Patrick Thomson

Bermuda-based Bank of Butterfield and Bahamas-based offshore provider Lions Gate Management have been named as defendants in the latest wave of lawsuits filed by the Bankruptcy Trustee of Evergreen Security, an unlicensed mutual fund which defrauded its investors of over $200 million. Twenty-two new actions were filed at the U. S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida, in Orlando, on January 23, 2003 and four previously-dismissed lawsuits have been reopened, said Bankruptcy Trustee Bill Cuthill.

A raid on an alleged boiler room in Vancouver is further evidence that the Bank of Bermuda may have been conned out of $14.3 million when it invested in First Ecom.com Inc.

Seventy-six new lawsuits have been filed by the Bankruptcy Trustee of a fraudulently-run offshore 'mutual fund' known as Evergreen Security, which is insolvent by approximately $200 million. The actions, which have been filed in Florida, seek to reclaim more than $8.1 million that was allegedly fraudulently transferred by way of commissions to promoters of Evergreen.

OffshoreAlert reported last month that R.W. Cuthill, Jr., the Trustee of Evergreen Security Ltd., had filed an Adversary Proceeding against Costa Rica-based Intrados S.A. at the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida, where Evergreen has been in bankruptcy since January 23, 2001.

A Florida court has issued an injunction forbidding the liquidator of Bahamas-based Surety Bank and Trust from distributing assets to seven people, including six of the bank's shareholders.The injunction is part of an investigation into an alleged $200 million fraud committed in the name of Evergreen Security Ltd., which effectively operated as an unlicensed offshore mutual fund.