Brasil is not an offshore haven but if you've ever wanted to become an expert escape artist and make yourself very difficult to be found while living a relatively normal life, this would be the place. I'm writing to you from Sao Paulo the second largest city (after Mexico city) in the world. I've visited Mexico city and number 3 largest Jakarta and while I enjoyed both and especially like Mexico neither of them can compare to Brasil, in my opinion.
To be sure, I'm not an escape artist and don't need to hide from anyone, plus can travel freely anywhere in the world with my Canadian Passport but my offshore legal counsel advises me that gaining Brasilian citizenship, which I've done, is an excellent step towards living a sovereign lifestyle. You see, the Brasilian Government has no extradition treaties with other countries, including United States and or Canada.
Having no extradition treaties means that if something were to happen outside of Brasil where I was indicted for a criminal activity, then there would be no-way for another country to have me returned against my will to face prosecution. Also, important to note is that due to the economic strength and global political power of Brasil, there is no bending the will of the Government for anything short of an atrocious terrorist act. I've read that there is unilateral global co-operation to catch terrorist and Brasil is involved in some investigations of it's citizens but for any white collar crime there's no possible way another country can get cooperation. I highly doubt that I'll ever require this impunity but it's nice to know that my new country of choice is willing to embrace my freedom.
I could go on about the benefits and advantages of living in Brasil but today is a light day of Blogging as it's Club Day. Yes, the big city of 18 million inhabitants features some truly amazing Clubs and I've been fortunate enough to visit several and choose what I, and many others, believe to be the very nicest Club in Sao Paulo. The Club is an integral part of life for the upwardly mobile middle class and of course many upper class people are members just for the social activities. My Club has over 30,000 members and while there's no golf course like the country clubs of U.S. and Canada we have 10 times the pool facilities, dozens of clay tennis courts, a couple of full-size soccer pitches, several indoor gymnasiums and every imaginable sport, leisure activity you can think of.
In the coming days I've decided to write more about living in Brasil and share some of the understanding of this society that I've come to learn, from having lived here on-and-off since 1997 and been 18 months in-country. Brasil is a marvelous place to live, so if you're reading this and visiting the OffshoreNet Blog for the first time, I hope you'll come back often.
