News from Anguilla.
27 May 2000. Issue #16

This issue contains articles found in other magazines/sources. Please contact the source with a view to taking out a subscription (some of them are free) if you want to obtain more of the same. Also check out the other lists at topica.com; some are announcement lists and others are discussion lists – there will be at least one of them that will be to your liking! Feel free to contribute to, reply to, comment on or (Heaven forbid) correct any item in these newsletters. Send an e-mail to: newsletter@ceg.ai Your input will be discreetly disseminated.

LATEST NEWS FROM ANGUILLA....

Anguilla celebrates its National Day on Tuesday (so everywhere will be shut). It is now 33 years since the people declared their independence from the Federated State of St. Kitts/Nevis/Anguilla, which Anguilla had been dragged into, kicking and screaming, in the 19th century. One of the most peaceful revolutions in the world (hardly so much as a shot being fired), it is all well-recorded in "Under An English Heaven" by comic-novelist Donald Westlake (published by Hodder & Stoughton). These days it is celebrated by many events, including a round-the-island boat race.

Since the last issue, our Chief Minister returned from the UK and has reported that the Minister responsible for all of the overseas territories, Baroness Patricia Scotland will be visiting the island in September (more on her later). It is considered that while this may be a reflection on the Whitehall Government’s improved relationship with Anguilla’s, since the local elections in March, such a visit is long overdue, being the first to the island by any Minister from the UK ruling Labour party since it swept to power in 1997 (and there were precious few by Conservative Ministers in the 18 years before that). Certainly, the present Anguilla Government is basking in its positive relationship with the UK. Before the visit of Bonnie Scotland, there will be a delegation from the Department for International Development (DFID) who’ll be assessing the ground-work; they will be here in the first half of June. One matter to be discussed in these visits will be the Anguilla Country Policy Plan, a strategic overview of the island in all of its aspects (e.g. education, health, environment, tourism, financial services, etc.) and where it is going. The present plan was signed off in 1994 having been a couple of years in the making, and has now reached its end. One matter that the Government of Anguilla will be particularly keen to resume will be the transhipment programme. This has been subject to review by the EU in Brussels and was the immediate reason for the collapse of the coalition Government in 1999. In its status as an Overseas Territory of an EU member, Anguilla was able to "divert" a vessel plying raw materials from South America to Europe; it effectively cleared Customs in (cheaper) Anguilla rather than the EU, so Anguilla benefited, the merchants in South America and/or Europe benefited and the EU did not really lose because, while they took in less duty, there was less of a need to grant aid to Anguilla from their development budget. The money got spent on road improvements, computers at the schools, etc. A look at the 2000 budget strongly infers that it is premised on the transhipment programme returning – soon. Otherwise, other taxes will have to go up or much needed expenditure cut back.

PROFILE OF BARONESS SCOTLAND
(This is freely adapted from the September 1999 Issue of the excellent magazine, "Offshore World", which differs from other magazines because it has hardly any pictures or advertising – hence more meat, less flab. For a subscription, contact: subscriptions@offshoreworld.co.uk).

Baroness Scotland succeeded Baroness Liz Symons as the Minister responsible for the UK’s handful of overseas possessions in 1999. It was felt at the time that Symons’ act would be a hard one to follow but it is now generally recognized that Scotland has succeeded. Colleagues in the House of Lords regard both Symons and Scotland as being "very able" and "model New Labour operators".

However their backgrounds could not be more different. Although, from her appearance and voice, Symons could easily be mistaken for a dyed-in-blue conservative, she is considered more left-wing than Scotland, being a (civil service) career trade unionist, who was made a working peeress in 1992.

Scotland has enjoyed a glittering legal career, having been appointed a QC at 35 and being appointed to the Bench of Middle Temple and made a judge 2 years later. Scotland has all of the qualifications of a "Blair babe" – a glamorous working mother who is impeccably well connected, being close to two of Prime Minister Blair’s confidants: Charles Falconer (Britain’s Solicitor General) and Derry Irvine (Lord Chancellor). Her appointment made history, as she is the UK’s first black female government minister.

