Marc Harris
June
1999
Harris Organization/OffshoreAlert trial set to start on July 6, 1999
The civil libel trial between Offshore Business News & Research, Inc., which publishes this newsletter, and The Harris Organization financial services group of Panama will start at the United States District Court for the District of Southern Florida (in Miami) on July 6.
After two postponements by the court because of scheduling problems, a definite date has now been set for the trial, which is scheduled to last for about one week.
May
1999
Harris Organization-OBNR trial put back by court
The libel trial involving The Harris Organization financial services group of Panama and Offshore Business News & Research, Inc., which publishes this newsletter, has been put back to an unnamed date by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
May
1999
Insider Talking: May 31, 1999
Offshore promoter Adam Starchild’s criminal past, Cayman politicians receive huge pay increases, clients of Marc Harris’ Threshold Insurance Services claim to have been ripped off.
April
1999
Insider Talking: April 30, 1999
The saying ‘There’s one born every minute’ was never more evident than during a recent interview OffshoreAlert conducted with an Arizona-based creditor of Gilbert Ziegler, the chairman of the fraudulently-run First International Bank of Grenada; The depths to which The Oxford Club’s parent, Baltimore-based Agora Inc., will stoop to attract new business seemingly knows no bounds; In the book the Sovereign Individual, which is co-authored by Lines Overseas Management shareholders Lord William Rees-Mogg and James Dale Davidson, there is a paragraph on Page 188 that seems to advocate an illegal act when advising readers on asset protection; Although we published a list of shareholders for Bermuda-based financial services firm Lines Overseas Management last month, the identities of many of the beneficial shareholders was hidden through companies; We reported last month on an alleged fraud being committed by Threshold Insurance Services, which is an apparently bogus insurer being operated by The Harris Organization of Panama and being investigated by banking and insurance regulators in Florida. We learned this month that official records in Panama show that the company has now been dissolved; and Accounting firm Deloitte & Touche, which is liquidating First Cayman Bank, is still forecasting a pay out of 45 to 55 cents on the dollar.
April
1999
Marc Harris withdrawn as witness as libel trial draws near
The Harris Organization’s libel complaint against Offshore Business News & Research, Inc, which publishes this newsletter, and the company’s principal, David Marchant, is due to start on May 24 at the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida (in Miami).
We were also notified this month that the group’s founder, chairman and sole owner of its common stock, Marc Harris, has been withdrawn from The Harris Organization’s witness list.
March
1999
Florida regulator investigates ‘insurers’ operated by Harris Organization
The Department of Banking and Finance in Florida is investigating an alleged scam involving two insurance companies run by The Harris Organization financial services group of Panama.
It has been alleged that investors were duped into investing funds with Florida-registered Lifeblood Biomedical Inc. on the grounds that their investment was fully insured by Threshold Insurance Services Ltd. and Caribbean General Insurance Corporation, which are both operated by The Harris Organization.
However, following the collapse of Lifeblood Biomedical last year after raising $10 million, the insurance companies have refused to pay investors’ claims, alleging that agreements on their letterhead and signed by the President of both insurers, Ilka M. Barria, are bogus.
March
1999
Insider Talking: March 31, 1999
Further incriminating evidence against Bermuda Stock Exchange-listed Mezzanine Capital, Lines Overseas Management has sophisticated computer software system installed, Marc M. Harris and his Panama bodyguards, ‘The Invisible Investor’ book provides a plethora of unintentional laughs, Nigerian fraudsters appears in Cayman Islands court, Florida-based scam seeks to take advantage of bona fide firms like Lloyd’s Bank and Barclays Bank, Members of Cayman Islands Legislative Assembly shelve plans to award themselves huge pay increases.
January
1999
Two more Harris Organization clients indicted in the US
Less than a year after two clients pleaded guilty to cocaine trafficking charges in California, a criminal indictment has been brought in Florida against two more clients of The Harris Organization of Panama. The indictment was filed against Aurelio Anthony Vigna and his son, Joseph R. Vigna, on December 17, 1998 at the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
January
1999
Marc Harris-OBNR lawsuit due to be tried in May
The Harris Organization’s $30 million libel action against Offshore Business News & Research, Inc. and its principal, David Marchant, is scheduled to go to trial in May of this year at the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida (Miami).
November
1998
Marc Harris latest: Senior officers undergo lie detector tests
Information coming from Panama indicates that November has been yet another bad month for The Harris Organization.
All the signs are that the offshore financial services group, which has been accused in this newsletter of running a Ponzi scheme and of massive insolvency, is about to go bust.
October
1998
The Harris Organization forms UK PLC to raise much-needed cash
The cash strapped Harris Organization of Panama has formed a UK public limited company in an apparent attempt to raise up to £5 million ($8.5 million) by selling shares to the public. The Marc M Harris Group PLC was registered
September
1998
Insider Talking: September 30, 1998
Receivers of the Florida Employers Safety Association Self-Insurers Fund sue David Sanz, share price of Stirling Cooke falls to new low on NASDAQ, Elite International Services offers dubious offshore products, Marc Harris on the move, prison inmate Ronald Williams apparently continues to rip people off during his day-release program, Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham puts both feet in his mouth during press conference for murder of foreign national.
August
1998
Marc Harris latest: Liquidity crisis deepens, another client goes to prison
More information has come our way this month that sheds further light on the current and past turmoil of The Harris Organization of Panama, including details of liquidity problems, the conviction of another one of its clients on a drug trafficking charge and allegations of ‘bounty hunting’ against two of the group’s officers.
