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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.

PaineWebber fires broker, closes offshore brokerage accounts

August 31, 1998
PaineWebber this month fired long-serving broker Terry Cross and terminated its relationship with Bahamas-based financial and corporate services company International Trade & Investments Limited over fears of becoming implicated in a possible tax evasion scandal. PaineWebber took this aggressive action after being tipped off that Cross, who worked at its San Francisco office, had allegedly promoted tax evasion during a speech he gave at an offshore seminar held two months ago in Nassau by ITI.

Bermuda’s Minister of Tourism loses $2 million legal decision in US

August 31, 1998
Bermuda hotelier David Dodwell, who is also the island's Minister of Tourism, has lost a legal decision in the US which may cost him $2 million personally and which also has jurisdictional implications for all offshore businessmen. On August 4, 1998, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reinstated a $2 million default judgment against Dodwell that had previously been granted in favour of plaintiff Lee N. Koehler and then quashed by a lower court in Maryland.

Reports implicate Stirling Cooke in fraudulent insurance schemes

August 31, 1998
Two reports into Stirling Cooke Brown that were compiled two years ago by a London firm of insurance investigators on behalf of a client gives an interesting insight into the history of the Bermuda-based insurance broker, particularly allegations that the company was involved in a reinsurance spiral. The alleged spiral that we have been told has dragged Stirling Cooke and the Clarendon group into arbitrations in London at least partly involves North American Fidelity & Guarantee and Stockholm Re (Bermuda).

BVI government discusses its all-crimes legislation

August 31, 1998
The British Virgin Islands government has denied that its Proceeds of Criminal Conduct Law is 'defective' by UK standards, even though it agrees that its legislation provides no assistance for foreign investigations into tax offences. Since the UK has already described the all-crimes laws of Bermuda and Cayman as defective for similar reasons, there would seem to be little doubt that the BVI's law is considered in a similar light by the UK, which has also been confirmed to us by an independent source.

Lawsuits brought against Clarendon, Martin Hoffman and Eton Management

August 31, 1998
Further allegations of wrongdoing against entities involving Clarendon Insurance Group Managing General Agent Martin Hoffman and Clarendon itself are contained in two US lawsuits currently awaiting trial. Both actions were filed at the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York by the administrators of Qualis Care L. P., which is currently in bankruptcy.

Insider Talking: August 31, 1998

August 31, 1998
We devote a large portion of this month's Insider Talking to Lines Overseas Management, which is based in Bermuda and also has offices in the Cayman Islands and Guernsey, including a letter from one of the company's Cayman-based financial advisors that makes inaccurate claims and promotes illegal activity; We end this segment on LOM by revealing the contents of a letter written this month to a potential US client by Joe P. Montgomery, a financial advisor with LOM (Cayman), whose services as advertised by Montgomery would appear to be a money launderer's dream; The frequency with which Robert Pires, owner of stock broker/financial adviser Bermuda Investment Advisory Services, and members of his staff fall out, leading to staff departures, continues to occur at an alarming rate; We have reported in the past about John Deuss' courting of the Progressive Labour Party in the run up to this year's General Election; a relationship that has involved wining and dining PLP leader Jennifer Smith on his luxury schooner and paying off the mortgage of the PLP's party headquarters; The first of two lawsuits that are being brought against Cayman Minister of Land John McLean is due to be filed at the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands during September, not August, as we had previously expected; and The government of Nevis narrowly failed to take the island independent in a referendum held on August 10.

Cops 0, Robbers (Alleged) 1

August 31, 1998
The first real test of Cayman's anti-money laundering Proceeds of Criminal Conduct Law 1996 has ended in victory for the alleged money launderers and defeat for the US government - all because the US authorities were a day late in meeting a key filing deadline. Although not agreeing with his interpretation of at least two key points of the PCCL, Cayman's Court of Appeal nevertheless upheld a decision by former Chief Justice George Harre to discharge a restraint order freezing $7 million in three accounts at the Royal Bank of Canada that were controlled by Americans William J. McCorkle and his wife, Chantal.

Ultimatum for bankrupt who hid assets offshore

August 31, 1998
A former high-flying Wall Street options trader who fell on hard times has been given a difficult choice by a Miami bankruptcy judge: either hand over the estimated $7 million that he placed in an offshore trust to avoid paying his debts or never have his $20 million bankruptcy discharged. This novel approach to combating debtors who hide their money offshore rather to avoid paying their debts was adopted by Judge Thomas A. Utschig.

Marc Harris latest: Liquidity crisis deepens, another client goes to prison

August 31, 1998
More information has come our way this month that sheds further light on the current and past turmoil of The Harris Organization of Panama, including details of liquidity problems, the conviction of another one of its clients on a drug trafficking charge and allegations of 'bounty hunting' against two of the group's officers. The financial services group, which we have previously reported as being insolvent, running a Ponzi scheme, ripping off clients and laundering the proceeds of crime, seems to be in financial trouble.

Bermuda Fire & Marine liquidators rejected $10-$15 m offer to settle lawsuit

July 31, 1998
Defendants in a fraud lawsuit involving Bermuda Fire & Marine Insurance Company made an offer last year of between $10 million and $15 million to settle the case, OffshoreAlert can reveal. However, Bermuda Fire's liquidators, Ernst & Young, rejected the offer on the grounds that it fell substantially short of what was acceptable, said a source whose company is owed money by Bermuda Fire.

Bermuda should not become haven for tax crimes, says Financial Secretary

July 31, 1998
Bermuda should not develop the reputation of a haven for those wishing to "hide the proceeds of tax crimes", the Ministry of Finance's Financial Secretary told the Money Laundering and Cybercrime Control conference that was held on the island this month. Addressing a proposed amendment to Bermuda's Proceeds of Crime Law to incorporate tax offences committed in foreign countries, Peter Hardy said Bermuda faced a "dilemma".

Court rejects Price Waterhouse bill of $76 m for 63 days of liquidation work

July 31, 1998
A Hong Kong judge has hit out at the provisional liquidators of the Bermuda-registered Peregrine Group after they and their legal advisers charged fees of $76 million for just 63 days of work. Doreen Le Pichon, Judge of the Court of First Instance High Court, said she was "greatly troubled by the amount involved" and refused to accept the charges of accounting firm Price Waterhouse and its legal advisers unless they could prove the work was reasonable and necessary.

US freezes $3.2 m at Stanford International Bank

July 31, 1998
U. S. authorities have frozen nearly $3.2 million in accounts at Antigua-based Stanford International Bank, as part of an investigation into the illicit fortune of the late Mexican drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes, reported The Wall Street Journal.