Fraud

A legal battle is taking place in the United States for control of assets that once belonged to a now bankrupt oil and gas exploration firm whose shares were promoted at offshore conferences. Creditors of Kentucky-based Robo Exploration Inc., formerly known as Robo Enterprises Inc., are investigating whether the transfer of its assets prior to bankruptcy amount to a fraudulent conveyance.

Investors who placed over US$2 million with Power Securities Ltd. in the Bahamas are preparing to take legal action against the firm and its principal, Canadian businessman Les McIntosh. They have told OffshoreAlert that they have been unable to redeem their investments with the firm, which has since closed down its Nassau office.

Recently-filed warnings from securities regulators around the world.

A United States court has appointed a receiver for and frozen the assets of an offshore investment group that has been accused by the SEC of operating a Ponzi scheme that took in at least $25 million. David K. Broadbent was appointed receiver on January 23, 2002 for the defendants in a civil lawsuit that had been filed eight days earlier by the SEC at the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah.

Conman Keem Kalfon is being falsely passed off as the chairman of The Sovereign Society investment group as part of a fund-raising effort for get-rich-quick schemes, OffshoreAlert can reveal. Those responsible are also falsely claiming they control British-based investment trust Gresham House PLC, which has been one of the world's best-performing investment vehicles over the last ten years.

A company whose beneficial owners include several Bermudians, including former Premier Sir David Gibbons is being sued in the United States. Orasee Corporation is a defendant in a civil lawsuit filed at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York on December 13, 2001.

Bermuda-based insurance broker Stirling Cooke Brown Holdings and offshore-owned electronic payments processor First Ecom.com, which is funded largely with offshore money, face having their shares de-listed from in the first half of 2002 unless their stock prices improve. They have until February 11 to get their stocks above the $1 minimum bid that is required for continued listing on the NASDAQ National Market.

OffshoreAlert has received a complaint from a client who claims he is unable to redeem an investment made with Bahamas-registered Addison International Ltd., which is apparently run from the United States. The client, who is based in the U.S., claims that he placed $400,000 with Addison International in mid-1999 after the firm's principal told him: "If I don't return four per cent per month, you should fire me."

'Ambassadors' of a fake jurisdiction known as the Dominion of Melchizedek, obtained from its website at www.melchizedek.com on January 24, 2002

Section 304 Petition for Assistance in Insolvency Proceedings in Bermuda by Malcolm Butterfield and Anthony McMahon, as the Foreign Representatives of Enron Re Ltd., at the U. S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Italy into alleged tax evasion by Centrone Pietro & Figli.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Poland into Dariusz Wiera or alleged fraud.

Verlin D. Swartzendruber, 58, has joined the growing band of Americans who have obtained Grenada passports under second names and started raising funds from the island with the lure of high returns. Under his new name of Joseph Severin, Swartzendruber runs Grenada-registered Preferred Trust and Management Ltd, which raises money through continuous stock offering in various companies it manages.

Nevis has a new regulator for its offshore sector - Neville Cadogan, a Jamaican national; and Ian Strang has been replaced as liquidator of Atlas Securities by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

An oil and gas company which was promoted as an investment opportunity at Institute of Global Prosperity conferences has filed for bankruptcy amid allegations of fraud.Robo Exploration Inc., a.k.a. Robo Enterprises Inc., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection at the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Kentucky on October 23, 2001.

Recently-filed warnings from securities regulators around the world.

Goldman Sachs-controlled Stirling Cooke's proposed name change to Atlantic Star Insurance Group Ltd. has been halted at the eleventh hour after it was discovered the name clashed with an existing firm. Curious as to why the company had not yet effected a name change that was approved at Stirling Cooke's AGM as long ago as May 23, 2001, InsideBermuda asked Stirling Cooke for an explanation.

A threatened winding-up application against Overseas Development Bank & Trust, of Dominica, had still not been filed by December 31, 2001.

Imperial Consolidated, whose operations include an offshore bank and offshore mutual funds, has lost a defamation lawsuit that it brought in New Zealand against a former broker. In a judgment in the High Court of New Zealand on December 18, 2001, Judge William Young ruled that defendant David Frederick Stewart was being truthful when he criticized the group on a web-site.

Part of the estimated $5.5 million allegedly looted from the First Cayman Bank/Gulf Union Bank group in 1997 went to satisfy a $1.75 million fraud judgment in the United States, according to the liquidators.The fraud had been committed by Sheikh Abdus Shimmy Qureshi and his now defunct Florida firm Escue Management Inc., it was alleged.

A principal of two offshore banks has told OffshoreAlert that he no longer has anything to do with the Dominion of Melchizedek, despite his name appearing on literature associated with the fake nation.Peter Drakoulakos, who heads Euro Credit Bank A.D., of Montenegro, and Euro Caribbean Bank Ltd., of Grenada, was once listed as the South American "Ambassador" for Melchizedek on its web-site.

First Swedish Savings, formerly known as First Baltic Savings, is being investigated by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finansinspektionen).First Swedish maintains identical web-sites at www.firstswedish.com and www.firstbaltic.com where, inter alia, it promotes an "offshore hedge fund" called Athena Growth Fund, which, apparently, is "a registered trademark and dba of (sic) Direct Trading Partners (Nevis) LLC".

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 26-year-old man defrauded 14 investors of approximately $1.17 million through a scam involving a Nevis-registered "hedge fund", according to a complaint filed in the United States by the SEC.Peter W. Chabot raised the funds from June, 1999 to December, 2001 but, instead of putting it into 'The Synergy Fund', he used it to fund his "extravagant lifestyle", according to the complaint.