Part of her task is to sell the "White Paper", bequeathed to her by her predecessor. This will not necessarily be easy. The ambiguous document, in places reads more like a set of platitudes, or a holiday brochure than a serious set of parliamentary proposals. The trust that Symons built with the Overseas Territories will need to be kept, particularly in the light of Britain’s perceived preference to scale down their financial services.

Immediate responses to Scotland’s appointment were mixed. A leading figure in Cayman expressed disquiet, calling it "politically cynical" and whinged that the islands would have to go through the whole trust-building process again. However, one of her colleagues in the House of Lords said that her diplomatic skills will earn her trust quickly.

Highlights of her impeccable CV include: Chair of HMG Caribbean Advisory Group; Member of the Bar of Antigua and Commonwealth of Dominica; Dominican Representative of the Council of British Commonwealth Ex-Services League; Member of the Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship; Member of the BBC World Service Consultative Group Lifeline (Trinidad & Tobago); Honorary Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge, Member of The Millennium Commission; Patron of the Women and Children’s Welfare Fund. She has specialised in family and public law and has chaired and represented parties in a number of major inquiries relating to Child Abuse, Mental Health and Housing.

(Makes you wonder how she finds the time to go to the supermarket!).

JUNE, TOO SOON……?

These are the first words of a poem(?) which is well know in the Caribbean and Eastern Seaboard of the US. The rest goes:

July, stand by
August, a must,
September, remember,
October, all over.

It refers to the major months of the Hurricane Season. Last year "Lenny" obviously had not read the script and devastated much of the area in November. All the indications are that this will be an active Hurricane season and an early one. Expert Bill Gray forecasts seven hurricanes, three of which would be major. Already the first Hurricane formed – alright, it was off the Mexican Pacific coast, but that only makes us relieved, not assured! Weather watchers have tracked tropical waves from Africa, crossing the southern Caribbean and have expressed some surprise that they did not develop further. The climatology this year has everything pointing towards more long-track storms, which would hit the islands and then intensify still further as they move through the warmer waters of the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, rather than curve into the Northern Atlantic, which has been the tendency for a few years now. On the ground, many people are installing hurricane shutters – and keeping their fingers crossed. Anguilla is still reeling from a drought. Apart from a couple of showers this last week, there has been hardly any rainfall (I doubt if it would aggregate to an inch) since January. The water trucks are doing a roaring trade as peoples’ cisterns empty. Government water supply has been cut back to 75% due to unspecified problems at the desalination plant and this translates into rationing – most of the island now being down to 2 days’ piped water per week. So we would certainly welcome quite a bit of rain now, and not in the form of a Hurricane later.

INITIATIVES AND STUFF

There have been more developments on the various initiatives from organisations such as the OECD and the first draft of the KPMG report (all 102 pages of it) was faxed(!) to Anguilla’s Financial Services Department last Friday. (The same fax machine also received the 80-page report for Montserrat, a territory which, like Turks & Caicos, has its interests in this matter represented by our own John Lawrence. Glad to see they had enough paper). At a recent Anguilla Financial Services Association AFSA Meeting, we were told some of the main points contained in it but the subject matter is very confidential for now (being only a first draft). All will be revealed before too long. We’ll look at some of the recent developments from the other initiatives in our next issue although some of the developments are reflected in the "Clippings" section below.

"HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE" SECTION

You may recall a report, in Issue 13 (Source: Tax-News.com, Date: Mar. 31, 2000) about a large international law enforcement project to fight fraud on the Internet. 150 organizations in 28 countries, including seven US federal agencies, 49 state and local consumer protection agencies and 39 Better Business Bureaux, have been sweeping the Internet in a co-ordinated fashion to try and flush out phoney get-rich-quick schemes. Well, a recent indignant newsletter from Roy Bouchier (of ITI Ltd., in The Bahamas) suggests that they may have overdone it. Let Roy tell you all about it….

