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UBS (Bahamas) obtains an Anton Piller order against attorney Leslie Vernon Rolle

December 31, 1998
UBS (Bahamas) Limited has obtained a seldom-granted court order allowing its representatives to enter a Bahamian attorney's premises without notice and take away documents and other movable assets. The order - known as an Anton Piller order - was granted by the Bahamas Supreme Court on December 11 against attorney Leslie Vernon Rolle, who operates from Nassau, and Esson Securities and Investments Ltd. and Weybridge Properties Ltd.

The fiasco surrounding the collapse of American International Bank and the dubious track record of William Cooper

December 31, 1998
Further information has come our way this month that sheds more light on the collapse of American International Bank and the fiasco that ensued after the same people who caused its problems attempted to transfer the business into another entity they controlled. It seems that American businessman William W. Cooper and his wife, who co-owned AIB, closed down the bank at the end of December, 1997 and transferred its business on January 2 to a new Antigua-registered entity called Overseas Development Bank Ltd.

Investors allegedly defrauded of $5 million in Bahamas/Florida bond scheme

December 31, 1998
The SEC has obtained a federal court order against a Bahamas-registered IBC, a Florida company and businessmen in the United States who participated in an allegedly fraudulent bond sale and prime bank note scam that earned nearly $5 million. According to the SEC's complaint, the bonds offered for sale were historical bonds, including those issued in the 19th Century by now defunct railroads and allegedly backed by gold.

IDIC – a bogus insurance company in Nevis

December 31, 1998
A Nevis company that purports to provide insurance for depositors at offshore banks may be a scam similar to one used to attract funds to the European Union Bank in Antigua that was closed down last year after fleecing investors of several millions of dollars, we can disclose. International Depositor's Reinsurance Corporation Ltd., which does business as International Deposit Insurance Corporation or IDIC, has all the hallmarks of a fraud. It is in breach of Nevis law by using the word 'Insurance' in its trading name and by passing itself off as an insurance company in its promotional literature at its web-site at http://www.depositinsurance.com.

Plans abandoned for massive Turks & Caicos Islands development

December 31, 1998
A proposed $312 million development of Grand Turk has been abandoned, according to a report in the Turks & Caicos Islands Free Press on November 26. The project was to have been the largest ever in the Turks & Caicos Islands and had been previously announced amid great fanfare by the local government.

Bruce Barone abruptly leaves Overseas Partners

December 31, 1998
Bruce Barone suddenly left as President and CEO of Bermuda-based reinsurer Overseas Partners Ltd. amid rumours that the company may have lost money trading in derivatives. No official reason has been given for Barone's departure but the speed of his exit and the fact that no replacement has been lined up indicates there was a major disagreement between Barone and the company's board of directors.

Grant Gibbons involved with proposed $1 billion Bermuda reinsurer

December 31, 1998
Former Bermuda Finance Minister Grant Gibbons has been appointed a founding director of a newly-formed holding company set up to raise $1 billion for a new reinsurer in Bermuda, we can disclose. The involvement of Gibbons, who is part of one of the most influential and wealthiest families in Bermuda, is a shot in the arm for the project, whose existence we revealed last month.

Melvin Ford’s plan to buy American International Bank falls through

December 31, 1998
A proposal to buy American International Bank Ltd. that was put forward by a businessman with a history of operating shady schemes has fallen through, we have been told. AIB's receiver, Edward St. Clair Smith, is now believed to be trying to sell the insolvent bank to other interested parties for $3.5 million, according to a source.

Antigua regulators issue order against AC Banking Group

December 31, 1998
Regulators in Antigua - where scams run by Eastern Europeans seem to be rife - have issued a cease and desist order against a Latvian-linked group that falsely claims to be licensed in the jurisdiction. The offending parties are Atlantic Caribbean Bank and Trust Ltd. and its associate firm AC Banking Group Ltd.

FEDEBANK put into court-appointed administration

December 31, 1998
Roy McTaggart and Frederico A. Golcher, of KPMG in the Cayman Islands and Costa Rica, respectively, have been appointed as controllers of the Cayman-registered Federated International Bank Limited or FEDEBANK, as it is known.

New Utopia appears to be an advance fee fraud

December 31, 1998
Offshore Alert has uncovered evidence that a widely-publicised scheme to build a new offshore tax haven called New Utopia off the coast of the Cayman Islands to, inter alia, compete with Bermuda in offshore insurance appears to be an elaborate advance fee fraud. That allegation is supported by the fact that the public is currently being urged to order New Utopian currency by sending off funds to an Antiguan bank that we exposed as a fraud last month.

