Insider Talking

Insider Talking: March 24, 2011

March 24, 2011

Alleged fraudster Michael Guard rises to the top at dubious Capital Conservator Group; The sordid tale of disbarred Bahamas attorney Jan Ward; Arnold Forbes claims he intends to sue Canadian broadcaster CTV for implicating him in an alleged investment fraud; Stanford University Professor Dr. Thomas Kenney accepts advisory role with dubious offshore investment firm Cedrus Investments; and Cayman Islands-domiciled Alacrity Capital Offshore Fund and related parties are sued in a dispute over administrative fees.

Insider Talking: October 29, 2010

October 29, 2010

Any lingering hope anyone had that details of the Bermuda Monetary Authority's investigation into Lines Overseas Management in 2004 2005 would ever become public knowledge faded when LOM settled a fraud complaint brought by the U. S. Securities and Exchange

Insider Talking: August 26, 2010

August 26, 2010

Litigation that has been taking place in Florida over the last 22 months on behalf of victims of various get rich quick investment schemes that substantially targeted Jamaican nationals or their descendants in the Caribbean and the United States is

Insider Talking: May 12, 2010

May 12, 2010

Bermuda resident Eric Collins seemingly rues the day he agreed to serve as a director of Consensus Investments Ltd., which the SEC alleges was used to conceal insider trading in penny stock SHEP Technologies by Lines Overseas Management, Scott Lines,

Insider Talking: January 12, 2010

January 12, 2010

The Hedge Hog and Conserve Fund has become the latest example of the extraordinary reluctance of the Bermuda Monetary Authority to take any meaningful action against locally domiciled financial services firms that are suspected of illegal activity, no matter how

Insider Talking: August 19, 2009

November 19, 2009

U. S. businessman Robert F. X. Sillerman, whose assets include the hit television show 'American Idol' and the late Elvis Presley's estate Graceland, has satisfied a summary judgment for $24.2 million that was entered against him in favor of Credit

Insider Talking: October 5, 2009

October 5, 2009

A High Court judge in St. Lucia has quashed a dubious decision by the Government of St. Lucia to protect a Government Minister, Keith Mondesir, after he was apparently caught trying to avoid customs duty on household items that he

Insider Talking: July 19, 2009

July 19, 2009

Bermuda based husband and wife financial advisors were charged with stealing $360,000 from one of their companies, Emerald Capital International Ltd., and laundering the proceeds during a hearing at Bermuda Magistrates Court on July 9, 209. David Bolden, 44, a

Insider Talking: June 14, 2009

June 14, 2009

Fresh from the collapse of his fraudulently operated Cayman Islands based stock brokerage SEGOES Securities with a net insolvency of approximately $10 million, John Kaweske, Jr. has re emerged in recent months through the creation of his own fantasy world

Insider Talking: April 7, 2009

April 7, 2009

In the very first edition of OffshoreAlert in February, 1997, we referred to TCI as the "Totally Corrupt Islands" and commented that there was a presumption among knowledgeable businesspeople that TCI domiciled companies were "crooked until proven otherwise", prompting a

Insider Talking: March 11, 2009

March 11, 2009

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and PricewaterhouseCoopers (Bermuda) have paid the State of New Jersey $5.85 million to resolve allegations of fraud and accounting improprieties at Tyco International Ltd., according to a press release issued by New Jersey's Attorney General, Anne Milgram, on

Insider Talking: December 8, 2008

December 8, 2008

US Senator John Kerry intends to look into offshore tax evasion; First Curacao International Bank to "start repatriating" frozen assets; UK Government commissions review of offshore financial centers' Condor Insurance sued in California; and US criminally indicts Raoul Weil, Chairman and CEO of UBS Global Wealth Management and Business Banking and a member of the Swiss bank's Group Executive Board.

