Jennifer Smith

Fixed Date Claim Form in Jennifer Smith v. The Licensing Magistrate at the British Virgin Islands High Court.

New evidence uncovered by OffshoreAlert indicates that the recently-suspended Axiom Legal Financing Fund is hopelessly insolvent as a result of self-dealing and fraud by insiders. The Cayman Islands-domiciled Fund, which has raised more than £117 million, appears to be a Ponzi scheme.

One of the key promises made by the Progressive Labour Party in the 1998 General Election campaign was that, if elected, it would bring transparency to government.Thirty-five years of United Bermuda Party government had been characterised, in the minds of many, by secrecy and a lack of openness. The vow to provide transparent and accountable government struck a chord with the electorate.

The “debate” over whether Bermuda should go independent has always been a waste of time, but now it has descended into farce. If the possible financial ruin of a successful country could ever be said to be funny, what's going on here would be hilarious.

Starved as we are for entertainment in Bermuda, the 2003 General Election has been the greatest show on earth. Even those who thought the Progressive Labour Party would be unable to manage the economy believed that they could at least manage themselves. How wrong we were.

A political situation is building in Bermuda that could lead to the collapse of the ruling Progressive Labour Party before its first term of office is fulfilled. The party's backbench, routinely ignored when important decisions are being made, has openly

One Thursday evening late in February, just about everyone in Bermuda sat glued to his or her TV set as Premier Jennifer Smith gave "an address to the nation". Bermuda is not a nation, of course, but our leader has never been one to diminish the scope of her own importance.

The wave of euphoria that Progressive Labour Party Premier Jennifer Smith and her followers rode back in 1998 has all but dashed itself against the shore.Since those heady days, Government has delivered on all, or none, of the promises it made back then, depending on your point of view.

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?'.

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.