Guardian Bank & Trust

A civil lawsuit filed by Leon Denning against his former Cayman Islands-based banker, John Mathewson, has been moved from Denning's home state of Illinois to Texas, where Mathewson resides.

A man who is under criminal indictment in the United States for alleged money laundering and fraud is no longer involved with Nevis-based Guardian Trust Company, said the firm's manager, Jessica Huggins. Even though one of Guardian's web-sites is still registered to Baron D. Abboud, of Omaha, Nebraska, Huggins said: "He no longer has anything to do with the company."

Former banker John Mathewson claims that a member of the Cayman Islands government once asked him for a pay-off of $250,000, plus shares in an offshore bank that Mathewson controlled. Mathewson, who owned and managed the now defunct Cayman-registered Guardian Bank & Trust, made the allegation on the first of three days of United States Senate hearings into money laundering.

In February, Offshore Alert reported about stock manipulation allegations involving Bermuda Stock Exchange-listed Mezzanine Capital; Viktor Kozeny, the 'Pirate of Prague' who allegedly defrauded his countrymen in the former Czechoslovakia of tens of millions of dollars before fleeing, buying an Irish passport and going to live in the Bahamas, has apparently fallen out with the Grenada government, according to Grenada Today newspaper; A letter to the editor that was published in the Caymanian Compass newspaper on August 20, 1999 caused rum amusement in knowledgeable law enforcement circles; and In the ten days after we posted the Harris Organization/OBNR libel judgment on our web-site, 638 people had downloaded the entire 17 pages, making it the most popular document on the 'Free Documents' section of our web-site.

Eight defendants in a criminal indictment filed in Nebraska recently appear to be the latest victims of former Cayman banker John Mathewson's decision to help US authorities investigate his ex-clients.David Abboud, his brother Gene, son Baron and nephew Joseph, Susan Germer, United Imports Corp. (d.b.a. M. D. Electronics), G&A Distributing Inc. (d.b.a. Broadway Enterprises) and Infinite Electronics were charged on April 26, 1999 with 15 counts of Mail Fraud, 11 counts of Wire Fraud, seven counts of Unauthorized Reception of Cable Television Service, one count of Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering, and 13 counts of Domestic Money Laundering.

Global Village Market and the World Investors' Stock Exchange, Global Prosperity Group charges attendees $17,000 each for its get-rich-quick conferences, John Mathewson and the FBI, Cayman bank officer lived in home owned by client, says source; Harris Organization tries to subscribe to Offshore Alert, journalists seek information on Michael Ashcroft, Harris Organization officer Alan McAloon professes ignorance over Florida property ownership.

Former Cayman banker John Mathewson's sentencing hearing for helping to launder the proceeds of crime has been delayed yet again. Mathewson was due to be sentenced on April 30 by a court in New Jersey in the US but the matter was adjourned until later in the year; If figures compiled by The Wall Street Journal are to be relied upon for accuracy, the Cayman Islands is not the world's fifth largest financial center, as it claims, but is actually the eighth largest; Six months after US$9 million of its assets were frozen in British Columbia as part of an investigation into fraudulent trading, the Cayman-based broker/dealer Harris McLean Financial Group has filed a lawsuit in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands against one of its principals, Richard Harris, and his mother, Ana Harris; and Those of you who have been following our articles on The Harris Organization of Panama might like to read a three-page article on the subject that appeared in the June 1 edition of Business Week.

The liquidator of Cayman-based Guardian Bank & Trust (in liquidation) has lost a petition he filed against the US government for the return of a computer tape containing details of accounts held at the bank.John Mathewson, the former chairman of the bank, handed over the tape to the FBI in June, 1996, as part of a plea bargain agreement after he was charged with money laundering offences in New Jersey.