Wealth International, Limited

Offshore News Digest for Week of August 27, 2001


ANTIGUA OFF U.S. BLACKLIST

WASHINGTON. The US Treasury lifted a trumped up 1999 'advisory' against Antigua and Barbuda that criticized its efforts to fight money laundering and advised US banks to give special scrutiny to financial dealings with the country.

More on this story here and here.

OFFSHORE CASINO GAMBLING BOOMS

ANTIGUA is the favorite country for casino operators. Online casino licenses generate millions of dollars in revenue for the countries that create a tech sector that can handle the business.

More on this story here.

Antigua Official Gaming Authority

More on this story here.

BRITISH CROWN COLONIES WANT IN

LONDON. UK offshore tax havens ALDERNEY and ISLE of MAN will allow Online casinos on the islands, possibly a multi-billion dollar industry.

More on this story here and here.

CYPRUS SELLOUT CONTINUES

Having raised offshore corporate taxes to please the EU, Cyprus now asks the IMF to tell it what to do next to kill its offshore financial sector.

More on this story here and here.

CARIBBEAN HAVENS COLLECTIVE BAD JUDGMENT

Miffed at reduced US foreign aid and pressure from Washington and London on their tax haven nations, several Caribbean leaders are off on a trip to play games with LIBYA's madman, Muammar QADHAFI.

More on this story here and here.

CAYMANS ORDER BANK ASSETS FREEZE

GEORGE TOWN, C.I. Using their brand new anti-money laundering law, officials here freeze bank accounts of ex-Peruvian official Vladimiro ontesinos Torres.

More on this story here and here.

CANADIAN LAWYERS FIGHT FOR CONFIDENTIALITY

OTTAWA: Canada's law societies launch a constitutional challenge to a new money laundering law that forces lawyers to secretly report clients' confidential financial dealings to the government.

More on this story here.

And Canada's Big Five banks may be planning mergers.

More on this story here.

CRIME & FRAUD RAMPANT

LONDON. The UK government sees financial fraud as a growing and major threat.

More on this story here and here.

A RUSSIAN first: official help for another country in a Russian based money laundering investigation.

More on this story here.

BERLIN. EU nations fear a flood of counterfeit currencies before the coming Jan. 1 euro currency change over.

More on this story here, here, and here.

PARIS. Hold on to your wallet or purse if you're visiting the City of Light any time soon.

More on this story here.

PRIME BANK NOTE FRAUD

ARIZONA U.S.A. Three accused of running a 'prime bank note' scheme that swindled investors out of $23 million.

More on this story here.

U.K. POLICE RAKE IN FINES FOR NON-CRIMES

LONDON. PaineWebber committed no crime; hit with £350,000($508,000) for alleged "serious breaches of compliance" rules.

More on this story here and here.

ITALIAN OFFSHORE CASH AMNESTY

ROME. Italy prepares an amnesty for the repatriation of money illegally spirited out of the country.

More on this story here and here.

SOUTH AFRICAN MONEY WOES

JOHANNESBURG. The South African rand falls to an all time low.

More on this story here.

And RSA local bankers complain 71 foreign banks dominate the nation's banking business.

More on this story here.

THE WIRED WORLD

No longer refer to First and Third Worlds, but to regions that are, or are not, hardwired to information flows.

More on this story here.

THE ORIGINAL TAX PROTESTER

CONVENTRY, U.K. Archaeologists take the wraps off Lady GODIVA, the original protester against high taxes.

More on this story here.

MASSACHUSETTS DRIVERS BE AWARE

If you drive in the US State of Massachusetts and you use a Fast Lane radio transponder to enable automatic billing on turnpikes and tunnels ­ watch out! Because the Fast lane system tracks the date and time turnpike charges are made ­ it can also be used as a method of vehicle surveillance.

And the Turnpike Authority (TA) has come clean and admitted that it turns over information to law enforcement on request.

On its website Fast Lane promised it would "hold all customer account information confidential". But it doesnıt. A judge ordered the TA to hand data over to law enforcement ­ a case which provides ample evidence that your RIGHT to privacy is a RIGHT which can be taken from you with one stroke of the legislatorıs pen.

More on this story here.

