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Caribbean islands target offshore gaming industry

August 28, 1997
Already home to many of the world's phone sex companies, the Dominican Republic has now firmly established itself as the domicile of choice for another controversial area of offshore business and one of the fastest-growing - gambling via ‘800' telephone numbers and over the internet.With annual licences running from $20,000 to $100,000, several Caribbean islands are looking to the sector as a lucrative revenue-earner.

UK reviews status of tax free citizens

August 28, 1997
British citizens living in Dependent Territories must wait and see whether a review of global British taxation affects their tax-free status.A high level spokesperson for the UK Treasury Department, who did not want to be named, said that "reviews of areas of tax avoidance" are currently underway at the Inland Revenue Service.

Over 100 BCCI-related lawsuits filed in Cayman, Crown Prince of Dubai among defendants

August 28, 1997
Lawyers acting for the liquidator of the Bank of Credit & Commerce International have swamped the Cayman court system by bringing over 100 lawsuits against people who borrowed money from the bank and foreign banks and insurers it did business with.A defendant in two of the actions brought at the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands is the Crown Prince of Dubai and the Minister of Defence for the United Arab Emirates, His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

Yugoslavia government sues Cayman bank

August 28, 1997
The Bank of New York's Cayman branch is being sued for allegedly failing to repay deposits placed by the Federal Directorate of Supply & Procurement in Yugoslavia and for allegedly transferring US$2.1 million to a blocked account on Wall Street without the client's permission.

F. Lee Bailey flies to Cayman to meet with Felderhof

August 28, 1997
Lawyer F. Lee Bailey, best-known for being part of OJ Simpson's ‘Dream Team' of defence attorneys, flew to the Cayman Islands recently and met with an attorney acting for John Felderhof, the disgraced former vice-president of Bre-X mining company.Andreas Kontrimas, a Houston-based lawyer for Felderhof, confirmed that Bailey and Toronto attorney Joe Groia, also a member of the Felderhof defence team, met recently in Cayman.

Cayman tax initiative – latest

August 28, 1997
Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the UK and Cayman Islands governments are still denying the existence of an initiative from London requesting that Cayman begin co-operating with tax investigations carried out by G7 countries, as was reported last month by Offshore Alert.The ‘does it or doesn't it exist' debate has reached almost farcical proportions, largely as a result of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in London refusing to discuss the subject in any depth and the Cayman government refusing to discuss the subject at all.

Existence of Cayman tax directive confirmed by Cayman sources

July 31, 1997
Offshore Alert can today confirm that the Cayman Islands Governor, John Owen, HAS received a directive from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London instructing the island to introduce legislation to assist foreign countries with tax investigations.Yesterday, we ran a story indicating that the directive existed but also quoting senior government and business sources as categorically stating that it did not.Today, after further investigations, Offshore Alert can clear up any confusion and confirm that FCO correspondence seeking co-operation on foreign tax investigations has indeed arrived in Cayman and its existence is well-known in the top echelons of power.

Cayman delegation meets with US officials

July 30, 1997
A series of recently-concluded talks between the US government and a Cayman government/private sector delegation that began last week in Washington have been termed "extremely beneficial" by Cayman governor John Owen, who headed the delegation.The meetings were designed to "continue to foster good relations with the US government" and to discuss problems of mutual interest, said Owen, who initiated the first series of talks last year.

UK tax initiative in Cayman

July 30, 1997
Does it exist or doesn't it? That was the question being asked in the Cayman Islands this month after widespread reports that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London sent a directive to Governor John Owen instructing Cayman to pass legislation opening up bank accounts for tax investigations carried out by the world's major countries.

Black and Cascio resign from Stockton Re

July 30, 1997
The ability of finite risk reinsurer Stockton Re to continue its impressive growth since it was formed three years ago is in question following the resignations last month of chief underwriters Richard Black and Michael Cascio, who effectively ran the insurance side of the company.Their departures followed differences with senior management over the future direction of the firm following the recent sale of its investment manager and sister company, Commodities Corporation, to Goldman Sachs.

Bermuda Fire & Marine insolvent by $1.4 billion

July 30, 1997
Bermuda Fire & Marine Insurance Company, which was stripped of over $40 million of assets two years before it went bust without Bermuda's regulators so much as batting an eyelid, is now estimated by its liquidators to be insolvent by an astonishing $1.4 billion. If the figures are accurate, Bermuda Fire would become not only by far the biggest insolvency in Bermuda's history but also one of the biggest insurance insolvencies anywhere in the world.

Bermuda jeweller ‘steals’ name of Caribbean jeweller

June 27, 1997
In an extraordinary move, a Bermuda jeweller has set up an operation in the name of a leading Caribbean jewellery chain in an apparent bid to disrupt the chain's attempt to muscle in on its territory.The action by HS & JE Crisson Limited is likely to lead to a complicated dispute with Bahamas-based Colombian Emeralds International, which had not trademarked its name in Bermuda.