Insider Talking: December 31, 1998

December 31, 1998
An interesting column was published in the Turks & Caicos Islands Free Press on November 26 in which Opposition MP Norman Saunders argued that the government must statutorily hold a General Election by February 17, 1999 when it would have ruled for precisely four years; Still in the Turks & Caicos Islands, where the strangest things often happen. New Chief Justice Richard Ground halted the trial of a man charged with two counts of possession of cannabis and possession with intent to supply after two jurors were seen getting into the same taxi as the defendant and the defendant's main witness following the end of the first day of the trial; Nowhere does a country's politicians have a more one-sided or forgiving relationship with God than in the Cayman Islands; The Cayman government has spent considerable amounts of tax-payers' money to take out a court injunction against the local Caymanian Compass newspaper to prevent those same taxpayers from seeing all or part of the monopoly agreement the government has with the much-reviled telecommunications carrier Cable & Wireless; As regular readers of this newsletter should be aware, we recently caught Lines Overseas Management salesman Scott Oliver lying to potential clients about his credentials by claiming he was on the board of advisors of the International Exchange Bank of Bermuda, which does not exist; and Grant Gibbons, who was Bermuda's Finance Minister until the UBP lost the General Election on November 9, has been appointed a founding director of a newly-formed holding company that intends to raise $1 billion for a life and annuity reinsurer.
antigua-and-barbuda

‘Caribbean Bank of Crooks’

November 30, 1998
Offshore Alert can this month reveal further details about an Internet bank in Antigua that is perpetrating a fraud so crude that it illustrates why the island has developed such a poor reputation in the offshore world. The fraud is all the more disturbing because the bank's legal representative in Antigua is Steadroy Benjamin, who is a Senator for the ruling Antigua Labour Party and is the Deputy Speaker of the Antiguan House of Representatives.

Carlos Miro: ‘Mark Cooke knew I was a crook but did business with me anyway’

November 30, 1998
The seemingly never-ending flow of negative information that is passed our way about Bermuda-based Stirling Cooke Brown Holdings Limited continued this month when our attention was drawn to Page 43 of the 1994 'Wishful Thinking' report published by a US congressional sub-committee chaired by John Dingell. The content of this page formed part of a look at the illegal activities of Carlos Miro, who received a lengthy prison sentence in the US for insurance fraud in connection with his Louisiana-based company, Anglo-American Insurance, which also had a UK arm.

Cable & Wireless (Cayman) – income revealed

November 30, 1998
Cable & Wireless (Cayman) either made a profit of $34.4 million in 1997/98 or earned total revenue of $115 million from locally-based residents and businesses. That conclusion can be drawn from the fact that the Cayman Islands government recently declared that it received $6,881,212 as a licensing fee from Cable & Wireless and that, under the agreement between the two parties, the government annually receives from the telecommunications carrier the greater of six per cent of total revenue or 20 per cent of net income.

Battle for control of American International Bank assets

November 30, 1998
A battle is taking place for control of the assets of American International Bank Ltd. of Antigua, which went into receivership earlier this year. The bank's demise happened after its principal, William Cooper, tried to set up a new bank called Overseas Development Bank Ltd. to buy AIB, said sources.

Swiss American Bank wins lawsuit brought by US government

November 30, 1998
The US government has lost its bid to recover $7 million from banks in Antigua, Panama and Switzerland that were the proceeds of marijuana smuggling carried out in Massachusetts. Judge William Young, of the Federal District Court for the District of Massachusetts in Boston, dismissed a lawsuit brought against Swiss American Bank and Swiss American National Bank (both of Antigua), Swiss American Holding Company S.A. of Panama and Inter-Maritime Bank of Geneva.

Marc Harris latest: Senior officers undergo lie detector tests

November 30, 1998
Information coming from Panama indicates that November has been yet another bad month for The Harris Organization. All the signs are that the offshore financial services group, which has been accused in this newsletter of running a Ponzi scheme and of massive insolvency, is about to go bust.

Lois Browne-Evans: A history of lawsuits

November 30, 1998
Bermuda's new Minister for Legislative Affairs, Lois Browne-Evans, has had plenty of experience as a defendant in civil lawsuits filed at Bermuda Supreme Court that may help her come to grips with her new portfolio.

John Deuss: The most powerful man in Bermuda?

