News about the Cayman Islands in the Foreign Press

Wednesday,  January  12, 2005

German billions in Cayman accounts

BERLIN, Germany – Bloomberg News reports that a German amnesty for tax evaders brought in US$1.18 billion last year, less than expected, according to a spokesman for Finance Minister Hans Eichel. 

German banks estimate that tax evaders have as much as 400 billion dollars in accounts abroad, including the Cayman Islands. Eichel, when he drew up the amnesty in 2003, said he hoped 26 billion dollars would be disclosed for taxation purposes.

Transactions not relationships in Cayman

HONOLULU, USA – According to Pacific Business News, a group of influential Beijing officials who recently visited Hawaii say they see the state as the best point of entry for Chinese life-science companies wanting to break into the U.S. market. “If you are a young Chinese company trying to get into the U.S. market with a P.O. box and attorney, those are basically transactions, whereas in Hawaii it would be a relationship,” said Barry Weinman, managing director of Silicon Valley-based venture capital fund Allegis Capital. “The Cayman Islands won’t do that.” 

Go to Hell - in Grand Cayman

WASHINGTON, USA – Washington Post columnist Andrea Sachs tells readers to go to Hell. In Grand Cayman, the tiny village on the West Bay is scorching - because of the Caribbean sun, not the licking flames of damnation. Hell is strewn with fossilized coral formations, blackened like the charred remains of hell fire and spiky like the Devil’s horns. 

You can buy cheap trinkets at any number of souvenir shops and send a postcard from the town’s sole post office: “Wish you were here, in Hell!” Don’t forget to wave goodbye to Satan (shopkeeper Mr. Farrington in eternal drag) on your way to the heavenly white-sand beaches.

Even the best built shelters crumbled in Grand Cayman

GOLAN, Israel – According to Israel National News columnist Ellen W. Horowitz, it’s interesting to note that even the best-built concrete buildings and shelters on the very wealthy Grand Cayman Island in the Caribbean crumbled before the force of a hurricane. Keep in mind that the tiny island of 40,000 people had days to prepare and evacuate before the storm.

Mangrove destruction led to extensive damage in Grand Cayman

NEVADA CITY, USA – YubaNet News reports that, according to Alfredo Quarto, executive director of the international NGO the Mangrove Action Project, it is the overdevelopment of coastal areas in the Caribbean which has directly led to the kinds of extensive damage caused by Hurricane Ivan in Grand Cayman. “It has been proven time and again that a good stand of mangroves will reduce the force of wave action, and absorb much of the tidal surge. This is true of Grand Cayman which has destroyed much of its mangrove forests in the past 30 years,” states Quarto.

Hiding money in the Cayman Islands

TOKYO, Japan – According to the Japan Times, know-your-customer rules don’t specify how well you need to know your customer, says Raymond Baker, a senior fellow specializing in studies on money-laundering for the Center for International Policy, a think tank in Washington. Laundering money is a golden egg for big banks, Baker said.

Private banking divisions worldwide have perfected complex schemes to disguise the movement of client funds by mixing them with bank funds, cutting off paper trails for wire transfers involving billions of dollars, he said. Once money is sent to countries like the Cayman Islands, which have strict banking secrecy laws, banks and companies can hide a depositor’s name, nationality, the amount of funds deposited and when they were deposited, he said.

Illegal trusts in the Cayman Islands

PHILADELPHIA, USA – The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that a focus for IRS criminal investigations is abusive trusts, frequently offshore, that evade taxes. 

Promoters of these illegal trusts charge $25,000 to $50,000 to set up a trust, which is then moved to the Cayman Islands, or some other country that does not have treaties with the United States. 

That means income that goes into these trusts is not reported to the IRS for tax purposes. The beneficiary of the trust still has access to the money - in some cases through an international debit card.

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