Michel Harajchi

The web-sites of two companies whose dubious activities have been highlighted in recent editions of OffshoreAlert have been dismantled over the last few weeks; On February 12, 2007, OffshoreAlert received an email from Kristen Lawson, a “Legislative Advisor” with Miller Thomson LLP, a law firm based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Telecommunications and cable television firms in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands have been dragged into a long-running legal dispute over the ownership of a $900,000 airplane that was damaged in Hurricane Ivan; Under Prime Minister Keith Mitchell, Grenada has become the poster country for corruption and banking fraud; OffshoreAlert recently learned that U. S. Bank N.A. obtained a default judgment for $21 million against British-based alleged fraudster Sendjer Shefket and his British firm Target International Funds Ltd. at federal court in the USA on May 24, 2006; Convicted white-collar criminals who believe they are punished too severely in the United States should be thankful they don't operate in China; and While the U. S. legal system does not yet offer death as a punishment for fraudsters, it is still less than hospitable for convicted white-collar criminals, as Martin A. Armstrong can attest to.

A Bahamas-based business operated by Mohamad Harajchi and his son, Michel Harajchi, that was exposed in the October 31, 2006 edition of OffshoreAlert has stopped accepting new business; Andreas Ihrke has agreed to be extradited from the United States to Germany, where he has been charged with fraud and falsification of documents; British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported on December 23 that the U. K. Government “is set to announce within weeks an amnesty scheme for tax evaders who have stashed money in offshore bank accounts"; OffshoreAlert has uncovered a securities fraud complaint that was filed - and later dismissed - at the U. S. District Court for the District of Nevada in 2003 against a company that has featured prominently in the newsletter in recent months, Bermuda-based River Capital Limited; A Costa Rica-based brokerage firm has reached a settlement with the British Columbia Securities Commission after admitting to unregistered trading to B. C. residents; and Bancafe International Bank Ltd., which is the fifth largest unsecured creditors of bankrupt commodities broker Refco, with a claim for $204 million, had its operations closed by the Central Bank of Barbados, effective October 23, 2006.

Iranian businessman Mohamad Harajchi and his son, Michel, whose family's scandal plagued offshore bank was closed down by Bahamas regulators in 2001, are back in the financial services business, OffshoreAlert can disclose.They are involved with a Bahamas based business called

The cold reality of life behind bars has persuaded former offshore banker Paul Morgan Jones to start turning over his assets to the Receiver of Cash 4 Titles, which perpetrated one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in history, operating from

Judgment in Derek Guise Turner v. Mohamad Harajchi, Eden Holdings Enterprises Ltd., Christopher Lunn, Michel Harajchi, Wendell Ferguson, Sonia Harajchi, and Derek Ryan at Bahamas Supreme Court.

Suisse Security Bank and Trust Company Limited has moved a step closer to full liquidation in the Bahamas following a recent court ruling.In a decision delivered on June 29, 2004 after one-and-a-half days of hearings, the Bahamas Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed what was essentially an appeal of an appeal by SSBT.

The principals of Bahamas-based Suisse Security Bank & Trust have allegedly put more than $31 million of client funds in jeopardy due to their "interference and obstruction" with its provisional liquidation.This includes $5.5 million in cash that was transferred out of an account at Barclays Bank in Nassau in April, 2001 after the bank was closed down by regulators, according to investigators.

Bahamas-based Suisse Security Bank & Trust is fighting two lawsuits in the United States which have resulted in $1.47 million of its assets being seized and another $3 million frozen. The bank is currently waiting for the outcome of an appeal against a default judgment in Florida in 1998 which will determine whether the seized $1.47 million has been lost forever.