Advance Fee Fraud

Two United States-based subsidiaries of Bermuda firms have joined a slew of litigation by insurers and reinsurers who are seeking damages against the United States Government for claims caused by Hurricane Katrina.The two new actions were filed at the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana on March 7, 2008 and brought to 1,568 the number of Katrina-related cases filed at the court against the Government, which have been rolled into one lead action.

The United States government has filed a forfeiture complaint against an offshore bank account that it claims contains some of the proceeds of an advance fee fraud that cheated more than 400 people out of at least $60 million.The action was filed on February 23, 2003 at the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida against a bank account in the name of Nevis-registered Rosie Capital LLC at Euro Bank Corp. (in liquidation), of the Cayman Islands.

A Grenada-registered bank that is operated from St. Vincent without a license is being sued for alleged fraud in the United States.DIAK Bank and one of its directors, Kenneth R. Lagonia, are both defendants in a lawsuit filed at the US District Court for the District of Montana on January 17, 2001.

In a case that has triggered investigations on both sides of the US-Canadian border, Pietro Paolo Codispoti, of Montreal, was convicted in the Cayman Islands on May 22 of three counts of money laundering.