November 30, 1998
Bermuda-based oil magnate John Deuss, 55, has lived a life that is remarkable even among the rich and famous. Since his first car dealership business went bust, he has outwitted the Soviets, broken an oil embargo in South Africa, had his home firebombed by anti-apartheid protesters and helped clinch the world's largest oil deal. In the process, the Dutchman has made billions of dollars. Now it appears to many that he has ‘bought' the new PLP government in Bermuda. Deuss paid off the mortgage on the party's headquarters a few years ago, appointed PLP leader and new Bermuda Premier Jennifer Smith as a director of his Bermuda bank and is widely thought to have spent at least $2 million financing the PLP's entire election campaign that culminated in the party winning power for the first time earlier this month. A reliable source also told us that, several months ago, Deuss began paying Smith $150,000 per year that is categorized as a ‘clothing allowance'. DAVID MARCHANT takes a look at his career and asks: ‘John Deuss - Hero or Villain?'.

Insider Talking: November 30, 1998

November 30, 1998
Apart from The Harris Organization of Panama, other financial services providers promoted by Florida-based attorney and offshore author Arnold Goldstein have less than distinguished records over recent years, OffshoreAlert can disclose; After responding to an advertisement in the International Herald Tribune that invited readers to call a Bahamas telephone number for details about obtaining an offshore banking licence without any qualifications, we were faxed details of various licences available; The Bahamas Government appears to have changed its mind about how it should privatize the Bahamas Telecommunications Corporation; The Securities Industry Bill, which will, inter alia, provide for the establishment of a Bahamas International Stock Exchange, was introduced to the House of Assembly this month; and the liquidators of First Cayman Bank try to collect $1 million from former Cayman government minister McKeeva Bush.

Lines Overseas Management salesman caught misleading potential clients

October 31, 1998
An investment officer with Lines Overseas Management (Cayman) Limited has been caught misleading potential clients about his credentials by claiming in promotional literature that he sits on the board of advisors of a Bermuda bank that does not exist, we can reveal. At the centre of the controversy is Scott Oliver, a Scotsman who describes himself as an 'offshore financial strategist' for LOM, working from the company's offices in Buckingham Square, West Bay Road, Grand Cayman.

Cayman Financial Brokerage House opens new HQ

October 31, 1998
The Cayman Financial Brokerage House recently officially opened its new headquarters at the Safe Haven Corporate Centre in Grand Cayman. CFBH is a full service brokerage firm offering trading in foreign exchange, futures, options, guaranteed funds and stocks.

James Dale Davidson and Agora Inc.: Sorting out fact from fiction

October 31, 1998
Investment adviser James Dale Davidson, an American businessman with extensive offshore interests who featured prominently in last month's expose of investment clubs run by Baltimore-based Agora Publishing, was taken aback recently when a subscriber to Agora's newsletter Strategic Investment posted the following message on its web-site: "I have been an eager reader of your insightful speculations about the world and its rapid devolution from nation-state boundaries. I am thus perplexed by the witless investment advice promoted as 'intelligence' within these hallowed halls of the privileged and elitely 'connected' 'sources'."

St. George’s Club timeshare firm sues Bermuda Commercial Bank

October 31, 1998
The St. George's Club Limited, which owns a timeshare resort in Bermuda, is seeking $14.8 million in a lawsuit filed last month against Bermuda Commercial Bank and International Trust Company of Bermuda Limited, which is a subsidiary of the bank.
Eugene Chusid

Antigua’s regulators fight to close down Caribbean Bank of Commerce Ltd.

October 31, 1998
The Caribbean Bank of Commerce Limited, which operates as an Internet bank and appears to have Russian connections, has won the latest battle in an attempt by Antiguan regulators to take away its banking licence and strike it off the Companies Register. But the authorities are continuing their fight to close down the bank, one of whose officers with a heavy Russian accent called the offices of Offshore Alert this month and told us that "you don't know who you're dealing with" after we had started making inquiries about their operations.

Former US regulators lend support to white-collar criminals in Antigua

October 31, 1998
A report that we have been told was paid for by powerful banker Allen Stanford and presented to the Antiguan government in January of this year as part of the review of Antigua's offshore financial services sector contained a recommendation that would have severely hindered efforts to combat rampant white-collar crime.

Antigua amends offshore laws in bid to curb white-collar crime

October 31, 1998
Following a 17-month review, the government of Antigua and Barbuda this month announced a series of legislative initiatives aimed at cleaning up the jurisdiction's reputation for being one of the most poorly regulated offshore financial centres. Proposed amendments to the International Business Corporation Act and the Money Laundering (Prevention) Act will create the Offshore Financial Sector Authority, which will have broad oversight and enforcement powers over offshore financial institutions.