Insider Talking: November 10, 2008

November 10, 2008

Insureds of British Virgin Islands based Boston Life and Annuity Company Ltd. (in liquidation) have won an important legal victory in their attempt to recover $11 million they claim was defrauded from them in a scheme allegedly masterminded by US

Insider Talking: September 8, 2008

September 8, 2008

Miami-based businessman Charles Intriago, who sold his anti-money laundering-focused company Alert Global Media, Inc. to New York-based supplier of AML technology Fortent in December, 2006 and continued to manage it before abruptly departing in late March, 2008, is preparing to launch a new business venture that will concentrate on asset forfeiture; Canadian national Wayne Wile, who has been accused of committing securities fraud along with the Cayman, Bahamas and Bermuda operations of investment group Lines Overseas Management, obtained a Cayman Islands Driver's License in a false name, according to the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission; OffshoreAlert has obtained more information about companies and individuals involved with the Grand Island Commodity Trading Fund group of companies, which went into liquidation on June 17, 2008 - one month before its trading manager, R. Christopher Girvan, was arrested in Cayman on suspicion of theft, false accounting and fraud; Investment fraudster Keem Kalfon is at it again. His latest venture operates as 'The People's Money Center' from a web-site at www.peoplemc.com, which was established in June, 2007; and Despite all that has happened over the last 10 years in terms of legal gateways being implemented to allow foreign parties to obtain information about individuals and businesses operating in offshore financial centers, there is still a misconception among some residents of major countries that the secrecy and anonymity of their offshore transactions is enshrined in law.

Insider Talking: August 4, 2008

August 4, 2008

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.

Insider Talking: July 2, 2008

July 2, 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.

Insider Talking: June 5, 2008

June 5, 2008

Six years after its offshore financial services sector collapsed under the weight of fraudulent banking and investment schemes by the private and public sector that cheated foreign investors collectively out of hundreds of millions of dollars, the island of Grenada is preparing to re-enter the OFC market, notwithstanding its reputation as one of the most corrupt, dishonest and poorly-managed countries in the Caribbean; and Meanwhile, as Grenada looks into re-launching its offshore banking industry, it is in the grip of a major scandal involving one of its local banks, Capital Bank International, which went into receivership on February 14, 2008 amid allegations of fraud and insolvency.

Insider Talking: May 7, 2008

May 7, 2008

Former Canada-based offshore services provider Peter Sabourin and related parties, including companies he controlled in the British Virgin Islands and the Bahamas, have been ordered to pay $1.77 million in compensatory and punitive damages, plus costs and fees, to the victim of an investment scam they perpetrated; Creditors of St. Vincent and the Grenadines-licensed Horizon Bank International Limited (in liquidation) took a massive hit at Bermuda Supreme Court on March 31, 2008 when Justice Ian Kawaley awarded damages of $20 million against the bank for conspiracy to defraud and breach of fiduciary duty in a civil complaint filed by Canadians Allen Walsh and Hans Taal; and Alleging fraud, segregation and false reporting violations involving $562 million in client funds, the U. S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a complaint against Sentinel Management Group Inc. (in bankruptcy) and two of its former officers, Eric Bloom and Charles Mosley, at federal court in the USA on April 28, 2008.

Insider Talking: March 10, 2008

March 10, 2008

A state-owned bank in Taiwan has obtained a $25.1 million default judgment over the Government of Grenada regarding unpaid loans, OffshoreAlert can disclose; Bahamian Samuel Knowles, 48, was found guilty on one count of conspiracy to import cocaine and one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine by a jury at federal court in the USA on March 5, 2008; The forced closure by regulators of Colorado's sole remaining 'offshore bank', American Intercapital Depository Trust, on November 19, 2007 was confirmed on January 17, 2008 when no-one turned up to contest the regulatory action at a hearing before the Colorado Division of Banking; and Does anyone remember Alexandre Konanykhine?

Insider Talking: February 11, 2008

February 11, 2008

A bitterly-fought civil action filed by Bermuda-domiciled IPOC International Growth Fund Limited against US-based intelligence-gathering and risk management firm Diligence LLC and one of Diligence's clients, the law firm of Barbour, Griffith and Rogers LLC, is over; In the British Virgin Islands, an order placing Boston Life and Annuity Company Limited into provisional liquidation was issued by the local High Court on December 21, 2007 following an application on December 5, 2007 by the insurer itself; and One of the most memorable moments of the 5th OffshoreAlert Financial Due Diligence Conference last April was when the Bermuda Monetary Authority's Director of Enforcement would not answer a question from OffshoreAlert's publisher asking him to name a single Bermudian or Bermuda-owned company that the regulator had ever penalized in its entire history, which spans 39 years.