Big Brother Bully Boy.

We received an extraordinary E-Mail the other day from a U.S. Government agency with the delightful address of getrichquick@consumer.gov

The first paragraph of this read:

" Your site, located at http://www.itiltd.com/about.html has been brought to the attention of international law enforcement and consumer groups. (If you are a host and not the actual operator of this site, please forward this message to the appropriate person.) This site promises that consumers will make significant amounts of money in a short period of time or otherwise appears to make exaggerated claims about income potential. A copy of your Internet promotion has been preserved for future reference."

  The italics are our own but the message is loud and clear - we are being accused of promoting "get rich quick" schemes. A review of our website, however cursory, would prove that not only do we actively warn people against such schemes but that we make no promotional claims for any investments whatsoever other than through recognised, registered and reputable brokerage companies. Now had we received this letter from anyone other than a U.S. Government Agency we would have had no scruples about passing the matter to our legal counsel to obtain redress and apology. At the very least it represents a tort if not libel since their E-Mail goes on to say that it has been disseminated to some 28 agencies in different countries - hardly the sort of advertising that we seek when the information is baseless.

    We have protested to the faceless (and apparently clueless) bureaucrat, Mr. Getrichquick, but, since it is a U.S. Government Agency, who, as is well known, are above the laws of any land, we doubt we will receive a response let alone, Heaven forbid, an apology.

    The author of this nonsense attempts to cover himself by admitting in paragraph three that:

"Although we have not yet determined that your website violates any consumer protection laws, we are sending this e-mail to remind you that earnings claims must be truthful and non-deceptive." However, you will recall from paragraph one that they have already accused us, point blank, of doing just that, promoting get rich quick schemes and making exaggerated claims of earning potential,- bureaucrats should really learn to write clearly and concisely if they are to stay out of trouble.

    All this is, of course, arrogant nonsense designed to bully the offshore provider. Many deserve it, but since we have been attempting to expose the sort of schemes the mailing is designed to reach for over ten years with very little assistance from any official source, we take strong exception to being wrongfully accused. Clearly, no review of our site has taken place unless it were by a total imbecile (not impossible and highly probable in any government department) and the mail-out is a blanket affair launched at any offshore provider, legitimate or otherwise.

    Britannia used to rule the waves but now the United States Government appears to have installed itself as the arbiter of all human destiny worldwide. This does raise an interesting point however. In our many years experience of dealing with offshore scams, we have found that the vast majority emanate from within the United States and are targeted at U.S. citizens. Perhaps that mighty agency should put its own house in order (after all it is the biggest money laundering centre in the world) prior to threatening others with the dire consequences of ignoring edicts from the Washington throne. This myopia is, of course, one reason that the slimmest book in the world is that of successful American foreign policy.

    On a brighter note, from the E-mail we retrieved a list of all the 28 agencies that had contributed to or whom had been alerted to our alleged wrongdoing. These we have now listed on our website since they may be of value to our clients - thank you for something, Mr. Getrichquick. Being British, we note with trepidation that we are now on the "hit list" of the Milton Keynes Council Trading Standards Division, an authority well known for its ruthless pursuit of crime and extortion such as overcharging by news vendors, milkmen and the like!

CLIPPINGS FROM MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPERS

As is always the case, the following contains material which is courtesy of various publications (who also hold the Copyright) – please contact them for subscriptions (if you can’t locate them, we’ll be happy to help):

The next 10 are courtesy of "Offshore Finance Canada" as well as the reporting agencies…

EASTERN CARIBBEAN SECURITY EXCHANGE LEGISLATION COMING
Date: May 5, 2000 Source: Montserrat Reporter

A securities act will be passed in the (Montserrat) legislative council shortly to bring Montserrat in line with efforts to introduce an Eastern Caribbean Securities Exchange.

