Trinidad & Tobago

Police investigating money laundering and drug trafficking have raided the offices of a Costa Rica-based money exchange operated by Luis Enrique Villalobos.The action has led to financial uncertainty for hundreds of foreigners who have collectively invested millions of dollars in a long-running high yield investment scheme operated by Villalobos and his brother, Oswaldo, who are known locally as 'The Brothers'.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Trinidad and Tobago regarding alleged corruption involving the Piarco International Airport Construction Contract.

The Cayman Islands government has filed a US$6 million lawsuit against Caribbean Home Insurance Company for alleged non-payment of 44,699 claims.The action, which was filed at the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands on June 15, 2001, also accuses the insurer of unilaterally trying to vary the terms of the government's Group Insurance Policy.

The First International Bank of Grenada loaned $30,000 to the wife of Grenada's then chief regulator, Michael Creft, so that she could buy a car and another $50,000 to the then President of the Grenada Bar Association, Reynold Benjamin, according to a document sent to OffshoreAlert; Dean Cantrell and Marcel Deinnet snap up domains in names of countries in the Bermuda-Caribbean region, fraud complaint filed against 'offshore banker' Douglas Castle, 72-year-old convicted fraudster is back in business, SEC continues trend of failing to menaingfully punish accused fraudsters, First Ecom.com Inc. acquires half of First Ecommerce Data Services Ltd. that it did not already own, Antigua gaming outfit World Sports Exchange Ltd. sues County Savings Association over three checks that allegedly bounced, First American International Bank becomes latest offshore bank to be operated in Nevis without a license by Global Dominion Financial Services, and Latvia-based Paritate Bank appears to be in financial trouble.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Trinidad & Tobago for Judicial Assistance into an allegedly fraudulent request to transfer US$373,000 from an account controlled by the Ministry of Education Secondary Modernization Programme at the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago to an account in the name of Resource Pioneer in Education (RESPECT) at Wells Fargo Bank in Reno, Nevada.

The much-vaunted publication of a tax haven 'hit list' by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has been put off for at least a year. The OECD had planned to name those territories deemed to engage in "harmful tax practices" in June of this year, after which the 29 OECD member countries would seek to punish those on the list by introducing "defensive measures".

Questions and Answers with Rhonda Kelly, the Public Relations Manager for Cable & Wireless' regional headquarters in the Cayman Islands, about C&W's telecommunications service in the Bermuda-Caribbean region.

The Caribbean Hotel Association Insurance Company Ltd., which hit financial trouble soon after it started, has stopped writing new business after just two and a half years in business. The news comes after many member countries of the Caribbean Hotel Association, for whom the company was specifically set up to insure, failed to put their money where their mouths were and buy insurance from CHAIC.