Tim Ridley

Given the success of a global clampdown on tax evasion, can Offshore Financial Centers survive and prosper in this new financial climate without tax evading clients and if so, who will be the winners and losers?

This session will look at what caused the crisis, the financial impact on clients of Cyprus' offshore sector, which jurisdictions are likely to benefit from the problems, and whether the debacle could be repeated in other OFCs. Watch NowView Trailer

This session will look at attempts by the world's major governments to tax the wealthy and the potential impact on offshore financial centers. Watch NowView Trailer

The recent collapse in suspicious circumstances of four investment funds in the Cayman Islands which were established by one of the island's leading local businessmen - Naul Bodden - highlights the absurd level of secrecy that exists in all offshore financial centers that are currently or formerly UK Overseas Territories and, for that matter, the UK itself; Meanwhile, as one of Cayman's worst local company collapses was unfolding, a much-accomplished regulator who would have inspired confidence among the international community that the liquidations would be handled properly, Tim Ridley, was being replaced, effective July 27, 2008, as Chairman of the supposedly-independent Cayman Islands Monetary Authority by Carlyle McLaughlin, who is a cousin of Alden McLaughlin, a senior member of the Cayman Islands Government; Continuing on a Cayman theme, OffshoreAlert noticed that a US-based entrepreneur, Uthman Villanueva, using a business name of 'Golden Crest Consulting' a 'hotmail' email address and a PO Box mailing address in New York, NY, registered the domain name 'uglandhouse.com' as recently as June 28, 2008 - just a few weeks before the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation was due to hold a hearing into tax avoidance and evasion in offshore financial centers; and Three founders of a fraudulent, offshore-focused outfit that was known first as the Global Prosperity Group and later as the Institute of Global Prosperity, received prison-terms for tax crimes at federal court in the USA on July 28, 2008.

In another example of the extraordinary inability of Grenada to oversee and regulate its banking industry in anything other than a manner that appears to be suspiciously incompetent to many in the outside world, a local judge has vacated  the appointment of a Receiver for a local bank, Capital Bank International, on a technicality, notwithstanding overwhelming evidence that it is hopelessly insolvent and awash with financial irregularities and improprieties, and Grenada's Director of Public Prosecutions has dropped fraud charges against the bank's controlling shareholder and CEO, Finton DeBourg, only a few weeks after he was charged; Cayman Islands Monetary Authority Chairman Tim Ridley has warned local directors that they may face an increased risk of being served with subpoenas while traveling in the United States in the coming months, such is the political climate in the U. S.; A federal court in Pensacola, Florida has entered a preliminary injunction barring Pinnacle Quest International and its principals from publicizing tax fraud schemes that have been promoted to customers throughout the United States, the U. S. Department of Justice announced on May 16, 2008; and Mark Watson, CEO of Argo Group International Holdings Ltd., was the highest-compensated executive officer of any Bermuda-based, publicly-listed insurer in 2007, receiving a package valued at $15 million, according to a compensation review conducted by OffshoreAlert's sister newsletter, InsideBermuda.