According to the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, all eight member states, including Montserrat, have indicated that the Securities Act 2000 will be passed by July, therefore making the ECSE a fully operational entity. The ECCB says work is continuing on fine tuning the Securities Act, uniform legislation, which will provide the supporting legal and regulatory framework to govern the operations of the ECSE, the Central Depository and the Central Securities Registry.

This legislation will also govern all securities business by intermediaries, issuers and investors in the eight-member territories of the ECCB currency area.

The ECSE is the first organized regional securities market in the Western Hemisphere and provides a platform for the trading of stocks, bonds and government securities.

(COMMENT: This draft legislation is also before the Government of Anguilla. It has been reviewed by the Joint Government/AFSA Legislation Committee who have declared it unacceptably shoddy in draftsmanship. It will not pass without substantial amendment and so it is very doubtful that it would pass in the 8 territories before the July deadline).

FRENCH POLITICIAN THREATENS OFFSHORE CENTRES
Date: May 12, 2000 Source: Tax-News.com

The French presidency of the European Union, due to begin on July 1, and lasting six months, is shaping up to be an exciting time for Europe's offshore financial centers.

Ever since Colbert, the French have been Europe's natural centralisers, harmonisers and levellers, and this tendency is specially marked under a socialist government. What Napoleon couldn't achieve by force of arms, his successors have now almost achieved by political dexterity.

Last week Lionel Jospin highlighted some of his government's priorities for the EU presidency, saying that they would press fellow EU governments to advance the battle against money laundering, and would also try to make
progress with tax harmonization.

But the true voice of French dirigisme was heard more clearly in Madrid on Thursday when Arnaud Montebourg, a left-wing deputy from Burgundy (once an English territory during another, failed attempt at European harmonization) set out a scarifying vision of his party's agenda for the presidency.

Montebourg, who is president of a parliamentary enquiry into money laundering, said that member states would be asked to agree to a series of repressive measures, including sanctions, against the worst offenders; and
he gave a list, which included Luxembourg (a founder member of the EU), Monaco, Andorra, Jersey, Gibraltar and Liechtenstein (not in the EU at all).

In Jersey, Senator Frank Walker, president of the island's finance and economics committee, said that Montebourg was indulging in political posturing. Senator Walker said that in the previous week, a delegation from France's Trackfin agency, a criminal intelligence service, had congratulated the island's government on its anti-money laundering procedures. He pointed out that Jersey's income tax rate, at 20%, was higher than Ireland's 12.5% rate which would shortly come into effect.

It is one thing for this dangerous cocktail to bubble away in Paris – it is a long way to Brussels, and even further to unanimity among the 15 member states, which would be required before any action could be taken against the offshore centers. Still, it should be a lively autumn.

LUXEMBOURG FREEZES LOOT ABACHA TOOK FROM NIGERIA
Date: May 12, 2000 Source: International Herald Tribune

Authorities pursuing what the Nigerian government says is billions of dollars looted from the West African country during the rule of the late strongman Sani Abacha say that they have found $630 million in Luxembourg bank accounts connected with his sons.

The investigation, which has uncovered more than $1 billion in European accounts in the names of the Abacha family or associates, has illustrated how little control banks exert over the flow of huge and suspicious sums
from developing countries, experts said.

In Switzerland, the case has caused serious embarrassment and set off an official investigation of Credit Suisse, one of the country's two biggest banks, where part of an additional $654 million in Nigerian funds was located.

The latest amounts disclosed were secreted in eight bank accounts at the Luxembourg office of MM Warburg & Co., a private bank, in the names of Alhaji Sani Mohammed and Abba Mohammed Sani, Luxembourg officials
confirmed. These names were falsely used by two of the late General Abacha's sons, Mohammed and Abba, according to a lawyer for the Nigerian government. The money has been frozen, confirmed Jean-Paul Frising, the
deputy prosecutor in Luxembourg, adding that the Nigerian Ministry of Justice had requested the freezing of accounts of the Abacha family.

