Current News about the Cayman Islands in the Foreign Press

Thursday,  June 30, 2005

Bermuda leapfrogs Cayman in prison population per capita

HAMILTON, Bermuda – According to the Royal Gazette, Bermuda now has the world’s second highest per capita prison population according to the latest statistics. Bermuda moved from ninth spot to just behind America in its fondness for locking up criminals.

In the last study Bermuda locked up 447 citizens per 100,000 – but it has now leapt to 532, leapfrogging the Cayman Islands in the process. Bermuda occupies joint second spot with Belarus and Russia although the Bermuda figures the study used are from November 2003.

Eleven convicted in Parmalat fraud involving Cayman subsidiary

MILAN, Italy – The Scotsman reports that a Milan judge handed down the first convictions in the massive fraud case at Parmalat on Tuesday, sentencing 11 people, including several former executives at the dairy conglomerate, to terms of up to two-and-a-half years in prison.

The convictions on charges including market rigging and misleading Italy’s stock market regulator Consob came in plea bargain deals. Among those sentenced by Judge Cesare Tacconi were three former chief financial officers – Fausto Tonna, Alberto Ferraris and Luciano Del Soldato.

Still under investigation by Milan prosecutors is the conduct of several banks, which sold Parmalat bonds in the run-up to the crash.

In December 2003, Parmalat acknowledged that a US$5 billion account, supposedly held with Bank of America by Cayman Islands-based subsidiary Bonlat, did not exist.

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