Evidence has emerged that the President of a 'paper' offshore securities firm accused of fraud in the United States was attorney Philip W. Johnston, a Canadian who once had a law firm in the Turks & Caicos Islands.Details of Johnston's alleged involvement in TCI-registered Carib Securities Ltd. is contained in a civil lawsuit that is on-going at the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

A civil lawsuit filed by Leon Denning against his former Cayman Islands-based banker, John Mathewson, has been moved from Denning's home state of Illinois to Texas, where Mathewson resides.

New Bank Ltd., which was operated in St. Vincent by the Nano family, has featured in a criminal investigation in Austria, according to documents filed in a Florida court.Details of the matter are contained in an application to collect evidence - pursuant to a request for judicial assistance from Austria - that was filed at the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida on November 14, 2000.

A United States firm has been forming IBCs in Panama and selling them to North Americans at a huge mark-up on the basis that they are "financial institutions", OffshoreAlert can reveal.At least five of the IBCs are currently offering investment products and services from web-sites hosted in Montana or the Bahamas even though none holds a license.

Michael Gilbert, who was severely criticized by a New Zealand judge in a recent court ruling (see separate story), is part of a reorganization that involves the Imperial Consolidated Group and companies with the prefix 'Alpha'.The firm that he is a director of changed its name from Imperial Consolidated (New Zealand) Ltd. to Alpha Equities Asia-Pacific (NZ) Ltd. on November 29, 2001.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Spain into Pedro Morillas Casas and others on suspicion of forging documents and committing tax offenses.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Poland into Mariella LLC for suspected tax fraud.

Suisse Security Bank and Trust chairman Mohamad Harajchi and the bank's CEO, Christopher Lunn, filed a civil complaint against Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham in October, alleging that Ingraham defamed them in a public speech that he gave in Nassau.

Imperial Consolidated founders Lincoln Fraser and Jared Brook have been given additional time to wind up their business affairs before their four year disqualification as company directors in England and Wales becomes effective. A judge sitting at Blackpool County Court

A fund manager whose interests have included a Bermuda reinsurer and a Bahamas bank is being sued for $8.5 million by the Bankruptcy Trustee of a fraudulently run offshore investment firm.The defendants are Atlantic Portfolio Analytics and Management Inc., a.k.a.

Goldman Sachs controlled Stirling Cooke Brown's problems worsened this month as the firm announced that its reinsurance subsidiary, Comp Indemnity Reinsurance Company Ltd., had become insolvent.News of CIRCL's insolvency was contained in the firm's 10Q filing with the SEC on

An application may be made to wind up Dominica based Overseas Development Bank & Trust in the first week of December if it does not honor a demand for payment from a creditor, we have been told.Attorney Michael Bruney told

A claim by St Vincent &the Grenadines that it is serious about combating financial crime was dealt a blow on November 22 when it allowed suspected money launderer Thierry Nano to avoid an arrest warrant.Nano flew from the island on

A man who in 1997 had to resign from office due to his involvement in a fraudulently operated, insolvent offshore bank has become the new head of the Cayman Islands government.In a coup that sparked public demonstrations in Grand Cayman,

A client of financial services provider Marc Harris has confirmed to OffshoreAlert that he is taking legal action in Panama in an attempt to recover an investment of approximately $1 million.An article was published in La Prensa newspaper in November

A fund manager whose interests have included a Bermuda reinsurer and a Bahamas bank is being sued for $8.5 million by the Bankruptcy Trustee of a fraudulently run offshore investment firm.Defendants are Atlantic Portfolio Analytics and Management Inc., a.k.a. APAM

Prosecutors in Canada say are likely to proceed with kidnapping charges against three men, including a Bahamas resident, despite the suicide of the person they allegedly kidnapped.Geoffrey Hamilton Warne, 41, who has been implicated in an offshore investment fraud, died

The Canadian Venture Exchange has blocked a reverse merger attempt by a firm offering online stockbroking products to offshore investment firms.British Virgin Islands domiciled Blue Chip Online Ltd., whose President is Canadian businessman Richard Czerlau, had been trying to reverse

The Bahamas Supreme Court dealt a blow to the local government's fight against money laundering by issuing a landmark ruling limiting the powers of the new Financial Intelligence Unit.In a decision dated November 27, 2001, Judge Anita Allen ruled that

Canadian businessman Scott Turner, who is subject to an arrest warrant in the Turks & Caicos Islands for suspected fraud, has issued a letter attacking other members of his failed stockbroker Atlas Securities Inc.Nowhere in the five page letter, which

Four offshore bankers were arrested by United States law enforcement agencies in November and charged with money laundering.Two more have also been charged with money laundering but are still at large after warrants were issued but not executed.Those arrested were

Bahamas-based Americas International Bank Corporation Ltd. is insolvent and was used primarily as "a vehicle to launder funds" received from investment fraud, according to its liquidator.Accountant Clifford Culmer painted a bleak picture of the bank's activities in an affidavit filed with the Bahamas Supreme Court on November 19, 2001.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Italy into Marco Bourelly and Fausto de Berardinis for alleged bank fraud.

Indictment in USA v. Julien Giraud and Brian Boeger at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Russia into Sergei Nickolayevitch Sidorenko for suspected fraud.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in France into Henri Duval, Jean Fouquet, Annie Delettre, Jean-Yves Secher, Pascal Cornu, Eric Abgrall, Gilles Berthon, Emmanuel Malfaisan, The Association of Auditors Commission and others for "illegal practices in the auditor profession, forgery and the use of forgeries, and breach of trust.