Insider Talking: March 31, 2003
A United States law firm accused of lining its own pockets by cutting an illegal deal with a telemarketing fraudster to the detriment of one of its clients - an asset recovery firm - has been ordered by a court to produce all of its financial statements and tax returns from 2000 to the present; Three men who were accused of kidnapping an offshore investment fraudster in Kingston, Ontario, Canada in 2001 have pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of common assault; David Ballantyne, who became one of the most despised people in the Cayman Islands, finally agreed to resign as Attorney General, effective March 15, 2003, in the aftermath of the collapse of the Euro Bank money laundering trial; A letter to the editor that was published in the Caymanian Compass on February 26, 2003 spoke volumes for the level of animosity among locals towards the people widely believed to be primarily responsible for the Euro Bank fiasco, which is likely to cost Cayman's taxpayers many millions of dollars in legal fees, costs and damages; Bermuda company director Paul Lemmon has been sentenced to 21 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States; A dispute involving two offshore entities and two Canadian firms has arisen over the rights to the domain name 'poker.com'; Thirteen days after OffshoreAlert's article last month about a lawsuit filed at federal court in Miami by Florida-registered Growth Fund Partnership Inc. against Nevis-registered Condor Insurance Ltd., both of whose operations raise red flags, the action was dismissed with prejudice; Three firms have been ordered to pay tens of millions of dollars of restitution for their part in a massive investment fraud; Florida-based crook Rommy Kriplani, who specializes in ripping off residents of Third World countries by taking their money on the promise of jobs in the United States that never materialize, is at it again, once more in partnership with his favorite law firm of Spiegel & Utrera, of Coral Gables, Florida; and James Michael Dwyer, who until last year owned the White Sands Hotel in Bermuda, was criminally indicted for bank fraud on March 4, 2003 in his native New Jersey.