Insider Talking: January 4, 2008

January 4, 2008

A public hearing is scheduled to be held before the Colorado Banking Board on January 17, 2008 at which a challenge will be heard to the "emergency order of involuntary liquidation and order for possession" that were entered by the Board on November 19, 2007 against the state's sole remaining offshore bank, American Intercapital Holding LLC., d.b.a. American Intercapital Depository & Trust, f.k.a. American International Depository & Trust; Grenada Prime Minister Keith Mitchell, along with his wife, Marietta Mitchell, was dismissed as a defendant in a civil action at the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York on December 5, 2007 after all parties agreed that he is entitled to "head-of-state immunity"; Visitors to the "Warnings" page of a web-site operated by the Nevis Financial Services Regulation & Supervision Department will no longer see a warning that the regulatory agency issued on October 19, 2007 against Global Consultants and Services (Nevis) Limited; and The legal validity of Condor Insurance Limited's Amory-assisted continuance from St. Kitts to Nevis was challenged by Condor's principal, Harvey Milam, in a filing at the U. S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Mississippi on December 21, 2007.

Insider Talking: December 11, 2007

December 11, 2007

Bermuda took another step down the road from well-respected, relatively-clean, model democracy to internationally-ridiculed, corruption-ridden, banana republic when the office of Bermuda's Auditor General, Larry Dennis, was raided by police for the second time in five months on November 17, 2007; Two ex-clients of jailed former Panama-based offshore financial services provider Marc Harris escaped prison-time when they were sentenced for tax evasion-related offenses at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on November 30, 2007; AM Costa Rica news service reported on November 9, 2007 that the Seccion de Fraudes of the Judicial Investigating Organization raided the offices of Trade Exchange SA, a.k.a. Tradex, on October 30 as part of an investigation into the activities of an expatriate financial consultant, Mark Emory Boswell, a.k.a. Rex Freeman, and his wife, Evelyn Reed; Three former employees of National Westminster Bank Plc - popularly known as the 'NatWest Three' - entered into plea agreements with the U. S. Government on November 28, 2007 in which they admitted their roles in defrauding their employer of $7.3 million in March, 2000 via transactions involving Enron Corp. and a legal vehicle in the Cayman Islands known as LJM Cayman LP Ironically, earlier in November, just before much of the British press were lauding the NatWest fraudsters, several British newspapers published the results of research by offshore banking provider NatWest International Personal Banking that indicated 1 in 10 British expatriates have been victims of banking fraud; and The manner of the collapse of Colorado's last remaining offshore bank, American Intercapital Depository and Trust, known as AIDT, which regulators recently closed down due to "hopeless" insolvency and their belief that the management was dishonest, casts doubt on the credibility of The Offshore Institute, a professional organization whose President, E. Jerry James, was AIDT's guiding force.

Insider Talking: November 11, 2007

November 11, 2007

News that the British Virgin Islands authorities are preparing criminal charges for money laundering against IPOC International Growth Fund Limited heaps pressure on Bermuda, where IPOC is domiciled, to do something more meaningful than Minister of Finance Paula Cox applying

Insider Talking: October 11, 2007

October 11, 2007

The U. S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has announced that its Division of Enforcement was awarded “a record total of more than $540 million in civil monetary penalties, restitution, and disgorgement from respondents and defendants in actions involving fraud, manipulation, and other misconduct” for its fiscal year ended September 30, 2007; In other regulatory news, here's a list of actions taken recently by regulators in offshore financial centers; and Microsoft Corp. has become the latest big company to sue a business, purportedly domiciled in the Cayman Islands, that registers and warehouses domain names that are confusingly similar to registered Trademarks of established enterprises.

