Mark Agombar

Search the Internet for 'Caledonian Offshore Ltd.' and you will receive a plethora of hits for web-sites containing allegations that the firm engages in wholesale illegal activity, specifically that it takes money from residents of third-world countries on the false promise that they will be offered jobs in the offshore oil industry; Tthere is still no sign of the US Postal Service taking any action against another up-front-cash-for-non-existent-jobs fraudster - Rommy Kriplani, a few years after OffshoreAlert handed them more than enough evidence to bring a prosecution for mail fraud; Ten months after the closure of Canada-based OFC Publications Inc., which published Offshore Finance Canada and Offshore Finance USA magazines, another publisher of news about offshore financial centers and issues that affect them has closed down; The Financial Services Authority in the United Kingdom has refused an application for 'permission to carry on regulated activities' by Target Asset Management Limited, whose links with accused fraudster Sendjer Shefket were first revealed by OffshoreAlert on June 30, 2003; The Office of the Public Prosecutor of the Second Circuit in Panama has allowed a request from former employees of the now-defunct Harris Organization to freeze US$800,000 of its assets on the grounds that they were fired illegally, according to a report in El Panama America newspaper on December 27, 2004; Bermuda hotelier and former Minister of Tourism David Dodwell has settled litigation with a former business partner that lasted more than 12 years, spanned courts in three countries and was notable for its acrimony; British solicitor Mark Agombar, who was banned as a company director for six years in the United Kingdom last year for his part in a timeshare scam, was named as a defendant in a civil complaint filed by Johnston International Limited at the Turks & Caicos Islands Supreme Court on April 30, 2004; and The Securities Commission of the Bahamas announced on November 16, 2004 that it was "monitoring" a criminal investigation in Switzerland into suspected investment fraud and money laundering by Dieter Behring and "assessing any possible connections Mr. Behring may have with existing licensees or registrants of the Commission.

How absurd has the criminal case in Texas involving Bahamas resident Yank Barry become?; A recent land-mark opinion by the United States Supreme Court that effectively determined federal sentencing guidelines were unconstitutional has formed the basis of an appeal by jailed former offshore services provider Marc Harris against his sentence of 17 years in prison and a financial penalty of $26 million for fraud, money laundering and tax evasion; The Central Bank of Belize has warned that an entity calling itself 'Development & Holding Bank of Belize' is not licensed; In July, the Bermuda Monetary Authority also issued warnings about suspect or bogus companies claiming to have ties to the jurisdiction; The United States FBI is establishing an office in the Bahamas, reported the Nassau Guardian; On July 19, 2004, a United States podiatrist admitted to using an offshore bank and credit card account to launder money and evade New York City state and federal taxes on more than $300,000 in income, according to a press release from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, which prosecuted the case at the state Supreme Court; Germain Bourgeois, the former investment manager of the University of Montreal Pension Plan, is suspected of receiving payments in return for "convincing" three parties to invest "hundreds of millions of dollars" in the Lancer Offshore group of funds; and A civil lawsuit has been filed at the Turks & Caicos Islands Supreme Court against a solicitor who was recently disqualified from serving as a company director in the U. K. by the Department of Trade & Industry for his part in a timeshare scam.