Documents verifying the cache have been sent to the Nigerian government, he continued, which now must formally request that the money be returned. That demand will be lodged before the end of the month, said a lawyer for
Nigeria' s democratically elected government, which has charged that General Abacha embezzled more than $2 billion, much of it through the central bank, during the five years that he controlled the oil-rich country. He died in June 1998.

The hunt for funds linked to General Abacha also turned up more than $300 million in England last month. The money was originally transferred there to pay Russian companies for constructing a steel factory in Nigeria, but
found its way into the Abacha family coffers. That money is being disputed, with a Geneva financier laying claim to it on grounds that the Russians signed over the debt to him.

(A related story on this further down)

G-8 TO CALL ON TAX HAVENS TO FIX TAXATION SYSTEMS
Date: May 11, 2000 Source: Kyodo World News Service

The Group of Eight (G-8) major powers will call on tax havens around the world to correct their taxation systems during the July 21-23 summit in Okinawa, Japanese government sources said Thursday.

The joint appeal will pave the way to curbing ongoing competition among tax haven states and territories that cut their corporate income tax rates to woo foreign investment, the sources said.

But the G-8 may meet stiff resistance before it can convince tax havens to fix their taxation systems as levying taxes is a sovereign right of governments, they said.

To lure foreign investment, tax havens offer very low corporate tax rates to foreign companies that register with them. Such tax regimes have been under global scrutiny as unscrupulous individuals and firms have used them
to launder ill-gotten funds or evade legitimate taxation in home countries by registering their head offices in tax havens.

At a ministerial-level meeting in June of its governing council, the 29-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) will release a list of 47 tax havens as a step toward stemming money
laundering and cross-border tax evasion.

The sources said the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas appear to be among the 47 on the list. The OECD plans to recommend that the 47 take corrective action to fix their tax regimes during a period of one year from when the
list is released.

Should the 47 fail to present plans to follow the recommendation, the 29 OECD states will devise and impose sanctions in a coordinated manner against any tax haven that remains reluctant to take remedial action.

After the release of the list, the G-8 will discuss how to counteract tax systems that run counter to the interests of the global community during the Okinawa summit, the sources said.

G-8 countries are expected to pledge their support for the planned sanctions by the OECD, they added. The G-8 consists of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

G-8 NATIONS EYE COUNTRY LIST ON MONEY LAUNDERING /FOLLOW-UP TO PREVIOUS ARTICLE
Date: May 15, 2000 Source: Kyodo World News Service

The Group of Eight (G-8) major countries will compile lists of countries and regions vulnerable to money laundering because of lax regulations and preventive systems, G-8 sources said recently.

The envisioned lists will create a triple-barreled mechanism of international cooperation, including judicial, tax and financial surveillance to fight money laundering.

The G-8, which comprises the Group of Seven (G-7) major industrialized countries -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States - along with Russia, will endorse the measure at the Okinawa summit
on July 21-23 in order to show strong commitments by their leaders in combating money laundering.

The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is also compiling a list of countries and regions with vulnerable taxation systems, and the Washington-based International Monetary Fund is working
on a list from the standpoint of financial surveillance.

$50 MILLION IN FRAUD ASSETS TRACED TO BVI ACCOUNTS
Date: May 14, 2000 Source: The Sunday Telegraph (Sydney, Australia)

Investigators looking for up to $50 million in concealed assets resulting from the Michael Bastion investment fraud in Australia have run into a brick wall of bank accounts in the British Virgin Islands. The bank accounts, which could hold the key to investors' missing millions, are impenetrable to investigation and, like Swiss banks, are chosen for their absolute secrecy.

Bastion, 38, a high flying market dealer in Sydney, fell to his death from the window of his Hong Kong apartment in March. (Comment: That’s the way the news wire had it. I did not make it up – really – "… a high flying … fell to his death …"!)

