Sir John Swan

Offshore banker and oil tycoon John Deuss has been released on $10 million bail in Bermuda - three days after his arrest as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering and other financial crimes.Deuss, a 64-year-old Dutch national who has resided in Bermuda since the 1970s, has agreed to waive extradition to the Netherlands, where he is wanted for questioning about alleged money laundering and other financial crimes.

The “debate” over whether Bermuda should go independent has always been a waste of time, but now it has descended into farce. If the possible financial ruin of a successful country could ever be said to be funny, what's going on here would be hilarious.

The UK Privy Council has thwarted plans by private entrepreneurs, led by former Premier Sir John Swan, to take Bermuda down-market by opening US fast-food franchises on the island.The court of appeal rejected an appeal by Swan's company, Grape Bay Ltd., to strike down Bermuda's Prohibited Restaurants Act, which was enacted in 1996 in a bid to stop Swan from opening a McDonald's restaurant.

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.

Bermuda-based oil magnate John Deuss, 55, has lived a life that is remarkable even among the rich and famous. Since his first car dealership business went bust, he has outwitted the Soviets, broken an oil embargo in South Africa, had his home firebombed by anti-apartheid protesters and helped clinch the world's largest oil deal. In the process, the Dutchman has made billions of dollars. Now it appears to many that he has ‘bought' the new PLP government in Bermuda. Deuss paid off the mortgage on the party's headquarters a few years ago, appointed PLP leader and new Bermuda Premier Jennifer Smith as a director of his Bermuda bank and is widely thought to have spent at least $2 million financing the PLP's entire election campaign that culminated in the party winning power for the first time earlier this month. A reliable source also told us that, several months ago, Deuss began paying Smith $150,000 per year that is categorized as a ‘clothing allowance'. DAVID MARCHANT takes a look at his career and asks: ‘John Deuss - Hero or Villain?'.

OffshoreAlert has uncovered more evidence that casts a negative light over the claims of investment success of James Dale Davidson, whose business interests in Bermuda include Lines Overseas Management and Strategic Advisors Overseas.

Bermuda's $29 billion-capitalized international business sector looks set for a renewed boom following the emphatic rejection of independence last month and the appointment of a new, business-oriented premier, David Saul.There are already signs that investors in insurance and other areas who had held off until after the referendum result was known are now going ahead with their plans to form on the island.