Barbados

Barbados-based attorney Yolande Bannister claims that her law and company management firms no longer represent two fraudulently-run banks. Offshore Alert has previously reported that Bannister's Alpha & Omega Law Chambers/YBG Management in Bridgetown, Barbados, served as the administrative office for the crooked Digital Commerce Bank.

International Financial Privacy Association's '6,000 square foot' office building fails to materialize, fraudulently-operated World Investors' Stock Exchange shamelessly targets the elderly, Imperium Bank offers double-digit annual returns, Cayman Islands Court of Appeal upholds decision to remove Chris Johnson and Nick Freeland as liquidators of local Cash 4 Titles firms, Eugene Chusid's Digital Commerce Bank, John Bourbon and Valia Theodoraki appointed heads of Cayman Islands Monetary Authority and Cayman Islands Stock Exchange, respectively; Nigel Scott Grant - sorting out fact from fiction on his Curriculum Vitae.

The Caribbean Bank of Commerce, which had its banking license revoked in Antigua last year, has been up to its old tricks again. On March 29, 2000, the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency put out a warning about something calling itself Digital Commerce Bank Ltd., which is one of the names CBC now operates under.

Telecommunications Review in Bermuda-Caribbean region: Bermuda continues to offer by far the cheapest overseas telecommunications rates compared with its rival offshore jurisdictions in the Caribbean, we can disclose. While rates have generally fallen in many islands since our last survey in April, 1997, the gap between Bermuda and the pack remains huge, largely due to the introduction of competition for international calls. 

Bahamas-based Imperial Consolidated Securities, which has had several scrapes with regulators over the way it promotes its mutual funds, has launched a new offshore credit card with an aggressive promotional campaign that repeats claims that its funds guarantee returns of up to 18 per cent per year. "The Imperial Consolidated HINT MasterCard can be used like a regular credit card but the card offers superb advantages when used in conjunction with Imperial Consolidated mutual funds," states promotional literature.

Questions and Answers with Rhonda Kelly, the Public Relations Manager for Cable & Wireless' regional headquarters in the Cayman Islands, about C&W's telecommunications service in the Bermuda-Caribbean region.

Questions and Answers between OffshoreAlert and Imperial Consolidated's Bill Godley about the closure of Imperial's offices in Barbados and the Cayman Islands.

Imperial Consolidated Securities S. A. has moved its investment division to Grenada following consultations with regulators in the Bahamas, where the company is registered and physically based. The move, which was due to be completed by November 30, followed concerns about the company's involvement in the sale of unregistered securities.

Debt recovery firm Interclaim (Bermuda) Limited made international headlines recently after a series of daring legal manoeuvres in several countries against the type of heartless criminals who have become accustomed to getting away with their crimes.The company, which operates from Dublin, Ireland, has successfully frozen in the region of US$200 million of assets linked with Blair Down, a Canadian businessman who created his wealth by ripping off the elderly.

The Caribbean Hotel Association Insurance Company Ltd., which hit financial trouble soon after it started, has stopped writing new business after just two and a half years in business. The news comes after many member countries of the Caribbean Hotel Association, for whom the company was specifically set up to insure, failed to put their money where their mouths were and buy insurance from CHAIC.

Regulators might want to take a close look at Bermuda-based insurance management firm Sussex International Ltd. following the collapse by fraud over the last six months of an Antigua-registered insurer and another company based in Nevada.All three were run by Charles Gordon-Seymour, a discredited British businessman and former Bermuda resident whose ventures frequently collapse in suspicious circumstances with debts of millions of dollars.

Bermuda has gained a significant competitive edge over rival offshore domiciles in the Caribbean by ending the telecommunications monopoly of Cable & Wireless and introducing a second long-distance carrier.International rates from Bermuda were already the lowest of rivals such as the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas and Barbados, according to a survey conducted by Offshore Business News & Research, which publishes Offshore Alert.But, since Bermuda's government granted a second international licence in January to TeleBermuda International - which has yet to begin offering a service, Cable & Wireless has answered the threat of competition by lowering rates to many countries, some by almost a third.

The Mexican government has amended the country's tax laws to try to curb the massive outflow of capital being lost to the world's tax havens.

Libel Complaint in R. Allen Stanford and Bank of Antigua, Ltd. v. Klaus de Albuquerque and Caribbean Communications Inc. at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.