November 2004 Archives

By Kathy Kristof -

Jerome Schneider once promoted offshore tax schemes in in-flight magazines. In U.S. District Court in San Francisco in December, Schneider will be sentenced for conspiracy to defraud the federal government.

In hopes of getting a lighter sentence, Schneider has pleaded guilty and included a detailed confession to the complicated tax shelter scheme he promoted. He recently gave reporters a preview.

Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Yasser Arafat, the Nobel Peace Prize winner reviled by his enemies as a terrorist, controlled a company that Palestinian Authority documents show held a $6.8 million account at Citigroup Inc., Palestinian legislators Hanan Ashrawi and Azmi Shuaibi said.

The company, Palestine Commercial Services Co., held the account until it was transferred to the Palestine Investment Fund, according to the fund's 2003 annual report. The fund was created in 2002 to consolidate the Palestinian Authority's assets and bring them under the control of its finance ministry.

Rainer-Marc Frey is reported to be in the early stages of setting up a hedge fund and wealth management group, called Horizon 21. Thomas Nahm, a JPMorgan equity trader who left the firm earlier this year, will reportedly head Horizon's London office. Frey and Nahm could not be reached.

Frey is one of the most well-known players in the hedge fund community and that is likely to be a priceless commodity in his new venture, noted hedge fund mavens. One of his peers said, "You can raise money on his name alone."

PANAMA CITY, Nov. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Jonathan Curshen is an expert in offshore asset protection strategies. He specializes in wealth protection, international asset protection trusts and foundations, international business corporations, worldwide investing, yacht registrations, and global banking. Mr. Curshen is a member of APOI (The Asia Pacific Offshore Institute), ITPA (The International Tax Planners Association) and has been a featured speaker at countless asset protection seminars.

Not new to international trade and finance laws, as evidenced by their ships and mortgages registration law from 1927, Panama has some of the strongest banking privacy laws. 70% of its GNP is from the service industry, including financial services. Panama is not likely to falter in maintaining and improving their position as an international haven.

By Jessi Winchester -

"A state of war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the nation's citizens" ~ U. S. Supreme Court

Americans have been bombarded with constant prophecies of impending gloom and doom from government sources on nearly a daily basis since 9-11. The word 'terrorism' has been used so often it has lost its impact and we are desensitized to it. We've repeatedly been reminded to be "vigilant" to the point we simply ignore the warning color code. But worst of all is the ill-named Patriot Act. This Orwellian legislation has virtually stripped Americans of their individual liberties and turned the nation into a police state. Three years of unrelenting pessimism and oppression has caused a national collective depression.

CHINA'S central bank loosened its currency policy ever so slightly on November 16, saying that Chinese emigrants would be allowed to take personal assets out of the country from next month - albeit in stages.

It also said foreigners who inherit Chinese assets would be allowed to take their inheritance offshore.

According to the new rule to be enacted December 1, Chinese citizens moving overseas will be able to legally convert their personal assets into foreign currency and transfer them out of China, which is "another step toward making the Renminbi convertible,"a statement made by the central bank said.

By David Cay Johnston -

SEATTLE, Nov. 18 - Jerome Schneider, the nation's best-known seller of fraudulent offshore banks, said in an interview today that he had helped hundreds of rich Americans evade taxes, including actors, celebrities and business owners.

Mr. Schneider, who pleaded guilty in February to conspiring to help his clients evade the tax laws, said that he expected "every single one" of his clients to be prosecuted or sued for the taxes they evaded. He said clients sought to evade taxes on incomes ranging from $100,000 to $40 million, though most were from a third to half a million dollars.

SAN FRANCISCO (AFX) -- Hedge funds pulled in more than $100 billion in the first nine months of 2004 as institutions and wealthy individuals looked for alternatives to stocks and bonds, a survey released Thursday shows.

Money flowing into hedge funds slowed in the third quarter to $25.1 billion, down from a record $43.3 billion in the second quarter and from $38.2 billion in the first three months of 2004, Tremont Capital Management said.

(PRWEB) November 17, 2004 -- Banks worldwide are offering more and more new services that help the customer understand and plan for their future. The bank or financial institution is nothing without the customer and finally the customer is reaping some of the rewards. Visitors to www.nopump.com can find out about the best financial institutions, choices, options and the best competitive rates –interest both on loans and term deposits.

With healthy scepticism … surely this is not for the benefit of the customer but really illustrates the need for banks to get competitive. The 10 most successful (profitable) banks in the world listed below show their clear profits for 2003:

Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Hedge funds attracted $46.6 billion during the first nine months of this year and more than half the money went to middlemen who don't personally oversee the funds.

About $26.4 billion poured into so-called funds of funds, according to data compiled by Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research Inc. The funds now account for almost 40 percent of the $890 billion invested worldwide in hedge funds, up from a third in 2002, Hedge Fund Research reported.