Insider Talking: September 10, 2007

September 10, 2007

A jury in Texas has awarded 41 investors clients damages of $8.8 million, plus annual interest of 8.25% backdated to December 12, 2002, against Atlas Financial Group Ltd. and Atlas Private Trust Ltd., which collapsed in the Turks and Caicos

Insider Talking: August 7, 2007

August 7, 2007

Former offshore services provider Marc Harris, who was sentenced to serve 17 years in prison on May 17, 2004 after being convicted by a jury of conspiracy to defraud the USA, money laundering and tax evasion, turned down a pre-trial offer from prosecutors that would have seen him receive just three years in prison in return for a guilty plea, according to a recently-filed court paper in Miami; New information about what is shaping up to be the latest big offshore hedge fund scandal recently became publicly available in filings at the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, where the U. S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is trying to close down Lake Shore Asset Management Limited, which is incorporated in Bermuda; and Former offshore specialist Nigel Scott Grant, who once participated in a Nevis-based investment scam while working as an attorney in California, is being sued in Florida for allegedly failing to pay legal fees of $16,125 to a Miami-based law firm, Levey, Airan, Shevin, Roen, Kelso, Corona & Herrera LLP.

Insider Talking: July 12, 2007

July 12, 2007

James Fontanetta, a former director of Cayman Islands-based SEGOES Services Ltd., f.k.a. SEGOES Securities Ltd., has been so helpful to the company's liquidators that they have agreed to apply to set aside a default judgment that they obtained against him at the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands; and Regulatory warnings around the world.

Insider Talking: June 10, 2007

June 10, 2007

OffshoreAlert has previously reported about the incomplete and materially inaccurate disclosures of River Capital Group Inc., a Delaware corporation operated from Bermuda with a Barbados insurer as its principal subsidiary, in its filings with the SEC in the United States, where its shares are listed on the OTC BB; Marty Steinberg, the Receiver for the fraudulently-operated Lancer group of hedge funds, recently filed two more civil complaints at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in an attempt to recover a total of $106,000 that he claims was illegally transferred out of Lancer to third-parties in 2003; An offshore reinsurer has taken action in the United States to enforce a judgment for US$347,576 it obtained against a U. S. firm at the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands; and Syrian-born arms dealer Monzer al-Kassar, an ex-business partner of the now-defunct, fraudulently-operated Imperial Consolidated Group, was arrested in Spain — where he lives — on June 7, 2007 after being indicted in the United States.

Insider Talking: May 14, 2007

May 14, 2007

Nearly three years after obtaining a default judgment for $44,143 against St. Kitts based offshore financial services provider M. Irvin BonCamper, MBNA America Bank NA has finally collected. Attorneys for MBNA acknowledged “full and complete satisfaction” of the judgment in

Insider Talking: April 5, 2007

April 5, 2007

Former Bahamas-based money manager Martin Tremblay receives a 48-month prison sentence for money laundering, Richard E. Busch, Jr. is extradited from the Republic of Panama to Alabama to face securities charges, clients of Julius Baer Holding AG are being investigated by German tax authorities after a former employee in the Cayman Islands stole data and turned it over to the authorities, and Bermuda Stock Exchange-listed Ashby Corporation announces collapse of deal to sell Bahamas Film Studio to Bahamas FilmInvest International.

Insider Talking: March 9, 2007

March 9, 2007

The web-sites of two companies whose dubious activities have been highlighted in recent editions of OffshoreAlert have been dismantled over the last few weeks; On February 12, 2007, OffshoreAlert received an email from Kristen Lawson, a “Legislative Advisor” with Miller Thomson LLP, a law firm based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Telecommunications and cable television firms in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands have been dragged into a long-running legal dispute over the ownership of a $900,000 airplane that was damaged in Hurricane Ivan; Under Prime Minister Keith Mitchell, Grenada has become the poster country for corruption and banking fraud; OffshoreAlert recently learned that U. S. Bank N.A. obtained a default judgment for $21 million against British-based alleged fraudster Sendjer Shefket and his British firm Target International Funds Ltd. at federal court in the USA on May 24, 2006; Convicted white-collar criminals who believe they are punished too severely in the United States should be thankful they don't operate in China; and While the U. S. legal system does not yet offer death as a punishment for fraudsters, it is still less than hospitable for convicted white-collar criminals, as Martin A. Armstrong can attest to.

