Articles

Armed with an English judgment for approximately $55 million, Italian soccer coach Antonio Conte has applied to liquidate British Virgin Islands-domiciled Kidman Asset Management - just three days after Kidman's owner, suspected fraudster Massimo Bochicchio, reportedly died in a motorbike accident in Italy.

An entity called Agricultural Development Fund has asked a Cayman Islands court to appoint Inspectors to examine the affairs of Dubai-based healthcare services provider AVIVO Group.

Two days after being appointed in the British Virgin Islands, the liquidators of insolvent cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital Ltd. - which allegedly owes $675 million to one creditor alone, Canadian crypto broker Voyager Digital - have applied for Chapter 15 recognition at federal bankruptcy court in New York.

The sole director of the Cayman Islands parent of suspended fund group Invictus Capital, which claims to have crypto assets totaling $135 million under management, will not sign a declaration of solvency, meaning its voluntary liquidation will now be conducted under court supervision.

A Luxembourg minority shareholder in Italian soccer club AC Milan intends to file a lawsuit alleging fraud to "annul the improper sale of the club" for €1.2 billion to New York-based private investment firm RedBird Capital Partners, according to a discovery application filed at federal court in Manhattan.

U.S. funder Therium Litigation Finance has applied to wind up Ron Wahid's Cayman Islands firm Magellan Asset Finance for alleged failure to repay $8 million it borrowed to fund a lawsuit in Jersey by British designer Tatiana Golovina against Moscow-based Rusal, an aluminum producer founded by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

Citing exposure to the UST stablecoin and Celsius Network 'bank', crypto fund operator Invictus Capital, which was set up by South Africans and claims to have more than $135 million under management in investment funds in the Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands, has suspended redemptions and is attempting to re-organize under the oversight of voluntary liquidators appointed for its Cayman parent company.

German businessman Jürgen Wagentrotz is being criminally investigated in Germany on suspicion of swindling more than €22 million from approximately 500 investors in his firm Oil & Gas Invest AG before it went bankrupt in 2018.

A federal court in New York has authorized the United States Government to seize two U.S. manufactured airplanes worth an estimated $410 million allegedly owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich via "shell companies" in the British Virgin Islands, Cyprus, and Jersey.

Peru is seeking evidence from a New York-based credit union for employees of the United Nations for a criminal investigation into lawyer José Luis Noriega Ludwick, who is suspected of laundering money for "Clan Orellana, the largest criminal organization in Peru's existence".

The Cayman Islands Monetary Authority has cancelled the mutual fund license of Obelisk Global Fund SPC, citing insolvency, mismanagement, and legal breaches. The regulator determined that the Fund's principals, Winfield Sifton, Matthew Ho, and Jazeb Jones, were "not fit and proper persons".

deVere Group founder and CEO Nigel Green, a 62-year-old citizen of the United Kingdom, has been fined R2.5 million and banned from South Africa's financial services industry for five years for regulatory breaches involving 'honesty and integrity' regarding Brite Advisors South Africa (Pty) Ltd., which itself has been fined R10 million.

Florida-based, self-described "asset protection expert" Kevin Wessell has been accused of withholding records from the IRS that it requires for an investigation into his clients for suspected offshore tax evasion involving accounts and entities in several jurisdictions, including the Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands, Hong Kong, Nevada, Nevis, Panama, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Seychelles, Switzerland, and Turks and Caicos Islands.

Despite objections from U.S. prosecutors, a federal judge in Miami has ruled that former British Virgin Islands Premier Andrew Fahie can be released from custody pending his trial on narcotics trafficking and money laundering charges but has doubled the amount of his surety bonds to $1 million and he must sign a waiver of extradition (worldwide). 

In a judgment at Bermuda Supreme Court, Australian barrister Evatt Tamine has been ordered to repay nearly $30 million that he allegedly misappropriated from a Bermuda trust he administered on behalf of U.S. businessman Robert Brockman, who was criminally indicted at federal court in California in 2020 for an alleged $2 billion offshore tax fraud scheme.

The "corporate officers" of Florida-based health insurance agency Insurance Care Direct - Edward Carriero, Seth Cohen, and Brad Cohen - have been accused of failing to "fully comply" with an IRS tax investigation into its "potentially abusive" relationship with two affiliated Nevis-licensed captive insurers, ICD Captive Re and HOO Captive Re.

Florida resident Susan Devine, the 60-year-old former wife of German accused fraudster Florian Homm, has applied for evidence from New York law firm Spears & Imes for use in criminal proceedings in Liechtenstein, where she is being investigated on suspicion of laundering some of the proceeds of Homm's alleged $200 million Cayman Islands investment scam.