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(CCNMatthews - Nov. 15, 2004) - The British Columbia Securities Commission has ruled that a jailed U.S. stock promoter manipulated securities markets in the United States and committed fraud in B.C. to illegally garner US$36-million.

A commission panel permanently banned Edward Andrew Durante (also known as Ed Simmons) from securities trading in B.C. and ordered that he pay the maximum administrative penalty for individuals of Cdn$250,000. The commission prohibited Durante from being a director or officer of any issuer, and from engaging in investor relations activities. He must also pay hearing costs.

By Shu-Ching Jean Chen -

Beijing-based Bank of China Ltd., one of China's big four state-owned banks, has completed a preliminary screening process to find a foreign strategic investor, the first step to a massive offshore IPO.

Tang Shuangning, deputy head of China Banking Regulatory Commission, the industry regulator, revealed the development Thursday, Nov. 11. He also reiterated plans to open up all of China's big four state banks to foreign investment.

By Frosty Wooldridge -

In the past ten years, American jobs screamed out of the United States at an accelerating rate of speed. While American workers stood in unemployment lines, major corporations insourced, outsourced and offshored jobs to Third World countries. Why? They could obtain labor for $1.00 an hour and sometimes less. Capitalism knows no loyalty to man, beast or country.

At the high end, Congress offered hundreds of thousands of H-1B and L-1 visas that displaced 890,000 American high tech workers out of jobs while importing cheap labor from overseas.

By Andrew Bibby -

At a time when every company with a back office or a call centre seems to be cutting costs by sending their work offshore, one answer could be to join the trend and go offshore yourself.

Until earlier this year, Charlie Cattell ran his specialist consultancy business from an office in his home in Yorkshire. In April, however, he moved to a small seaside town in the Peloponnese, about two hours' drive south of Athens. The view from his office is of the Mediterranean, with mountains behind him and islands beyond. Down the hill the olive harvest is getting under way. 'It's really rather nice,' he says, with English understatement. It is also much cheaper.

By Phil Waller -

Lloyds TSB today said it was planning to transfer up to 1,000 jobs from the UK to India by the end of next year.

The banking group said it had decided to increase the number of so-called offshore staff it employs in locations such as Bangalore and Mumbai (formerly Bombay) to up to 2,500 from the current 1,500.

Regional financial institutions are posting record profits. And so are the foreign players cashing in on the Gulf's current boom.

The current boom in Gulf banking - with full-year profits for 2003 up by 20 percent to $7.1 billion, and profits at Saudi banks up 30 percent in the first half of the year - obviously has an awful lot to do with the soaring price of oil.

The recent rise in consumer banking also goes a long way toward explaining the renaissance for Gulf-based financial institutions. The Gulf is home to a nearly unique concentration of multimillionaire and billionaire clients.

LONDON: Having failed to regulate front companies that led to criminals moving funds into the country, Britain had emerged as a safe haven for money laundering, a report indicated on Saturday.

The report, from the anti-corruption group Transparency International, said it was "both regrettable and unacceptable" that while British offshore jurisdictions had been forced to introduce regulation, the UK itself had yet to do so.

According to the report, authored by Marcus Killick, chairman of Gibraltar's financial services commission, an estimated 25 billion pounds to 40 billion pounds of dirty money is laundered in the UK each year.

The Irish funds industry has grown more than 30% in the last year, with assets for the first time exceeding $500 billion (EUR410 million), according to Fitzrovia International's new Dublin Fund Encyclopaedia.

Fitzrovia's tenth annual edition of the publication has revealed dramatic growth in the Irish funds sector over the last ten years: as at 30 June 2004, net assets in Dublin-domiciled funds reached $503.3 billion in 2,208 funds and subfunds, up from $375.4 billion the year before, while net assets on June 30 1995 stood at a relatively lowly $21 billion in 544 funds and subfunds.

Two men have gone on trial in the Auckland District Court accused of sinking US$1 million of investors' funds into an overseas scam.

The money has vanished.

In his opening address, prosecutor Shane Walsh said it was ironic that the money went into an account of a company called El Dorado Mining International - named after the fabled lost city of gold.

By Suzanne McGee -

A fine kernel of advice for the global expat is "travel light". However, there are no easy answers when it comes to managing one's wealth from country to country.

Wealthy globetrotters face innumerable challenges, picking up new complications on taxes, real estate, investing and estate planning with each new stop on the journey. The bottom line for the global expat: do-it-yourself financial planning is not a sound option.

By Graham Brink -

The founder of the Hooters restaurant chain, Lynn "L.D." Stewart, failed to pay millions of dollars in federal income tax, according to authorities.

An indictment made public in the U.S. District Court in Tampa Friday accuses Stewart of two counts of tax evasion and two counts of filing a false tax return.

Stewart failed to pay $1.7-million in income taxes for 1997 and $2.3-million for 1998, the indictment states. He earned $12.1-million in taxable income in those two years, but he declared $910,044, according to court documents.