Jed Karpinski

A United States law firm accused of lining its own pockets by cutting an illegal deal with a telemarketing fraudster to the detriment of one of its clients - an asset recovery firm - has been ordered by a court to produce all of its financial statements and tax returns from 2000 to the present; Three men who were accused of kidnapping an offshore investment fraudster in Kingston, Ontario, Canada in 2001 have pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of common assault; David Ballantyne, who became one of the most despised people in the Cayman Islands, finally agreed to resign as Attorney General, effective March 15, 2003, in the aftermath of the collapse of the Euro Bank money laundering trial; A letter to the editor that was published in the Caymanian Compass on February 26, 2003 spoke volumes for the level of animosity among locals towards the people widely believed to be primarily responsible for the Euro Bank fiasco, which is likely to cost Cayman's taxpayers many millions of dollars in legal fees, costs and damages; Bermuda company director Paul Lemmon has been sentenced to 21 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States; A dispute involving two offshore entities and two Canadian firms has arisen over the rights to the domain name 'poker.com'; Thirteen days after OffshoreAlert's article last month about a lawsuit filed at federal court in Miami by Florida-registered Growth Fund Partnership Inc. against Nevis-registered Condor Insurance Ltd., both of whose operations raise red flags, the action was dismissed with prejudice; Three firms have been ordered to pay tens of millions of dollars of restitution for their part in a massive investment fraud; Florida-based crook Rommy Kriplani, who specializes in ripping off residents of Third World countries by taking their money on the promise of jobs in the United States that never materialize, is at it again, once more in partnership with his favorite law firm of Spiegel & Utrera, of Coral Gables, Florida; and James Michael Dwyer, who until last year owned the White Sands Hotel in Bermuda, was criminally indicted for bank fraud on March 4, 2003 in his native New Jersey.

Hendrik Rienstra, 73, the principal of sham Panama-registered insurer New England International Surety Co. Inc., has died.; OffshoreAlert has uncovered three new names associated with the business activities of crooked financial services provider Marc M. Harris, who has moved his operations to Nicaragua after running up massive debts in Panama, leading to an application from a creditor to wind up his company and an eviction notice issued by his commercial landlord; Police in the UK have charged a fourth person, Francois M. Verkaeren, with conspiracy to commit fraud in connection with an investigation into the business practices of Merrion Reinsurance Company, which is located in Dublin, Ireland; The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has announced that two residents of the Turks & Caicos Islands - Michael Witt, 45, and his partner, Tina Grenier, 41 - have been arrested and charged with various narcotics, money laundering and possession of crime offenses and their US$1 million property restrained in an operation codenamed 'Oilsheik'; and Local newspapers in the Bahamas have suddenly become excited over a criminal indictment that was issued in the United States as long ago as June 15, 1999.

The 72 year old principal of a Panama domiciled company that allegedly provided sham insurance for investment scams has been arrested in Belgium, where he is based.Hendrik Rienstra, of New England International Surety Co. Inc., was among six people arrested