Belize

A Turks and Caicos Islands based Ponzi scheme that promised returns of up to 15% per month took in US$220 million from approximately 6,000 investors in a 27 month period from April, 2006 until it ceased operations in July, 2008.Of

An insolvent Seattle based real estate developer has been accused of transferring ownership of millions of dollars of assets to an offshore trust in Belize to keep them away from creditors, who are owed nearly $600 million.Michael R. Mastro, 84,

Declaration of Frederick M. Cuppy in USA v. Peter Rogan at the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

USA's Statement of Material Facts, including an affidavit from Matthew Gibbons, of Oceanic Bank and Trust Limited (Bahamas), in the case of USA v. Peter Rogan at the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Romania into organized crime and gun trafficking.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in the Netherlands into Bob van Varik and Thinkx Limited for alleged tax fraud.

An offshore company has initiated a lawsuit in Washington, DC to enforce a US$4.4 million arbitration award against the Belize Government for wrongful termination of a Concession Agreement to expand and improve the Philip S.W. Goldson International Airport in Belize

Miami-based businessman Charles Intriago, who sold his anti-money laundering-focused company Alert Global Media, Inc. to New York-based supplier of AML technology Fortent in December, 2006 and continued to manage it before abruptly departing in late March, 2008, is preparing to launch a new business venture that will concentrate on asset forfeiture; Canadian national Wayne Wile, who has been accused of committing securities fraud along with the Cayman, Bahamas and Bermuda operations of investment group Lines Overseas Management, obtained a Cayman Islands Driver's License in a false name, according to the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission; OffshoreAlert has obtained more information about companies and individuals involved with the Grand Island Commodity Trading Fund group of companies, which went into liquidation on June 17, 2008 - one month before its trading manager, R. Christopher Girvan, was arrested in Cayman on suspicion of theft, false accounting and fraud; Investment fraudster Keem Kalfon is at it again. His latest venture operates as 'The People's Money Center' from a web-site at www.peoplemc.com, which was established in June, 2007; and Despite all that has happened over the last 10 years in terms of legal gateways being implemented to allow foreign parties to obtain information about individuals and businesses operating in offshore financial centers, there is still a misconception among some residents of major countries that the secrecy and anonymity of their offshore transactions is enshrined in law.

Complaint in Joe S. Lawson III, as Trustee for Complete Retreats Liquidating Trust, v. Belize Bank Ltd. at the U. S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Connecticut.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Spain into Benito Gallego Valladares and Mustapha El Abboubi for alleged money laundering and narcotics trafficking.

Plaintiff's Opposition to Defendant Lake Shore Asset Management Ltd.'s response to court order of January 4th, 2008 in U. S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. Lake Shore Asset Management Limited, Lake Shore Group of Companies Inc. Ltd., and Philip J. Baker at the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Latvia into Jevgenijs Pogrebnojs, Vladimirs Smirnovs, Vladimirs Cujevs, Andrejs Cakuls, Midrums V Ltd., Valdrons Ltd. and Vextin Overseas LLC for alleged tax evasion.

The U. S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has announced that its Division of Enforcement was awarded “a record total of more than $540 million in civil monetary penalties, restitution, and disgorgement from respondents and defendants in actions involving fraud, manipulation, and other misconduct” for its fiscal year ended September 30, 2007; In other regulatory news, here's a list of actions taken recently by regulators in offshore financial centers; and Microsoft Corp. has become the latest big company to sue a business, purportedly domiciled in the Cayman Islands, that registers and warehouses domain names that are confusingly similar to registered Trademarks of established enterprises.

BOLIVIA & VENEZUELA Bolivia and Venezuela shrug their shoulders Bolivia and Venezuela have shrugged off a U. S. State Department's annual report on global drug trafficking that criticizes them. In the report, Venezuela is singled out as an increasing menace.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Costa Rica into La Nacion SA, Manuel Francisco Jimenez Echeverria, Javier Leon Longhi, Luis Javier Uribe, Carlos Alberto Gonzalez, Fernando Vargas Espinoza and Capital Leasing Corporation for suspected tax evasion.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Costa Rica into Maria del Carmen Cruz Lizano for alleged fraud while working for Intrade ABC SA. The application for the appointment of a Commissioner was denied by the U. S. Court because the attached request for assistance from Costa Rica contained no mention of Maria del Carmen Cruz Lizano and appears to be for an unrelated investigation, specifically a tax evasion investigation into La Nacion SA, Manuel Francisco Jimenez Echeverria, Javier Leon Longhi, Luis Javier Uribe, Carlos Alberto Gonzalez, Fernando Vargas Espinoza and Capital Leasing Corporation.