Insider Talking: February 7, 2007

February 7, 2007

Bermuda Supreme Court has ruled that Finance Minister Paula Cox acted lawfully in assisting U. S. tax authorities in an investigation into California-based offshore trust advisor Terence Michael Coxon; On January 10, 2007, the Central Bank of the Bahamas issued warnings against Caribbean International Bank and Deltec Financial & Trust Services; and a look at the dubious background of Ronald Rudman, Compliance Officer for Colorado-based American International Depository & Trust.

Insider Talking: January 7, 2007

January 7, 2007

A Bahamas-based business operated by Mohamad Harajchi and his son, Michel Harajchi, that was exposed in the October 31, 2006 edition of OffshoreAlert has stopped accepting new business; Andreas Ihrke has agreed to be extradited from the United States to Germany, where he has been charged with fraud and falsification of documents; British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported on December 23 that the U. K. Government “is set to announce within weeks an amnesty scheme for tax evaders who have stashed money in offshore bank accounts"; OffshoreAlert has uncovered a securities fraud complaint that was filed - and later dismissed - at the U. S. District Court for the District of Nevada in 2003 against a company that has featured prominently in the newsletter in recent months, Bermuda-based River Capital Limited; A Costa Rica-based brokerage firm has reached a settlement with the British Columbia Securities Commission after admitting to unregistered trading to B. C. residents; and Bancafe International Bank Ltd., which is the fifth largest unsecured creditors of bankrupt commodities broker Refco, with a claim for $204 million, had its operations closed by the Central Bank of Barbados, effective October 23, 2006.

Insider Talking: December 7, 2006

December 7, 2006

Nearly six years after being forced into Receivership and then provisional liquidation, Suisse Security Bank & Trust Limited has finally gone into official liquidation in the Bahamas; MBNA America Bank NA obtained an order of garnishment at the Circuit Court for the 11th Judicial Circuit, Miami-Dade County, Florida on October 30, 2006 that allows it to garnish assets up to $44,143, plus costs of $198, at Eastern Financial Bank that are beneficially owned by St. Kitts-based financial services provider M. Irvin BonCamper; The Swedish Financial Services Authority, known as Finansinspektionen, has issued a public warning about Charterhouse Trust Credit Union, which was exposed by OffshoreAlert as long ago as May 31, 2002; An order to compulsorily wind-up International Alliance Insurance Limited was entered at the Royal Court of Guernsey on April 4, 2006, with Anthony Christian Pickford and James Robert Toynton, of Chandlers Limited, appointed joint liquidators; and The U. S. SEC announced on November 28, 2006 that the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a preliminary injunction on November 14, 2006 barring Ian Scott from pursuing litigation in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.

Insider Talking: November 9, 2006

November 9, 2006

The cold reality of life behind bars has persuaded former offshore banker Paul Morgan Jones to start turning over his assets to the Receiver of Cash 4 Titles, which perpetrated one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in history, operating from

Insider Talking: September 7, 2006

September 7, 2006

A tax information exchange agreement between the Isle of Man and the United States has come into force. In a press release on September 1, 2006, the U. S. Department of The Treasury announced that “An exchange of letters between

Insider Talking: July 10, 2006

July 10, 2006

Jeffrey Allen Weston sued by the SEC; and Chantal Williams distances herself from Martin Tremblay's Dominion Investments.

Insider Talking: June 7, 2006

June 7, 2006

A British company that is at the heart of a liquidation scam being perpetrated against creditors of failed litigation funding firm Invaro Ltd. has missed a statutory deadline for filing its first accounts and is now subject to penalty fees; Former Panama-based, offshore financial services provider Marc Harris, 41, has lost his appeal against his November 24, 2003 conviction in the United States on multiple tax fraud, tax evasion and money laundering charges and May 21, 2004 sentencing to 17 years in prison, a fine of $20.3 million, and restitution of $6.6 million; and An unlicensed Canada-based forex dealer with a checkered past appears to be behind a purported offshore investment provider that was the target of a warning by the Bermuda Monetary Authority earlier this year, OffshoreAlert can disclose.

