Alden McLaughlin

As someone who was thrown out of Bermuda in 1996 for no reason other than being an investigative journalist, I'm well aware of how sensitive small countries are to criticism.  Their economies are fragile and you're expected to be part

Writ of Summons in Alden McLaughlin v. W. McKeeva Bush at the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands.

Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau has blamed one of his favorite punching bags - the Cayman Islands - for contributing to the economic meltdown in the United States.The 89-year-old, legendary prosecutor's latest missive about Cayman comprised an editorial headlined "Too Much Money Is Beyond Legal Reach, New York-based funds are abusing 'secrecy jurisdictions'" that was published by The Wall Street Journal on September 30, 2008.

The recent collapse in suspicious circumstances of four investment funds in the Cayman Islands which were established by one of the island's leading local businessmen - Naul Bodden - highlights the absurd level of secrecy that exists in all offshore financial centers that are currently or formerly UK Overseas Territories and, for that matter, the UK itself; Meanwhile, as one of Cayman's worst local company collapses was unfolding, a much-accomplished regulator who would have inspired confidence among the international community that the liquidations would be handled properly, Tim Ridley, was being replaced, effective July 27, 2008, as Chairman of the supposedly-independent Cayman Islands Monetary Authority by Carlyle McLaughlin, who is a cousin of Alden McLaughlin, a senior member of the Cayman Islands Government; Continuing on a Cayman theme, OffshoreAlert noticed that a US-based entrepreneur, Uthman Villanueva, using a business name of 'Golden Crest Consulting' a 'hotmail' email address and a PO Box mailing address in New York, NY, registered the domain name 'uglandhouse.com' as recently as June 28, 2008 - just a few weeks before the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation was due to hold a hearing into tax avoidance and evasion in offshore financial centers; and Three founders of a fraudulent, offshore-focused outfit that was known first as the Global Prosperity Group and later as the Institute of Global Prosperity, received prison-terms for tax crimes at federal court in the USA on July 28, 2008.