Bank of Butterfield takes on dubious business

June 26, 1997
Butterfield Securities Ltd., a subsidiary of the Bermuda-based Bank of N. T. Butterfield & Son, has replaced London firm Teather & Greenwold as the stock-broking advisors to Mackie International, the Belfast-based textile engineering company, following Mackie's decision to suspend its shares in April when the company said it may have to restate its accounts, reported the Financial Times.

Cayman trust company caught up in money laundering case

June 26, 1997
AMEX International Trust (Cayman) Limited and Cayman International Trust Company Limited were innocently used to launder the proceeds of cocaine trafficking from Mexico to the US in the early 1990s, it has been alleged in a Texas court case. Jose Jesus Echegollen and Guillermina Chavez are accused of using a string of Cayman companies to help launder $30 million in cocaine proceeds which were transferred to Cayman from banks in the US and Mexico.

Cayman passes mutual legal assistance law for drug-related offences

June 26, 1997
The Cayman Islands has introduced another piece of anti-money laundering legislation with the passage this month of the Misuse of Drugs (International Co-operation) Law 1997, which allows foreign countries to apply for legal assistance when investigating drug-related offences.

Deloitte & Touche attacked over bid to increase liquidation fees

June 26, 1997
Investors in a failed Cayman-registered mutual fund have criticized the fund's liquidators, Deloitte & Touche, for going behind their backs in applying for a large increase in their liquidation fees. A group of about 20 shareholders of The Global Opportunity Fund, who claim to have lost more than $40 million in the fund, have accused the accounting firm of greed and underhandedness.

Cayman authorities catch Canadian con men

June 26, 1997
A would-be con artist from Ontario, Canada, received a 15 month prison sentence on June 9 after attempting to pass bogus cheques worth CDN$943,485 to fund an offshore company he tried to set up.Denis Rene Desjardins, 57, told the court he owed CDN$230,000 in his native Toronto and was facing bankruptcy when he arrived in Cayman in May.

New US law hits offshore funds

May 28, 1997
The offshore mutual fund industry has been dealt a potentially significant blow by changes to US tax laws proposed in the 1997 US budget.

European Commission could target tax havens

May 28, 1997
Action is being finalized by the taxation policy group of the European Commission that could have serious implications for European-based tax havens, according to a report published on May 25 in Sunday Business, a UK-based newspaper.

Werner Rey hearing postponed

May 28, 1997
The Bahamas Appeal Court has postponed a hearing into the appeal by Swiss businessman Werner Rey against his extradition to Switzerland. Proceedings had been scheduled to begin on May 26.Rey is appealing a Bahamas Supreme Court decision in April to extradite him to his homeland, where he is wanted on charges of fraud, forgery and bankruptcy offences in connection with the Omni group, which collapsed in 1991 with losses exceeding SwFr1 billion.

Bahamas ditches Taiwan for China

May 28, 1997
The future of Taiwan's economic link with the Bahamas has been jeopardized after the Bahamas broke its eight-year diplomatic relationship with Taiwan in favour of China, the Nassau Guardian reported.The policy shift followed the opening of an $80 million container port in Freeport, in which Hutchison Port Property, a subsidiary of Anglo/Sino firm Hutchison Whampoa, has a 50 per cent stake, reported the Guardian.
jerry-nims-nimstec

NimsTec’s appalling track record

May 28, 1997
Investors thinking of buying into high-tech firm NimsTec, which last month became the latest company to list on the Bermuda Stock Exchange, may want to look closely at the track record of its technology and its senior management before parting with their funds. Bermuda-based NimsTec, which manufactures and markets 3-D products, including cameras, has raised $3 million so far from investors in Bermuda, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Investors include Deloitte & Touche (Bermuda) partners Bill Jack and Roger Titterton, who have invested $40,000 between them. The company bears striking similarities to a company called Nimslo, which lost investors in the US, the UK and Bermuda tens of millions of dollars over the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s with the same technology now owned by NimsTec.

Kruger loses Cayman extradition battle as another fugitive, John Felderhof, arrives

May 28, 1997
As one millionaire fugitive was finally forced to leave his paradise island hiding place to face the music back home, another took his place to cause further embarrassment to the Cayman Islands.Swiss businessman Peter Kruger gave up a 16 month battle to escape justice by leaving the Cayman Islands on May 15 to return to Switzerland to face charges of bankruptcy fraud involving nearly US$272 million.But his place in the public eye has already been taken by John Felderhof, the former chief geologist of Bre-X Minerals, a would-be mining firm that defrauded investors of about $4 billion through false claims of gold finds in Indonesia.