Complaint in Gillian Payne v. Denis Kleinfeld and The Kleinfeld Law Firm, LLP at the Circuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit, Miami-Dade County, Florida.

DominicaThe financial services sector is still a farce. The International Financial Center building, built to offer high quality offices to the community, was completed just as the financial sector was gutted by regulations and scandals. When it opened, the only

Belize - Very Sad; Bahamas - IRAN; and Nevis - Nevis Mutual Fund Ordinance.

A civil lawsuit has been filed in Florida concerning an abandoned private public sector project to build a “luxury timeshare resort” in Aruba.Plaintiff RRC Aruba Ltd., known as Royal Resorts, which is incorporated in Belize and based at 43 Barrack

The liquidators of fraudulently-operated offshore stock-broker SEGOES Services Ltd. ran up a $1.49 million deficit during their first eight months in charge of the company.That was the figure that leapt out of the Third Interim Report to Customers and Creditors, dated January 27, 2006, by liquidators Kenneth Krys and Christopher Stride.

OffshoreAlert has previously reported about the long-running battle between Taiwan and China for influence in the Caribbean in which impoverished countries receive sizeable financial assistance in return for officially recognizing - or refusing to recognize - Taiwan as a country, depending on who is offering the most attractive deal; The Central Bank of Belize issued a warning about United eXchange International Bank on December 1, 2005; Richard Fogerty and James Cleaver, as joint official liquidators of Bancredit Cayman Limited (in liquidation), have filed two civil lawsuits in the United States in an attempt to collect $2.34 million of allegedly unpaid loans that were issued to customers of the banks; Why did First International Bank of Grenada founder Gilbert Allen Ziegler change his name to Van Arthur Brink in June, 1998?[ Florida-based attorney Nigel Scott Grant and his son, Nicolas E. Grant-St. James, who previously established and, in at least one instance, operated sham credit unions in St. Kitts & Nevis, are back in business together, this time onshore; and Kenneth Krys and Christopher Stride, of RSM Cayman Islands, were appointed as Joint Provisional Liquidators of PFA Assurance Group, Ltd. on September 19, 2005 following an investigation by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

Two British nationals have been charged with defrauding clients of companies in the Bahamas and England in a high yield investment scam.Shinder Gangar, 44, and Alan White, 47, were each charged with two counts of conspiracy to defraud at Leicester

A Canadian national has been accused of misappropriating $1.6 million from an offshore investment brokerage in the Turks and Caicos Islands that he ran before being fired.The amount that Daniel Tremblay allegedly defrauded from his former employer, Noble Securities Holding

The IRS has asked a U. S. federal court for permission to serve a “John Doe” summons on Internet money transfer firm PayPal Inc. as part of a clampdown on tax evasion using offshore credit and debit cards.“The records requested in the summons will identify the holders of bank accounts at, or payment cards issued by banks in, the listed jurisdictions, information which is not otherwise readily available to the Internal Revenue Service,” stated the IRS in its petition.

The owner of a failed offshore securities broker that apparently defrauded clients out of millions of dollars has attempted to breach an asset freeze order, it has been claimed.Details of the allegation against John Kaweske Jr. are contained in the first interim report of the joint official liquidators of SEGOES Services Ltd. to customers and creditors, which is dated July 7, 2005 but only publicly released on August 3.

Offshore companies in Belize and Panama were used by a group of fraudsters as part of a Canada-based scheme to commit fraud and money laundering, it has been alleged.Details are contained in a civil complaint filed on April 15, 2005 - and amended on June 7, 2005 - at the U. S. District Court for the Central District of California by A. Farber & Partners Inc., of Ontario, Canada, in its capacity as Canadian court-appointed Interim Receiver over the assets of Salim Damji, Strategic Trading Systems Instant White, a.k.a. STS Instant White, a.k.a. Strategic Trade Systems, a.k.a. STS Inc., JEM Holdings, a division of 1289629 Ontario Inc., Izmo Investments Inc., Shaffin Damji and Hanif Damji.

