Rita Joseph-Olivetti

Commonwealth Trust Limited has lost a legal challenge to a directive from the British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission ordering the firm to stop taking on new business until it complied with the jurisdiction's anti money laundering laws.In doing so,

Antigua Commercial Bank has been ordered to pay damages to a former government minister, Hilroy Humphreys, for disclosing details of his accounts to local authorities for a criminal investigation into alleged corruption.

An offshore insurer that operated what may have been an investment scam dressed up as a U. S. tax avoidance scheme endured and enjoyed two contrasting judgments in the same case at the British Virgin Islands High Court over a three-day period in May. It was a tale of two judges for Boston Life and Annuity Company Ltd., which is involved in litigation with 57 of its U. S.-based insureds who claim they are victims of an $11 million fraud allegedly masterminded by U. S. nationals Leo Ford and Denis Kleinfeld and U. K. national Rick May.

Offshore banker William W. Cooper, who has so far avoided extradition to his native United States to face fraud and money laundering charges, has failed in a bid to have his assets unfrozen.Cooper's assets have been frozen since October 17,