent schemes use the Internet to market their scams to a wide audience, and to recruit otherwise innocent people..."
LINK (pdf file download): http://finance.senate.gov/040501jatest.pdf
The A-Letter philosophy is this: If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. But ignorance combined with greed blinds better judgment and those offshore scams sound so inviting, so exotic. Don't forget Phineas T. Barnum's sage dictum: "There's a sucker born every minute."
Find out more about offshore frauds, at these
LINKS: A must read for fraud news: http://www.quatloos.com/
US FBI Internet Fraud Complaint Center: http://www.ifccfbi.gov/ Law Enforcement Consumer Sentinel: http://www.consumer.gov/sentinel/index.html
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* OFFSHORE *
CARIBBEAN HAVENS TALK UNION
Antigua, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent talk about a political union.
LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=5169
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CAYMANS, BAHAMAS BANKS USED FOR TAX EVASION
An Ohio man faces 10 years in prison and $1 million in fines for conspiring to help his brother hide $4.5 million in offshore banks to avoid paying taxes on the money.
LINK: Click Here.
And the CAYMAN ISLANDS has yet another group fighting dirty money, the Cayman Anti-Money laundering (CAMLG).
LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=5175
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BERMUDA COMPANY LIMITS
HAMILTON. The government may limit types of companies allowed to relocate here to ease labor and housing shortages.
LINK: http://www.forbes.com/newswire/2001/08/24/rtr338349.html
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FLOATING TAX HAVEN?
Come 2002, the world's first cruise ship condo hits the water. European tax collectors think it's really a tax dodge.
LINK: (free reg req) http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2001/0917/102.html
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COOK ISLAND DISSENTER
RAROTONGA, C.I. Politician makes an angry attack on expatriate business people and foreign investors.
LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=5163
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NAURU'S NEW HAVEN ROLE
It may look idyllic, but what will 300 Afghans make of Nauru, an offshore haven speck in the Pacific Ocean?
LINK: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/australasia/story.jsp?story=92007
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* WEALTH *
CANADA ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING RULES DELAYED
OTTAWA. Canada's politicians learned nothing from the burdens of the miserable US cash reporting laws, and so their statutory imitation is doomed to repeat the US mess.
LINKS: Click Here.
Text of Canadian Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) Act: Click Here.
And stung by the Financial Action Task Force blacklisting, EGYPT plans to adopt a new anti-ML law soon.
LINK: Click Here.
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HUNGARY ENDS ANONYMOUS BANK ACCOUNTS
BUDAPEST. Hungary was added to the FATF dirty money laundering blacklist last June, so now it bans its version of the dying Austrian sparbuch.
LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=5188
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EURO LAUNCHES ALLEGED CRIME WAVE
LONDON. Some say the new euro currency carries risk of money laundering on a huge scale.
LINK: http://www.observer.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,545504,00.html
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GERMAN KNOCKS TOBIN TAX
BERLIN. A Finance Ministry spokesman says a tax on international capital transactions is not the way to go.
LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=5160
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BLACK SHEEP BEATS BANK
WILMINGTON, Delaware. Could you be the beneficiary of a $300 million trust and not even know it? It's possible.
LINK (reg req): http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2001/0917/060.html?_requestid=59080
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GET MORE CASH FROM OLD TRUSTS
If you're the income beneficiary of a trust and need more spending money, read this. Then call your trustee and ask for a bigger slice.
LINK (reg req): http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2001/0917/144.html
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FAST TRACK U.K. PASSPORTS
LONDON. Foreign executives starting work in Britain can get special fast treatment for requested visas. LINK: Click Here.
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