He left behind 354 investors without a cent of the estimated $30 million to $50 million they had entrusted to him.

Only 50 per cent of investors have come forward, apparently supporting rumors of the large amount of ``black'' money washing through his fund. Investigator Trent Hancock said he was not confident of penetrating the
BVI accounts, but had not given up hope.

So far liquidators have uncovered an estimated $6 million in assets belonging to Bastion in Australia.


MORE ARRESTS SEEN IN LIECHTENSTEIN LAUNDERING PROBE
Date: May 14, 2000 Source: Reuters

A special prosecutor probing allegations of money laundering in Liechtenstein said more arrests were possible after authorities detained five people last week in a swoop on their homes and offices.

"This was just a preliminary success," said prosecutor Kurt Spitzer. The Austrian crime fighter is heading the investigation into about a dozen people suspected of helping organized crime launder their profits through
the tiny principality wedged in the Alps between Switzerland and Austria.

The five under arrest include four asset managers and a lawyer who is also a member of parliament. He asked the parliament in a special session on Saturday to waive his immunity from prosecution so he could try to clear
his name.

The government said police launched the raids as part of the probe by Spitzer to get to the bottom of allegations that the Russian Mafia and Colombian cocaine cartels were laundering funds through Liechtenstein.

Justice Minister Heinz Frommelt went to Paris on April 27 to meet parliamentarians who had said in a report that Liechtenstein, which has 32,000 residents, was the most dangerous tax haven in Europe.


EUROPOL NEEDS MORE POWERS AGAINST MONEY LAUNDERING
Date: May 17, 2000 Source: European Report

Last year several members of the European Union called for Europol's money-laundering powers to be extended, regardless of the type of crime involved.

However, action on the request will be delayed because of a Spanish objection to the EU presidency's preliminary draft proposal to amend the Europol Convention.

In order to extend Europol's powers to money laundering in general, the Europol Convention's legal provisions have to be amended. Currently, it is entitled to tackle money laundering only from those crimes that come within its fields of competence: drug trafficking; trade in nuclear and radioactive materials, illegal immigrants and stolen vehicles; human slavery; child pornography, terrorism, counterfeiting and falsification of other payment systems.

The presidency asked for a partial amendment, without pre-empting other changes to the Convention, in order to save time. Spain has floated an alternative proposal that is now being assessed by the Council's legal service.


FORUM ALLAYS OFFSHORE FEARS OVER OECD'S HARMFUL TAX INITIATIVE
Date: May 18, 2000 Source: Tax-News.com

Leaders of offshore financial jurisdictions in the Caribbean can breathe easily again after a recent meeting of the United Kingdom/Caribbean Forum in London confirmed the UK has no plans to force them out of business.

The meeting included discussions on the difficult issue of taxation and regulation and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)'s so-called 'hit-list' of jurisdictions with suspect taxation
practices.

A joint statement from the Forum stated that "in the future, the distinction would not be between onshore and offshore centres, but between those jurisdictions which met international standards and those which did not."

The Forum served to mediate between the representatives of the offshore communities and the OECD and stressed that the way forward was "transparent regulatory and taxation environments with appropriate information exchange and the need for international standards available to all."

A new committee to steer the work of the UK/Caribbean Forum is to be set up and both the OECD and the offshore centres will be waiting to see exactly what international standards will be developed.

ISLANDS ASK FOR HELP ON OFFSHORE RULES
Date: May 12, 2000 Source: Financial Times

Several eastern Caribbean financial centres have asked for international help in regulating their jurisdictions.

The request follows criticism from North American and European countries of the quality of regulation in several of these countries.

"The time is ideal for a major cooperative effort among the islands and the developed world to strengthen our capacity to supervise and regulate our offshore financial sector," said Keith Mitchell, prime minister of Grenada. He is also chairman of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States.

Rosie Douglas, prime minister of Dominica, said his country had already asked the US to provide training for law enforcement agents in white collar crimes and money laundering.