Please, EU - Newt was kidding!; Bahamas - Who's on $1.00 bill?; Dominica - What is going on?; the Netherlands Antilles; Structural Warnings for Offshore Business - Grenada & Belize.

Five people in California and three others in Costa Rica were arrested in May for allegedly swindling hundreds of investors out of tens of millions of dollars from 1994 to 2002 in an offshore investment scam.The arrests followed an 83-count indictment - unsealed on May 13, 2005 - at the U. S. District Court for the Central District of California concerning an unlicensed investment fund known as the Genesis Fund.

Two more suspected fraudsters have been arrested in the United States in connection with the criminal activities of the First International Bank of Grenada group.Taansen Fairmont Sumeru, a.k.a. David Freeston, of Santa Barbara, California, and JeRu Harold Hall, a.k.a. Jerome

The Government of Belize is being sued in the United States as part of a battle for control of the island's national telecommunications carrier that involves Michael Ashcroft, the former Treasurer of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom. The lawsuit was filed at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on February 16, 2005 - seven days after the Government seized control of Belize Telecommunications Ltd. from its majority shareholder, Belize Telecom Ltd., which is controlled by American businessman Jeffery Prosser, a 48-year-old resident of the U. S. Virgin Islands and Florida who owns multiple telephone, newspaper, banking and telecommunications assets in the Caribbean.

Originating Summons in Kestrel Stock Trading Co. Limited v. Daventree Trustees Limited, of Cyprus; Daventree Resources Limited, of Belize; Tomas Sevcik, of Czech Republic; Christina Sarris, of Cyprus; Polakis Sarris, of Cyprus; Boris Vostry, of Belize; Santiago Gomez, of Belize; Juraj Siroky, of Slovak Republic; HPH Protektor Limited, of Liechtenstein; Harms Holdings Co. Limited, of Cyprus, and Deneb Shipping Limited, of Cyprus, at the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in the United Kingdom into Shinder Gangar and others for alleged investment fraud.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation into alleged investment fraud and money laundering by Shinder Gangar and others.

Total Systems Services Inc. has become the latest third party credit card processor to be ordered to turn over client records to the IRS as part of its offshore tax evasion investigation. An order allowing the IRS to serve a

A look at the pros and cons of the Caribbean Court of Justice.

Bermuda-based investment firm Lines Overseas Management Ltd. and its Managing Director, Scott Lines, have been ordered to appear before a United States court as part of a securities fraud investigation.The U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued an order on August 17, 2004 that they must attend a hearing that is scheduled to start at 9.45 a.m. on October 4.

A Florida-based firm with client-banks in Belize and Grenada has been targeted in the latest court action in the United States as part of an IRS investigation into tax evasion using offshore structures.An order granting an IRS petition to serve a "John Doe" summons on TecniCard Inc., of Coral Way, Miami, was granted by the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on August 5, 2004.

The world's largest processor of credit card payments has been ordered by a United States court to assist the IRS in its investigation into tax evasion using offshore accounts.First Data Corp. must turn over information about transactions by holders of American Express, Visa and MasterCard credit cards that were issued by or on behalf of certain offshore financial institutions.

How absurd has the criminal case in Texas involving Bahamas resident Yank Barry become?; A recent land-mark opinion by the United States Supreme Court that effectively determined federal sentencing guidelines were unconstitutional has formed the basis of an appeal by jailed former offshore services provider Marc Harris against his sentence of 17 years in prison and a financial penalty of $26 million for fraud, money laundering and tax evasion; The Central Bank of Belize has warned that an entity calling itself 'Development & Holding Bank of Belize' is not licensed; In July, the Bermuda Monetary Authority also issued warnings about suspect or bogus companies claiming to have ties to the jurisdiction; The United States FBI is establishing an office in the Bahamas, reported the Nassau Guardian; On July 19, 2004, a United States podiatrist admitted to using an offshore bank and credit card account to launder money and evade New York City state and federal taxes on more than $300,000 in income, according to a press release from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, which prosecuted the case at the state Supreme Court; Germain Bourgeois, the former investment manager of the University of Montreal Pension Plan, is suspected of receiving payments in return for "convincing" three parties to invest "hundreds of millions of dollars" in the Lancer Offshore group of funds; and A civil lawsuit has been filed at the Turks & Caicos Islands Supreme Court against a solicitor who was recently disqualified from serving as a company director in the U. K. by the Department of Trade & Industry for his part in a timeshare scam.

