News about the Cayman Islands in the Foreign Press

Wednesday,  May 4, 2005

Cayman firms named in lawsuit

FLORENCE, USA – The Times Daily reports that Robert Isakson and William “Pete” Baldwin, the former Iraq country manager for Custer Battles, filed a federal whistle-blower suit last year, accusing the company of war profiteering and defrauding the government of at least $50 million. In their suit, Baldwin and Isakson also name as defendants companies owned by Custer Battles in the Cayman Islands.

Parmalat’s problems related to Cayman subsidiary

LONDON, England – According to the Independent, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, the giant accounting firm, bowed to pressure from Parmalat and appeared to muzzle an auditor who was raising tricky questions about the Italian dairy group’s finances up to 33 months before its spectacular collapse. Parmalat went under in December 2003 with debts of more than US$18 billion. Many of its financial problems related to transfers involving a Cayman Islands subsidiary, Bonlat.

Chinese investment through the Cayman Islands

HONG KONG – According to the Asia Times, Taiwan ranks as the fourth biggest overseas investor in the Chinese mainland and sustains a large part of its high-tech industry. In fact, Taiwan’s rank would be even higher if Taiwan-originated investment from offshore banking havens such as the Cayman Islands was taken into account.

Cayman ranks low for investor confidence

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – AME Info reports that almost 70 percent of ex-pat investors worldwide had placed their assets offshore, though the figure had dropped slightly from the first Internaxx survey in 2002/3. The survey also showed that Switzerland and Luxembourg came top for investor confidence, with 68 percent and 67 percent respectively. The Isle of Man scored 48 percent and Guernsey and the Cayman Islands scored 47 percent and 23 percent. In judging the most important virtues of a provider, investors wanted a reputation for trustworthiness, integrity and transparency, which were ranked equally with accessibility and cost.   

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