Equity Management Group’s unhappy clients

September 30, 1998
Complaints from investors in several countries have been made against the Equity Management Group, a firm of stockbrokers based in the Bahamas. Several clients, including those from Spain, France, Switzerland and South Africa, have accused the company of misappropriating their funds, according to sources.

Details of Clarendon insurance group’s past shady dealings

September 30, 1998
An extract that mentions the Clarendon Insurance Group that appeared in the 'Failed Promises' report into the insurance industry that was published in the early 1990s by a US Congressional committee chaired by John Dingell.

BSX secures listing of another Cayman mutual fund – China Energy

September 30, 1998
The Bermuda Stock Exchange has approved the listing of up to 4.5 million voting common shares of the China Energy, Metal & Mining Fund - China Mining Sub Fund. The fund is incorporated in the Cayman Islands and is structured as a closed-ended umbrella fund. It is the latest in a long line of Cayman registered funds that have decided to list in Bermuda rather than their place of domicile.

Bermuda Insurance Index loses 22 per cent of value

September 30, 1998
The FTSE/BSX Bermuda Insurance Index, which was launched on July 15, 1998 with a value of 1,000 and broadly tracks the performance of the island's insurance market, had lost 22 per cent of its value by September 29, falling to 773.36. Such a large fall could indicate it might be an opportune time to buy into the Bermuda Insurance Index Fund Limited, which received approval this month to list up to 10 million non-voting common shares.

Arbitration farce forces Belvedere Insurance into liquidation

September 30, 1998
Belvedere Insurance Company Limited has gone into permanent liquidation after an arbitration hearing that could have saved the company turned into a fiasco. BICL had been pinning its hopes for survival on a favourable ruling on its claim for $9.6 million in underwriting and run-off fees against fellow Bermuda company GTE Reinsurance Company Limited. But the arbitration hearing on September 21, 1998 ended almost as soon as it began after panel chairman Sir Charles Staughton QC rejected BICL's choice of liquidator, Richard Grey.

Agora’s investment clubs – complaints galore

September 30, 1998
Fancy making an annual 100 per cent return on your investment with minimum risk? Or how about receiving immunity against cancer, diabetes and senility? It might sound too ridiculous for words - and of course it is - but people are actually falling for this promotional spiel put out by two private investment clubs run by Baltimore-based Agora Publishing, which has close business ties to Lines Overseas Management, a Bermuda-based financial services firm, and also Lord William Rees-Mogg, former editor of The Times newspaper of London.

Stirling Cooke share price roller-coaster

September 30, 1998
The share price of Stirling Cooke Brown Holdings has endured a roller-coaster ride on the NASDAQ stock exchange since our disturbing revelations about the company last month. Following our story, the share price quickly dropped to an all-time low of $11.125, which represented a 63 per cent drop in just five months and a fall of 49 per cent on its IPO price of $22 last November when the company was taken public by Goldman Sachs.

Cayman amendment to PCCL drops fiscal exemption clause

September 30, 1998
The Cayman Islands government has drawn up an amendment to its Proceeds of Criminal Conduct Law that removes the fiscal exemption clause that so irritated the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office. However, the proposed amended legislation would still appear to offer little in the way of comfort to foreign governments seeking information about, and the seizure of, assets held by suspected tax evaders.

Arbitrations: What public companies must disclose

September 30, 1998
Virtually every insurance or reinsurance contract written in Bermuda these days has a clause stating that claims disputes should be arbitrated, rather than litigated. The intention is to save money and time but a massive drawback for insurance and reinsurance buyers is that, unlike lawsuits, arbitrations are held in secret so you never know who the bad payers are or which companies have practices that border on the criminal.

Insider Talking: September 30, 1998

September 30, 1998
Receivers of the Florida Employers Safety Association Self-Insurers Fund sue David Sanz, share price of Stirling Cooke falls to new low on NASDAQ, Elite International Services offers dubious offshore products, Marc Harris on the move, prison inmate Ronald Williams apparently continues to rip people off during his day-release program, Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham puts both feet in his mouth during press conference for murder of foreign national.

Global Currency Trust shuts down

September 30, 1998
Global Currency Trust, which has claimed at various times to be based in Nevis and the Bahamas, although it may not be registered anywhere, appears to have closed for business, leaving behind at least one angry investor.

MRM takes battering on Yahoo! stock message board

August 31, 1998
Mutual Risk Management has been one of the best-performing stocks in any sector since it went public in June, 1991 but you wouldn't think so from the postings on a popular Internet message board run by Yahoo! and used by analysts, investors and others to 'discuss' the firm's stock.