Insider Talking: May 5, 2006

May 5, 2006

A United States court has ordered former insiders of British Virgin Islands incorporated Evergreen Security Ltd. to repay $10.4 million that they received in fraudulent transfers from the unregistered offshore mutual fund before it collapsed in 2001. In a judgment

Insider Talking: February 4, 2006

February 4, 2006

A U. S.-based professional organization for private investigators has revoked the membership of Cayman Islands-based PI William Claude C. Myles for “professional misconduct” and violations of its code of ethics; What is the going rate for climbing into bed with crooks to ‘throw' a liquidation so the bad guys can continue to profit at the expense of true creditors? Try £1,624 (US$2,870) per day!; A victim of 72-year-old serial fraudster Keem Kalfon, a.k.a. Chaim Kalfon, a.k.a. Chaim Chalfon, has set up a web-site at www.chaimchalfontaxevader.com following the collapse of his latest scheme, known as LifeStyle Master Inc.; Once again proving that there is no hiding place for financial criminals, no matter which country they flee to when looking for a rock to hide under, the U. S. Government recently arranged the deportation from Panama of accused fraudster David Alan Struckman, a co-founder of the Global Prosperity Group; and If Bahamas-based investment scam group Banakor Swisse is indeed behind several menacing telephone calls that have been anonymously made to OffshoreAlert's publisher over several months, as evidence indicates, it would not be the first time that the group has reacted crudely to an investigative journalist writing negatively about its fraudulent activities.

Insider Talking: January 4, 2006

January 4, 2006

OffshoreAlert has previously reported about the long-running battle between Taiwan and China for influence in the Caribbean in which impoverished countries receive sizeable financial assistance in return for officially recognizing - or refusing to recognize - Taiwan as a country, depending on who is offering the most attractive deal; The Central Bank of Belize issued a warning about United eXchange International Bank on December 1, 2005; Richard Fogerty and James Cleaver, as joint official liquidators of Bancredit Cayman Limited (in liquidation), have filed two civil lawsuits in the United States in an attempt to collect $2.34 million of allegedly unpaid loans that were issued to customers of the banks; Why did First International Bank of Grenada founder Gilbert Allen Ziegler change his name to Van Arthur Brink in June, 1998?[ Florida-based attorney Nigel Scott Grant and his son, Nicolas E. Grant-St. James, who previously established and, in at least one instance, operated sham credit unions in St. Kitts & Nevis, are back in business together, this time onshore; and Kenneth Krys and Christopher Stride, of RSM Cayman Islands, were appointed as Joint Provisional Liquidators of PFA Assurance Group, Ltd. on September 19, 2005 following an investigation by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.

Insider Talking: November 4, 2005

November 4, 2005

After more than four years on the run, ‘sex.com' domain name thief Stephen Cohen - whose illegal proceeds are believed to be hidden offshore - was arrested in Tijuana, Mexico on October 27, 2005 and turned over to U. S.

Insider Talking: October 4, 2005

October 4, 2005

A Florida based stock promoter with a checkered past has been served with a subpoena on behalf of the liquidators of collapsed Cayman Islands based stock broker SEGOES Services Ltd. Howard Gostfrand, of Miami Beach, and his Florida incorporated stock

Insider Talking: September 4, 2005

September 4, 2005

For several weeks now, Cayman's two main newspapers, the Caymanian Compass and Cayman Net News, have been attacking each other in news articles and editorials. The animosity between the rivals has now spilled out into the legal system. At the

Insider Talking: August 3, 2005

August 3, 2005

Banc Caribe liquidator & National Bank of Dominica settle litigation with Cash 4 Titles receiver; former house painter Russell Cline enters into plea agreement in Oregon concerning fraud and money laundering charges; and US authorities continue with attempt to seize assets of former Ukraine Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko.

