Leadenhall Bank & Trust

After more than five years of waiting patiently while the parties responsible for their woes argued in court, holders of credit cards issued by Bahamas-based Leadenhall Bank & Trust may soon be getting a portion of their security deposits back.

Victims of the Cash 4 Titles Ponzi scheme have been awarded damages of $330 million against two now-defunct, Bahamas-based businesses - Leadenhall Bank & Trust Ltd. (in liquidation) and former offshore credit card administrator Axxess International Limited.

A $1 million civil judgment against two now defunct, Bahamas based entities - Leadenhall Bank & Trust Ltd. (in liquidation) and Axxess International Ltd. - may soon be increased to $330 million.That is because U. S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan

Damages totaling $1.04 million have been awarded against two Bahamas companies for their involvement in a U. S./Cayman Islands-based Ponzi scheme known as Cash 4 Titles. The award against Leadenhall Bank & Trust Limited (in liquidation) and now-defunct Axxess International Limited, which combined to provide accounts and credit cards for victims, was entered jointly and severally at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on February 12, 2007.

Fraudulent conveyances totaling “millions of dollars” were made from Bahamas-based Leadenhall Bank & Trust Limited just before the bank went into voluntary receivership in 2005, it has been claimed. The allegation was made in a filing at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida by class action attorneys pursuing a claim for $100 million against the bank on behalf of approximately 2,300 victims of a Ponzi scheme known as Cash 4 Titles.

Lennox Gibbs is well-paid for his role in dubious penny stock Strategy International Insurance Group Inc.; Law firm Charles Russell and financial advisors Smith & Williamson, continue to be handsomely rewarded for their lmismanagement of the iquidation of Invaro Ltd.; and the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations' 'Tax Haven Abuses: The Enablers, The Tools and Secrecy' is not without its humorous side.

Bahamas-based Leadenhall Bank & Trust Ltd., which was closed down by regulators seven months ago, may be insolvent by more than $11 million. That was the glum news for creditors in the first report of liquidator Craig A. (Tony) Gomez on December 9, 2005. On paper, the bank had shareholders' equity of $1.6 million as of October 3, 2005, with assets of $29,864,139, including $20.4 million in cash, and liabilities of $28,235,807. “However my review has revealed that the balance sheet includes loans and past due credit card receivables totaling $6.6 and $6.3 million, respectively, and that both balances are either unsecured or inadequately collateralized,” stated Gomez in his report.

Leadenhall Bank & Trust Company Limited has had its bank and trust license suspended by the Central Bank of the Bahamas and gone into Receivership.The Central Bank did not go into details about the reasons for its actions in a public announcement yesterday but stated the measures were intended "to protect the interests of depositors".

No mention of SEC's securities fraud investigation in publicly-listed Lines Overseas Management's half-monthly letter to shareholders; Fraudster Maurice Lewis Mills loses a civil lawsuit that was filed against him by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; Former offshore provider David Hampton Tedder indicted again; Former banker Mohamad Harajchi claims to have contributed $10 million to the Progressive Liberal Party to fund its successful general election campaign in the Bahamas in 2002; US Gov't tries to kick-start its stalled criminal action against Yank Barry and James Collins; Leadenhall Bank & Trust says its viability has not been affected by the loss of its MasterCard license and its legal dispute with former card administrator Axxess International over the return of millions of dollars of deposits to card-holders; and Axxess International appears to have gone out of business.

A bitter legal dispute is taking place in the Bahamas over the refunding of millions of dollars to people who held offshore credit cards issued by Leadenhall Bank & Trust Ltd. Bahamas-based Leadenhall and First Financial Caribbean Trust Company Ltd., a licensed trust company in the Turks & Caicos Islands, each claims the other holds security deposits that are owed to card-holders. 

Two years after obtaining a $67.5 million settlement from the Bank of Bermuda, victims of the Ponzi scheme known as Cash 4 Titles have filed a class action lawsuit against another offshore bank.The target this time is Bahamas-based Leadenhall Bank & Trust, which is a defendant along with its credit card processing affiliate, Axxess International, also of the Bahamas.

One of the biggest issuers of offshore credit cards, Leadenhall Bank & Trust in the Bahamas, has had its card issuing license terminated by MasterCard.Effective July 29, 2003, all MasterCards issued by Leadenhall Bank were cancelled - a victim of the U. S. clampdown on the use of offshore cards to access the proceeds of crime, including tax evasion.

Credit cards issued by Bahamas-based Leadenhall Bank & Trust and other offshore banks were used to access over $100 million in 2001 alone by residents of New York's tri-state area, according to Manhattan's District Attorney. Robert M. Morgenthau made the claim in a press release issued on June 26, 2003 when he disclosed that one Leadenhall client had pleaded guilty to tax evasion and another was under investigation.

Offshore financial services provider and asset protection book author Terry L. Neal has been criminally indicted on tax-related offenses in the United States for the second time in three months.A 13-count superseding indictment was filed on April 23, 2003 against Neal, of St. Kitts and Oregon; and three associates, Lee. E. Morgan, of Oregon; James Fontano, of Nevada; and Aaron Young, of Oregon.

The IRS and the United States Department of Justice have taken legal action to obtain records from MasterCard accounts at Bahamas-based Leadenhall Bank & Trust.

The UK-based Imperial Consolidated Group has suffered another blow with the forced termination of its HINT MasterCard offshore credit card program, which was operated from the Bahamas. Leadenhall Bank & Trust, which issued the card, and Axxess International, which administered it, withdrew their support in November due to concerns over Imperial Consolidated's credibility.

The Bahamas-based HINT MasterCard credit card program that was offered by the Imperial Consolidated Group has been terminated by the issuing bank, Leadenhall Bank & Trust, and the data processor, Axxess International, which are both based in the Bahamas. In other news, Brent Wagman has been sentenced to five years in prison in Texas and fined $19.7 million for investment fraud.

Two weeks after an article in the September 30th edition of OffshoreAlert about a Bahamas-based mutual fund - Olympia Fund - that invests in a business known as Cash 4 Titles, C4T's funds were frozen following criminal and civil action in the United States.The problems came with the arrest in Fort Lauderdale on October 15 of Michael E. Gause, who helps to run the underlying business in which the fund invests.