CANADIAN CITIZENSHIP OPPORTUNITY

As a foreign resident in Canada you can acquire preferential tax treatment not available to nationals. And Canada is an excellent alternative domicile ­ it has no estate taxes. You can also become a naturalised Canadian citizen and obtain a Canadian passport after three years permanent residence. So how do you acquire permanent residence rights?

There are several categories through which you can apply ­ through family sponsorship, self-employment, business immigration and entrepreneur category. Find out more about these categories and requirements by reading an article by immigration barrister, David Lesperance.

More on this story here.

A SURVEY OF THE STATE OF PRIVACY IN 50 NATIONS

More on this story here.

Electronic Privacy Information Center home page here.


COURT SAYS TELEPHONE PRIVACY IS DEAD

George Orwell might glow with prescient delight, as a state supreme court rules that, given methods of telephone communication widely used now, individuals have no reasonable expectation of privacy in telephone calls made to their own homes.

More on this story here.

CARNIVORE EXPANDS TO WIRELESS

Communications experts say the FBI's Internet spying system, CARNIVORE, can now intercept wireless transmissions.

More on this story here.

FINS CONSIDER CELL PHONE I.D. CHIPS

HELSINKI. The Finnish government is considering using modules inside cell phones to serve as national identity cards.

More on this story here.

F.B.I. COMPUTER KEYSTROKE SPYING ATTACKED

Big Brother may be watching every key stroke on your computer.

More on this story here.

But the FBI wont even explain keystroke spying to a federal judge.

More on this story here.

YOUR WEB PAGE MAY BE A SPY

Your personal web page may be tracking those who visit and sending the information to third parties.

More on this story here.

A US district court judge orders a cable company to give police private details about one of its subscribers and bars the company from telling the customer.

More on this story here.

U.S. FOREIGN VISITORS BEWARE

Customs officials humiliate with body searches those entering the US, assuming profiled racial groups smuggle drugs.

More on this story here.

GIBRALTAR TAX CUT MOOTS E.U. COMPLAINT

As we reported last Friday, the Gibraltar government continues its defense against a European Union demand to repeal its offshore legal regime. If it loses a court action against the EU Gibraltar says it will reduce all corporate taxes, as Ireland did with great success.

More on this story here.

SWISS OFFICIALS IN TROUBLE?

GENEVA: Switzerland's fight against money laundering takes a new turn with a possible criminal investigation of the head of the Post Office and a top Finance Ministry lawyer.

More on this story here.

GERMAN police step up Swiss border controls to catch undeclared cash.

More on this story here.

PUTIN NO LONGER 'MR. CLEAN'

MOSCOW. Russian Pres. Vladimir PUTIN served as a director of a company suspected of using LIECHTENSTEIN to launder operations of Russian mobsters and Colombian drug dealers.

More on this story here.

PHILIPPINES OFFSHORE BANK TAX

MANILA. Short on budget cash the government says it will impose a 10-30% transactions tax on offshore banking.

More on this story here and here.

But the same government says it will preserve bank secrecy under its stringent new, FATF demanded, anti-money laundering.

More on this story here.

TEXAS COLUMNIST SWALLOWS OECD LINE

AUSTIN. Easier than thinking; a caustic Texas columnist knows little about offshore, so she regurgitates the OECD line.

More on this story here.

And the OECD forces TONGA to change its tax laws. Apparently no one told the Pacific island the OECD tax blacklist is a dead letter.

More on this story here.

What's a Tonga? Check here to find out.

More on this story here.

MAJOR FLORIDA INTERNET OFFSHORE FRAUD

MIAMI. 48,000 victims in 19 countries paid in excess of $13 million to a nonexistent network. Victims could exceed 70,000.

More on this story here.

MORE U.S. CIVIL FORFEITURE

WASHINGTON. New US Treasury Under Secretary for Enforcement says government should go after financial assets in fighting money launderers and other criminals.

More on this story here.

THE U.K. 'WORST TAX'

LONDON. A fervent plea to take the pain out of Britain's worst tax - the estate tax.

More on this story here.

U.S 'GREEN CARD' MEANS TAXES

U.S. permanent resident aliens get privileges of citizenship and lots of high taxes. Do you really need that?

More on this story here.

NIXON KILLED THE GOLD STANDARD

Just 30 years ago the American dollar's gold backing died. Now it's 'value' is a matter of faith; some interesting history.

More on this story here.
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