Insider Talking: July 5, 2005

July 5, 2005

United States-based, British national Nigel Scott Grant has reared his head again, a few years after OffshoreAlert exposed his involvement in sham offshore credit unions, at least one of which was used to commit investment fraud; The U. S. District Court for the Central District of California has granted summary judgment in favor of the SEC and against a publicly-traded firm that was closely associated with a closed-end investment fund that was once listed on the Bermuda Stock Exchange; A Commission of Inquiry, which some people believe is a sham, has begun in Grenada regarding a bribery allegation against Keith Mitchell; Still in Grenada, telecommunications firm Cable & Wireless recently settled a libel action brought by sue-happy Keith Mitchell for allowing derogatory messages about him concerning the alleged Resteiner cash bribe to be posted on a web-site it hosted, reported the Associated Press on April 26, 2005; Bruce Cowen is sentenced to prison for his involvement in the fraudulently-operated Lancer Offshore group of hedge funds; The Isle of Man Financial Supervision Commission issues warnings against several businesses; and The Cayman Islands Monetary Authority and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission have entered into an Undertaking on Exchange of Information in Securities Matters.

Insider Talking: June 5, 2005

June 5, 2005

Offshore investment firm Lines Overseas Management, which is headquartered in Bermuda and has offices in Cayman, the Bahamas and England, claims to have spent US$2.75 million over the last two years on legal fees concerning two securities fraud investigations into its activities by the Securities and Exchange Commission; The International Financial Services Authority in St. Vincent & the Grenadines has revoked these Class I banking licenses: Horizon International Bank Limited, on April 4, 2005; Transglobal Bank Limited, on April 13, 2005; and Triton Capital Bank Limited, on April 13, 2005; How times have changed. On May 26, 2005, something happened that would have been unthinkable when OffshoreAlert was launched in 1997: the Cayman Islands Government issued a press release lauding its co-operation with U. S. authorities in clamping down on financial crime and disclosing that Cayman Islands Chief Justice Anthony Smellie; and OffshoreAlert has unearthed yet another red-flag concerning GISBeX, a Costa Rica-based stock exchange that purports to specialize in securities offered under Regulation S of the Securities Exchange Act in the United States and operates from a web-site at www.gisbex.com.

Insider Talking: April 30, 2005

April 30, 2005

The biggest creditor in the bankruptcy of Christopher Davy, who was once a senior officer of the tax evasion group The Harris Organization, is none other than the IRS; the dubious liquidation of Imperial Consolidated spin-off Invaro Ltd.; and Canadian Timothy Ryan Babuin receives an eight-year prison sentence for a telemarketing scam against mainly elderly people that ended up causing huge losses for the Bank of Bermuda and Bermuda-based credit card processor First Atlantic Commerce.

Insider Talking: March 31, 2005

March 31, 2005

Three former senior officers of The Harris Organization, which defrauded clients out of tens of millions of dollars before collapsing in 2002, are back in business in Panama. Lawrence George Gandolfi, 65, a.k.a. Larry Gandolfi Christopher Glover Davy, 60, and

Insider Talking: February 28, 2005

February 28, 2005

Former Caribbean banker Thierry Nano, for whom there is an outstanding arrest warrant issued at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in November, 2001, appears to be involved in a luxury yacht business based in the south of France; Surprisingly enough, given our focus on exposing hard-core, financial crime, OffshoreAlert's staff do not receive as many obscene telephone calls as you might expect; A spokesperson for the British Columbia Securities Commission told OffshoreAlert on February 8 that its staff had not applied for a contempt of court order against Lines Overseas Management at the British Columbia Supreme Court, as a BCSC panel had suggested in a ruling on an enforcement action on January 12, 2005; and Creditors of Terry Lindon who are seeking his assets in the wake of the collapse last June of U. K. litigation funding firm Invaro Ltd. ought to pay a visit to http://www.perfectplaces.com/vacation-rentals/a_Villa_Rentals/4314.htm, where they can see an advertisement for his villa in Machico, Madeira, Portugal, which is available for rent for $300 to $500 per night or $2,100 to $3,500 per week, depending on the season.