Money launderer convicted in Cayman

May 28, 1997
In a case that has triggered investigations on both sides of the US-Canadian border, Pietro Paolo Codispoti, of Montreal, was convicted in the Cayman Islands on May 22 of three counts of money laundering.

Centre Re facing legal action over Anglo American

May 28, 1997
Bermuda-based Centre Reinsurance Holdings is facing legal action following the recent provisional liquidation of UK firm Anglo American Insurance Company, which Centre Re both owned and reinsured.Inside Bermuda has been told that creditors are going to sue Centre Re, alleging that Centre Re and its parent, Swiss-based Zurich Insurance Company, have misled Anglo creditors and acted in its own interests to the detriment of creditors through a series of actions since 1992.

John Tugwell takes over as Bank of Butterfield CEO

April 27, 1997
The Bank of N. T. Butterfield & Son Ltd., which is headquartered in Bermuda and has regional offices in several overseas jurisdictions, including a large presence in the Cayman Islands, has appointed John Tugwell as president and chief executive officer, effective May 5.

North American Fidelity & Guarantee – a Bermuda tragedy

April 27, 1997
A British television programme claiming that a "mysterious Irishman" called Steven Baker was being sought in connection with the worldwide insurance fraud that goes by the name of Dai Ichi Kyoto Re caused a lot of interest in Bermuda. One of Dai Ichi's sister companies, North American Fidelity & Guarantee, had a brief but extremely profitable and very fraudulent one-year trading spell in Bermuda in 1992/1993. The company began life as a shelf company set up in October, 1989, by ambitious Bermuda lawyer Lynda Milligan-Whyte.

More details on new law to protect Bermuda officers and directors from complaints of negligence

April 27, 1997
Last month's story about amendments to The Companies Act in Bermuda that effectively severely hinders the ability of creditors and disgruntled shareholders to sue auditors, officers and directors for acts of negligence caused uproar on the island among those who penned the law.John Campbell, a senior lawyer in Bermuda, was quoted in an article in The Royal Gazette daily newspaper as saying: "The whole article is so far wide of the mark that it would be a pointless exercise to dignify it with a response.

Bahamas telecommunications nightmare

April 27, 1997
Featrure on State of Bahamas Telecommunications IndustryIf you like hissing noises, line echoes, unreadable faxes, disconnected conversations and high rates, the Bahamas is the place for you.E-mail has been known to take three days to arrive, telephone lines can take several months to be installed and you may well be restricted in the number of lines you can have, even in the business centre of New Providence.

Start date set for Bermuda Fire & Marine trial

April 27, 1997
A trial date has finally been set for what will be one of the most eagerly-awaited business-related civil trials in the history of Bermuda.Bermuda Supreme Court has provisionally set aside a date in the spring of 1998 to begin hearing allegations that some of the island's most influential businessmen stripped Bermuda Fire & Marine Insurance of assets valued at over $40 million even though they allegedly knew the firm was insolvent.

Compensation review of officers of publicly-listed insurers based in Bermuda

April 27, 1997
Brian O' Hara, chairman and chief executive officer of both excess liability carrier Exel Ltd. and its main operating subsidiary X. L., was by far the best paid officer in 1996 of all the executives of Bermuda-based insurers that are publicly-listed in the United States, according to a salaries survey conducted by Offshore Business News & Research.The review shows that O'Hara took home a financial package worth $5.52 million for fiscal 1996, more than $2 million greater than the next highest-paid officer, Michael Butt, president and CEO of property catastrophe reinsurer Mid Ocean Ltd.

John W. Henry sues Bank of Bermuda

April 27, 1997
Companies associated with John W. Henry, a futures fund manager with $1.9 billion under management, according to its own figures, is suing its former business partner, the Bank of Bermuda, for $300,000 at Bermuda Supreme Court.

Bermuda gains telecommunications edge over offshore rivals

April 27, 1997
Bermuda has gained a significant competitive edge over rival offshore domiciles in the Caribbean by ending the telecommunications monopoly of Cable & Wireless and introducing a second long-distance carrier.International rates from Bermuda were already the lowest of rivals such as the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas and Barbados, according to a survey conducted by Offshore Business News & Research, which publishes Offshore Alert.But, since Bermuda's government granted a second international licence in January to TeleBermuda International - which has yet to begin offering a service, Cable & Wireless has answered the threat of competition by lowering rates to many countries, some by almost a third.

State of Telecommunications Industry in Bermuda

April 27, 1997
Telephone and fax rates in Bermuda, already the lowest of its rival offshore domiciles in the Caribbean, are set to come down even further now that government has introduced competition for both local and overseas services.UK-based Cable & Wireless has long held a monopoly on overseas telephone voice calls and the locally-owned Bermuda Telephone Company (Telco) has had a monopoly on local calls.But TeleBermuda International, which is backed by Canadian interests, was in January of this year given a licence to compete with C&W for overseas calls and local businessman Ken DeFontes has been granted a licence to compete with Telco.