Twelve days after being arrested, recently-deposed British Virgin Islands Premier Andrew Fahie and co-defendants Oleanvine Maynard and Kadeem Maynard have been criminally indicted at federal court in Miami for alleged narcotics trafficking and money laundering.

British Virgin Islands Premier Andrew Fahie is a serial drugs offender who claimed in a secretly-recorded conversation to have been "stiffed" out of over $7 million by his criminal business partners over two decades, U.S. prosecutors alleged in a motion for the pre-trial detention of Fahie and Oleanvine Maynard that was filed at federal court in Miami, where they and Maynard's son, Kadeem Maynard, have been charged with cocaine trafficking and money laundering.

The Conyers legal and corporate services group, which is one of the offshore industry's biggest professional service providers, has been fined $2.1 million by the Bermuda Monetary Authority for failure to comply with anti-money laundering regulations and legal "obligations".

British Virgin Islands Premier Andrew Fahie, who has been criminally charged with narcotics trafficking and money laundering in the United States, has asked a Florida judge to release him from custody, citing "immunity" as the "sitting head of government of the Virgin Islands".

British Virgin Islands Premier Andrew Fahie, 51, and Managing Director of the BVI Ports Authority Oleanvine Maynard, 60, have been arrested in Miami after being criminally charged with cocaine trafficking and money laundering at federal court.

A court in Estonia is seeking evidence from a crypto wallet provider in the United States for a fraud investigation into bankrupt crowdfunding platform Envestio SI OÜ, which allegedly stole investors' funds before being declared bankrupt on June 3rd, 2020, and its former CEO, Anton Kaletin.

A U.S. subsidiary of Mexico's state-owned electric utility is seeking evidence from a company in Texas for use in a criminal proceeding against former "public servants" Javier Gutierrez and Guillermo Turrent for alleged corruption regarding contracts totaling "hundreds of millions of dollars".

Scottish firm Symtomax SPV Limited, which conducted a fraudulent €12 million bond offering purportedly to fund a cannabis production facility in Portugal, is facing compulsory strike-off action for failing to meet a statutory filing deadline.

Sixteen individuals and one company have been charged with securities fraud in New York regarding 'multiple schemes' that allegedly swindled more than $100 million from investors around the world. Those charged are from or operated in many onshore and offshore countries, including Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Bulgaria, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Monaco, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and United States.

Eight months after Cayman Islands judge Raj Parker allowed Obelisk Global Gold Focus Fund to continue operating even though it was insolvent, the Fund is being sued again, this time by another creditor - Hong Kong resident Eryi Xu - who claims she cannot redeem her $600,000 investment. The Fund's principals include Jazeb Jones, Winfield Sifton, and Matthew Ho.

The liquidators of three British Virgin Islands companies that were involved in the $8.5 billion 1MDB fraud have applied for recognition in Florida as they hunt for assets that were, among other ways, allegedly siphoned off via investment funds in the Cayman Islands and Curaçao.

A seemingly fraudulent British company that has raised £1.4 million from investors to 'clean up the world's oceans' has belatedly filed its annual accounts to stave off forced dissolution. Ocean Polymers Ltd. filed its 2021 accounts two months' late on April 1st - one day after OffshoreAlert asked the firm's principals about a compulsory strike-off action by the Registrar of Companies.

Ten years after his £120 million Cayman Islands-domiciled Axiom Legal Financing Fund fraud was exposed by OffshoreAlert, struck-off attorney Timothy Schools has gone on trial for fraud in England, along with another struck-off attorney, Richard Emmett, and a former financial advisor, David Kennedy, all of whom are British.

In an attempt to prevent the IRS from seizing assets in the United States, liquidators in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands have applied for U.S. recognition of their liquidation of a Bermuda company - Point Investments Ltd. - that was allegedly part of a $2 billion offshore tax fraud scheme involving billionaire Robert Brockman, 80.

Madrid-based Swiss lawyer Dario Item, 49, who serves as Antigua and Barbuda's Ambassador to Spain, Liechtenstein, and Monaco, lied to Antigua's financial regulator when successfully applying for a bank license in 2018, apparently to conceal an investigation in Labuan that led to his corporate disqualification and the closure of his bank there the following year, OffshoreAlert can reveal.

Former U. S. President Donald Trump filed a racketeering complaint at federal court in Florida today against Hillary Clinton and several others, including intelligence industry participants in the U.S. and United Kingdom, for allegedly engaging in a "scheme" to "show an incriminating link" between him and Russia.

British Virgin Islands-domiciled Yukos Capital Limited yesterday filed a petition at federal court in Washington, D.C. to enforce a $5 billion arbitration award that was entered against Russia last year in Switzerland.

