Samuel Bulgin

The court that hears international business disputes in the Cayman Islands is sealing records of liquidation petitions and other cases at unprecedented levels, meaning that foreign investors, creditors, and clients of Cayman-domiciled hedge funds and other companies are not alerted to insolvencies and other problems, OffshoreAlert can reveal. Secrecy has escalated to the point where more than half of all cases filed in recent months are sealed.

A table showing the growth of secrecy at the Financial Services Division of the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands from when it opened on November 1st, 2009 to July 23rd, 2018.

Offshore investment firm Lines Overseas Management, which is headquartered in Bermuda and has offices in Cayman, the Bahamas and England, claims to have spent US$2.75 million over the last two years on legal fees concerning two securities fraud investigations into its activities by the Securities and Exchange Commission; The International Financial Services Authority in St. Vincent & the Grenadines has revoked these Class I banking licenses: Horizon International Bank Limited, on April 4, 2005; Transglobal Bank Limited, on April 13, 2005; and Triton Capital Bank Limited, on April 13, 2005; How times have changed. On May 26, 2005, something happened that would have been unthinkable when OffshoreAlert was launched in 1997: the Cayman Islands Government issued a press release lauding its co-operation with U. S. authorities in clamping down on financial crime and disclosing that Cayman Islands Chief Justice Anthony Smellie; and OffshoreAlert has unearthed yet another red-flag concerning GISBeX, a Costa Rica-based stock exchange that purports to specialize in securities offered under Regulation S of the Securities Exchange Act in the United States and operates from a web-site at www.gisbex.com.