The financial services group, which we have previously reported as being insolvent, running a Ponzi scheme, ripping off clients and laundering the proceeds of crime, seems to be in financial trouble.
July
1998
Insider Talking: July 31, 1998
In house counsel Philip Lamarr has become the latest in a long line of officers and employees to quit The Harris Organization, of Panama in recent months. Larry Abraham and his son, Patrick, left in March, trader Alex de Janon
July
1998
La Firma de Marc M. Harris v. David Marchant: Criminal Complaint
Criminal Complaint alleging defamation in La Firma de Marc M. Harris v. David Marchant and Offshore Business News & Research at the First Judicial Circuit Court of the Province of Panama.
June
1998
Insider Talking: June 30, 1998
Offshore regulators apparently uninterested in scams exposed by OffshoreAlert; NimsTec’s 3-D cameras offered for sale as “collector’s items” over the Internet; Marc Harris has t-shirt with the slogan: “David Marchant is alive because killing him would be a crime”; As General Election looms, Progressive Labour Party tipped to win power in Bermuda for the first time; Dominion of Melchizedek offers a variety of fraudulent products and services; and Little Switzerland contemplates legal action after proposed purchase of Colombian Emeralds International falls through.
May
1998
Insider Talking: May 31, 1998
Former Cayman banker John Mathewson’s sentencing hearing for helping to launder the proceeds of crime has been delayed yet again. Mathewson was due to be sentenced on April 30 by a court in New Jersey in the US but the matter was adjourned until later in the year; If figures compiled by The Wall Street Journal are to be relied upon for accuracy, the Cayman Islands is not the world’s fifth largest financial center, as it claims, but is actually the eighth largest; Six months after US$9 million of its assets were frozen in British Columbia as part of an investigation into fraudulent trading, the Cayman-based broker/dealer Harris McLean Financial Group has filed a lawsuit in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands against one of its principals, Richard Harris, and his mother, Ana Harris; and Those of you who have been following our articles on The Harris Organization of Panama might like to read a three-page article on the subject that appeared in the June 1 edition of Business Week.
May
1998
The colourful world of the promoters of The Harris Organization
One wrote a book describing Albania as a “fairy tale land” and promised he could show investors “how to double your capital at no risk”, another sells seemingly dodgy insurance brokerage licences to the gullible, promising they are available within 72 hours to people with no qualifications or even a formal education who will be able to access the Lloyd’s of London market; and another has written a book on prostitution showing where “balding, fat guys like your author” can find “Thai virgins”.
May
1998
Marc M. Harris et Cie SA et al v. David Marchant et al: Amended Libel Complaint
Amended Libel Complaint in Marc M. Harris et Cie S.A., The Firm of Marc M. Harris, Inc., and Marc M. Harris Trust Company, Ltd. v. David E. Marchant and Offshore Business News & Research, Inc. at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
April
1998
Dumb and Dumber: How not to conduct a private investigation
Prior to, and following, the publication of last month’s edition of Offshore Alert, private investigators have been making an unsuccessful attempt to dig up dirt on its publisher and founder, David Marchant.
So hapless has the investigation been that Marchant was actually able to track down one of the investigators – Darren Brost, of Renton, Washington – and gave him a call to say ‘hello’ and to inform him that he faced the possibility of prosecution for suspected fraud. A criminal complaint against the man has been made with police in his home-town of Renton, Washington State, alleging that he obtained telephone records by wire fraud.
April
1998
The Harris Organization: a $30 million lawsuit, more fraudulent banks and an airplane
Offshore Alert’s exposé on The Harris Organization last month has caused quite a stir, with journalists from several international media organizations showing an interest in following up the story.
April
1998
Marc M. Harris et Cie SA et al v. David Marchant et al: Libel Complaint
Libel Complaint in Marc M. Harris et Cie S.A., The Firm of Marc M. Harris, Inc., and Marc M. Harris Trust Company, Ltd. v. David Marchant and Offshore Business News & Research, Inc. at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
March
1998
‘The Harris Matrix’ for hiding money from the IRS and your wife
Offshore Alert has obtained confidential documents that are presented to clients of The Harris Organization advising them how to hide their assets from their creditors, be it the IRS or their wives if they are going through a divorce.
The documents are so sensitive that the cover sheet states: “Under no circumstances may this document be utilized outside the offices of The Harris Organization. Misuse or disclosure of this document is subject to civil and criminal sanctions under Panamanian law.”
March
1998
Marc Harris says: ‘We’re cleaner than clean.’
David Marchant, the publisher of Offshore Alert, flew to the Bahamas on Wednesday, March 25 to meet with Marc Harris at the Radisson Grand Hotel in Cable Beach, near Nassau.
Also present at the meeting were Larry Gandolfi, who is a salesman; Christopher Davy, head of computers; and Alan McAloon, head of trust services.
March
1998
The Harris Organization’s multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme
Offshore Alert can today disclose that Panama’s most-hyped financial services group, known as The Harris Organization, is being run as a massive Ponzi scheme in which clients are being defrauded out of millions of dollars.
The situation is so serious that The Harris Organization, which employs 150 people in Panama, is hopelessly insolvent, with net liabilities of at least $25 million, according to sources knowledgeable of the group’s financial affairs.