In a winding-up petition, Swiss investment manager Marc-André Pépin has been accused of "fraudulent misconduct and mismanagement" by Cayman Islands-domiciled SPI Investment Fund SPC, whose investors' funds have allegedly ended up in questionable arrangements with entities operated by Prudent Group, Dennis Klemming, and Jacob Gitman, all of Miami, Florida.

In a complaint that the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands concealed from the public for over two months, Walkers law firm in Dubai is being sued for at least $60 million in damages by a Qatar state-owned investor for allegedly providing "dishonest assistance" to a fraudulent investment fund known as Port Fund.

In a petition to wind up Cayman Islands-domiciled Seahawk China Dynamic Fund, 31-year-old investment manager Hao Liang, a.k.a. Henry Liang, has been accused of self-dealing and dishonesty by fellow Hong Kong resident Lau Chun Shun, who says he invested HK$191 million in the Fund.

Bahamas-based blockchain firm Delchain and four others, including Deltec Bank & Trust in the Bahamas and Suisse Finance in Switzerland, are being sued for $20 million in damages after the price of a digital token issued by fellow Bahamas firm Dreamr "crashed 93%" within three months of being listed on the Bittrex crypto exchange.

More than 20,000 investors were swindled out of "at least $124 million" in crypto-based investment and multi-level marketing scams known as 'Ormeus Coin' and 'Ormeus Global' that were operated by siblings John and Tina Barksdale and involved entities in Hong Kong and Panama, it has been alleged in criminal and regulatory actions.

British and Irish national Richard Fagan has filed a criminal defamation complaint against OffshoreAlert with Dubai Police nearly seven years after we first exposed him as an investment fraudster, according to his local lawyer, Nasser Al Awar, who is described on his law firm's website as "a retired Dubai Police brigadier".

A R$41 million creditor of Brazilian banker Adolpho Mello is seeking evidence from a New York company that he allegedly used to conceal his beneficial ownership of a 4,500 sq. ft. apartment near Central Park, in Manhattan, that was 'sold for $8.1 million in 2019'.

United Kingdom citizens Stephen Burton, 57, and James Wellesley, 55, have been criminally indicted for fraud and money laundering at federal court in New York for an alleged $99.4 million wine-based investment scam known as 'Bordeaux Cellars', which was the trading name for companies in England and Hong Kong.

One of the biggest copper and cobalt miners in the DR Congo - China-owned Tenke Fungurume - has been accused of transferring over $150 million from its Bank of America account in New York over the last month to avoid satisfying a $16.7 million arbitration award.

For the first time in over four years, the British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission has published details of a fine against a licensed entity, a $20,000 penalty imposed on McNamara Corporate Services Ltd.

Gibraltar-based wealth manager Tourbillon Limited, which is operated by 56-year-old United Kingdom national Mark Crossley, is falsely claiming to be licensed in the jurisdiction, the local regulator has warned.

Nebahat Evyap İşbilen, described as the 76-year-old wife of an imprisoned former member of parliament in Turkey, is seeking discovery from 11 banks in New York for a civil lawsuit in London against entities in the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, England, Jersey, and United Arab Emirates for an alleged £40 million-plus fraud.

Stuart Brankin appears to have left Cayman Islands corporate services provider Circumference FS after OffshoreAlert revealed allegations of fraud against one of their clients. All references to Brankin, including his name, photo, and profile, were removed from Circumference's website one day after we reported that Asia Momentum Fund, of which Brankin was a director and to which Circumference provided services, had been accused of swindling Malaysian citizens out of more than $212 million as part of a wider $4.5 billion fraud involving 1MDB.

Investment manager James Velissaris has been criminally indicted in New York for an alleged scheme involving entities in the Cayman Islands and United States in which assets were allegedly over-valued by more than $1 billion so he could receive "tens of millions of dollars" in fees and profits. Civil lawsuits were also filed against him by two US regulatory agencies and a Cayman investment fund, which brought a class action.

A Cayman Islands fund allegedly swindled a British Virgin Islands investment vehicle whose ultimate investors were "citizens of Malaysia" out of more than $200 million as part of the 1MDB fraud, all while its directors, Stuart Brankin (pictured), Desmond Campbell, and Christine Godfrey, collectively received fees and expenses "totaling more than US$100,000", it has been claimed in a lawsuit.

A New York couple - Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife, Heather Morgan, 31 - have been arrested and charged in the United States with conspiring to launder Bitcoin now worth $4.5 billion that was allegedly stolen in a 2016 hack of the British Virgin Islands-owned cryptocurrency exchange known as Bitfinex.