MORE ON ABACHA….

Nigerian ex-dictator's stolen millions 'in British banks' by Andrew Osborn in Brussels,
for "Guardian Weekly" 18 May 2000.

Hundreds of millions of dollars stolen by the late Nigerian dictator General Sani Abacha and his entourage is stashed in bank accounts in London and Jersey, lawyers working for the Nigerian government claimed last week. Banks in Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, the United States, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Luxembourg are also involved.

The money is allegedly in accounts belonging to some of Abacha's family and friends, and some former members of his military government. It is thought to be part of an estimated $3.2bn systematically looted from Nigeria's central bank during the dictator's five-year rule.

Authorities in Switzerland froze about $685m worth of assets belonging to the Abacha entourage last year, and prosecutors in Luxembourg last week sequestered around $670m in eight separate bank accounts.

A lawyer acting for the Nigerian government has contacted the Home Office with a view to freezing suspect British bank accounts. The Nigerian government wants this money, estimated at more than $450m, returned along with any evidence that can be used against Abacha's entourage. More than a dozen UK-based banks, some international, are affected. Peter Hain, the Foreign Office minister with responsibility for Africa, has pledged British support in recovering the money.

Abacha took power in a military coup in 1993 after the newly elected Moshood Abiola was deposed by a rival general. He dissolved political parties, banned demonstrations and introduced strict media censorship.

A period of fierce repression followed, and in 1995 Abacha ordered the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa, the political activist who defied him, and seven other Ogonis. Nigeria was suspended from the Commonwealth. The general died of a heart attack in 1998.

"More than two and a half billion dollars was stolen as if from a cash register through a mixture of fraud, false contracts and commissions," said Enrico Monfrini, the lawyer acting on behalf of the Nigerian government. "There is more money out there than we will ever find.

"The longer we carry on the more we'll find. It's not just about money, it's symbolic. The government wants to show Nigerians and the world that Nigeria exists, and is fighting corruption with all its might."

Nigeria has already reclaimed about $845m worth of assets taken during Abacha's rule.

In a bizarre twist, Johnnie Cochran, the lawyer who defended O J Simpson during his murder trial, has been brought in by the Abacha entourage to help them retain the disputed funds.

This issue's "how to avoid being the victim of a scam" article: International Forex Ltd.involving William McCray. (All lifted a few weeks ago – so may be updated since - from and courtesy of OPC, which holds the copyright and, like this newsletter, also hosts a newsletter at topica – information below)

Investment Scam: International Forex Ltd.

Here's what one of (OPC’s) subscribers wrote about this company:

Here is a note to warn of a large scam that has occurred, in America and Bermuda of all places. There is a company named International Forex Ltd., based in San Diego California and a branch in Bermuda for those that wish to be offshore. Their website is www.intl-forex.com . We have been trying to get our money out for four months now. We have sent emails, regular mail, faxes and called to this company – and were totally ignored. Last week I finally got thru to the President and he told me they are Bankrupt and to speak to his Lawyer, the slicktalking President is named Mr. William McCray.

After speaking to their lawyers and the Creditors Lawyers we learned some interesting facts: they owe 19 million dollars US to creditors around the globe, the authorities found $50,000!! Mr. McCray’s story is people were reimbursed without deducting commissions and other fees. They are under investigation now with the FBI and IRS there digging hard now. Their business is managed currency trading and they claim an internal audit is underway when in fact all activity is frozen by the government. The Creditor Committee Lawyer has said that people were still investing as little as 2-3 weeks ago.

The foregoing was taken from the web-site of OPC International at http://offshoreprofit.com They also publish a weekly libertarian newsletter, "Offshore & Privacy Secrets", which you can subscribe to at the same site.
REMINDER……

The web page of C.E.G. has been redesigned and rebuilt. We are now recommending some high-calibre, selected investment programmes. Check it out at http://www.ceg.ai


Best wishes,

Graham