In what may be a death knell for offshore banking in the Caribbean, the American financial regulators have accused the Stanford International Bank (SIB) of Antigua of an $8 billion fraud.
This sounds like Bernie Madoff all over:
Contrary to the representation that responsibility for SIB’s multi-billion portfolio was “spread out” among 20-plus [analysts], only Stanford and Davis know the whereabouts of the vast majority of the bank’s multi-billion investment portfolio…
SIB told investors that their deposits were safe because the Antiguan regulator responsible for oversight of the Bank’s investment portfolio, the Financial Services Regulatory Commission (the “FSRC”), audited its financial statements. But, contrary to the Bank’s representations to investors, the FSRC does not verify the assets SIB claims in its financial statements. Instead, SIB’s accountant, C.A.S. Hewlett & Co., a small local accounting firm in Antigua is responsible for auditing the multi-billion dollar SIB’s investment portfolio. The Commission attempted several times to contact Hewlett by telephone. No one ever answered the phone.
The tax clampdown is one thing, but allegations of large scale fraud will bring an entirely different set of pressures to bear on offshore jurisdictions.
They’ll come loaded for bear.
No Comments so far ↓
Sorry, we are not accepting Plantation Comments.