The United States Government has applied to seize funds held in U. S. correspondent accounts of two Belize banks as part of a criminal investigation into an offshore gaming operation.Investigators are looking to seize tens of millions of dollars that

The Duh!!! Diligence Squads; Bank of Belize; Global Bank of Commerce; US Brokers - Confiscate Offshore Assets and Close Accounts; E*TRADE; AG Edwards; and Retribution… please!

A Florida-based firm which processes card transaction payments has been ordered to turn over its records to the IRS as part of an investigation into offshore tax evasion using MasterCard, VISA and American Express. An order issued on September 11, 2003 at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida allows the IRS to serve a "John Doe" summons on Credomatic of Florida Inc., of Brickell Avenue, Miami.

A business group headed by Russia's richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was arrested in October for allegedly defrauding the state of $1 billion, stashed money in offshore centers, including Switzerland, Luxembourg, the British Virgin Islands, the Seychelles, Panama and the Bahamas, according to Yelena Collongues-Popova, who worked for one of Khodorkovsky's associates. Lucy Komisar, a New York investigative reporter who is writing a book about the offshore banking and corporate secrecy system, interviewed Collongues-Popova. This is her story.

Asset protection firm Merrill Scott & Associates (in Receivership) helped a U. S.-based doctor hide millions of dollars from his creditors, including a woman dying from cancer, it has been alleged. MSA set up offshore structures for Dr. Thomas Shelton Powers in several offshore centers, including the Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Nevis and Panama, according to a complaint filed at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas on December 24, 2002.

A man suspected of operating an investment scam based in Colorado and Belize has been criminally indicted in the United States. Kenneth Roy Weare, 56, of Lakewood, Colorado, was indicted on March 25, 2003 for wire fraud, mail fraud and engaging in Monetary Transactions in Property Derived from Unlawful Activity.

Belize-based offshore provider Grupo CAT appears to have gone out of business following the disappearance of its principal, Steve Saemmler Klein. Over the last month, the group's telephone lines have been disconnected and several of its web-sites are no longer accessible.

UK-based Capital City Finance Limited, which was formed on August 20, 2001 as a spin-off from the Imperial Consolidated Group, is three and a half months overdue with the filing of its annual return with Companies House for England and Wales; If clients of St. Vincent-licensed Omnicorp Bank needed further evidence that they are being taken to the cleaners by the bank's management, there has been plenty of it recently; Investment fraudster Tracy Calvin Dunlap, Jr. was sentenced to 27 years in federal prison on December 19, 2002 at the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.; Steve Saemmler Klein, who operates a dubious Belize-based offshore group known as Grupo CAT, has apparently gone missing; and Alyn Richard Waage, 56, of Canada, and James Michael Webb, 40, of California, were extradited on December 19, 2002 from Costa Rica to Sacramento, California to face numerous federal charges relating to the Tri-West Investment Club, an Internet-based investment fraud scheme that allegedly netted more that $60 million.

A business associate of the now-closed Overseas Development Bank & Trust Ltd., of Dominica, has pleaded guilty to 20 felony charges, including securities fraud, money laundering and wire fraud.The charges relate to a multi-million dollar fraudulent trading program that Terry L. Dowdell operated through his Bahamas-registered firm, Vavasseur Corporation, starting in 1998.

New evidence obtained by OffshoreAlert shows that THREE convicted drug dealers are beneficial owners of the British Virgin Islands-registered parent of The Harris Organization financial services group. The traffickers all own preferred shares, which purport to pay annual interest of 10% in the case of Wallace Stull and James Somerville, and 7% for Lawrence Boulanger.