State of Cayman’s Telecommunications Industry

April 27, 1997
It is unclear whether the upheaval in Bermuda's telecommunications industry will have any effect on monopolies Cable & Wireless has in the Cayman Islands and other Caribbean countries.Cayman is Bermuda's greatest offshore competitor and its government may not want to fall further behind Bermuda in the area of telecommunications.Bermuda's peak rate of $1.10 per minute to the key countries of the U. S. and Canada is 66 per cent cheaper than the US$1.70 rate in Cayman and Bermuda's peak rate of $1.45 per minute to the U. K. is 43 per cent cheaper than Cayman's rate of US$2.07.

Great Quotes of Our Time

April 27, 1997
Reactions from various members of the offshore business community following the publication of the first ever edition of OffshoreAlert.

NimsTec shares list on BSX

April 27, 1997
NimsTec Limited, a hi-tech firm which produces 3-D cameras and printers for the medical and photographic industries, has begun listing its ordinary shares on the Bermuda Stock Exchange, where they will be traded in minimum blocks of $100,000.

Peter Kruger gives up extradition fight in Cayman

March 24, 1997
Swiss national Peter Kruger, who is wanted in Switzerland on charges of filing a false bankruptcy of US$270 million, has given up his long fight against extradition from the Cayman Islands and has said he will voluntarily return to his homeland in the "very near future".

Bermuda’s officers and directors given ‘licence for incompetence’

March 24, 1997
Bermuda's lawyers, a firm of whom recently charged a client $400 for obtaining a $5 copy of someone's will, have surpassed themselves in the area self-preservation through the passage of amendments to The Companies Act 1981.Following the introduction of The Companies Amendment Act 1996, which became law last year, it has become more difficult, if not impossible, for creditors of failed Bermuda-registered companies to sue those who are partly responsible for the failures.

Lynden Pindling quits politics

March 24, 1997
Sir Lynden Pindling has announced he is stepping down as leader of the opposition Progressive Liberal Party after 32 years, including 25 as Prime Minister, and is also quitting politics following his party's comprehensive defeat in the Bahamas General Election on March 14.Pindling was one of only six PLP MPs to keep hold of their seats as Hubert Ingraham's Free National Movement party won a record 34 of the 40 seats available. The PLP will meet soon to elect a replacement.

Why I was thrown out of Bermuda – by journalist David Marchant

March 24, 1997
Since Offshore Business News & Research was formed in November, 1996, several clients have asked why the company is based in Miami and not in one of the offshore domiciles it covers, such as Bermuda, the Bahamas or the Cayman Islands. The reason is that OBNR's founder has already been thrown off one island for writing investigative articles about powerful people and there is little doubt in his mind that he would be thrown off others for publishing similar stories. Such a scenario is not a consideration in the United States, where there is genuine freedom of the press and that is why OBNR is located in Miami, which also happens to be a gateway to the Caribbean. Below, Mr. Marchant goes into the circumstances of his forced removal from Bermuda, where he lived and worked from 1990 to 1996. He believes that what happened to him illustrates that, while Bermuda is generally a sophisticated society, occasionally it lives up to the ‘tinpot island' image that it has tried so hard and successfully in recent years to overcome.

David Saul quits as Bermuda’s premier

March 24, 1997
Bermuda was in shock last week following the sudden resignation of David Saul as Premier after just 19 months in office.Saul caught everyone by surprise by giving only a week's notice that he was stepping down as leader and announcing that he was also quitting as an MP a few days after that.His resignation has caused concern among international businessmen, who fear a leadership battle could affect the economy.

Kruger faces second extradition warrant

March 24, 1997
Swiss national Peter M. Kruger, who cost Credit Suisse, Swiss Bank and others millions of dollars, has been re-arrested in the Cayman Islands on an extradition warrant from Switzerland just six months after his original extradition arrest had been thrown out by the Cayman courts.

Interamerican Asset Management Fund allegedly used in multi-million dollar fraud

March 16, 1997
A Bahamas-based mutual fund was used by one of Ecuador's best-known business families to defraud investors and the Central Bank of Ecuador out of approximately $160 million, it has been claimed.And the scandal has extended to the United States where the Federal Reserve Board has taken steps to safeguard the financial position of the Pan American Bank, in Miami.Both the Bahamian mutual fund - the Interamerican Asset Management Fund Limited - and the Pan American Bank were set up by the powerful Ortega family of Ecuador.

Hearing to decertify Cayman MLA Linford Pierson is adjourned

March 10, 1997
The hearing to decertify the November 1996 election of Cayman Island Member of Parliament Linford Pierson was today adjourned until April by Grand Court Justice George Harre to allow Pierson to take his place at the opening 1997 session of parliament.