Intelligence Agencies Scoop Offshore Investments: Grenada, etc.

by Paul Collin

12 January 2004

Becoming an expatriate (renouncing one's citizenship) remains a rare find to read about concerning a citizen’s final rights from many countries around the world, especially as it relates to global financial markets.

One of the most popular of all expatriates who left the United States of America was the ever popular global television comedian known as, Jerry Lewis, who decided to become a citizen of France during the late 1960s.

For decades now, and as recently as 2003, Lewis was still hosting his ever popular televised philanthropic organization. His "Jerry's Kids" telethons have raised billions from all over the world for handicapped children.

While no country in the world openly publishes the numbers of citizens who decide or otherwise become citizens of other countries than their original birthplace, there appears to be a quiet exodus going on that has been creating havoc in world financial markets. In most cases, when the citizen leaves, so does their money and assets.

From the 1970s to the mid-1990s the United States decided to try and halt or otherwise discourage its citizens from following in the footsteps of Jerry Lewis who became a considerable worldwide embarrassment to America.

During the 1980s offshore financial tax havens in the Caribbean became infamous for not only hiding assets but acting as mirror cooperatives in that process for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and other nations. It soon became no great secret that countries who wished to affect other third world governments of under-developed tiny nations, soon began financing weapons shipments and logistic support for Private Military Contractors (PMCs) posing as Insurance, Risk Management, and Accountancy firms through these offshore conduits and under the noses of their Congresses and Parliaments.

Later, multi-national corporations, the film industry, prominent affluent people, and many others began jumping on the bandwagon taking advantage of offshore opportunities.

During the mid-1990s offshore financial experts worldwide began realizing that many people around the world who were not willing to join the exodus of expatriates offshore would provide a huge increase in their client-base so, they too were offered offshore services in order to realize 200 to 500% interest on their investments too. These consultants began circumnavigating the globe, bringing these opportunities to anyone who wanted to make some money ‘fast’, which many thousands of people did without having to go offshore.

Trillions of dollars began exiting the super powers. The gold was flowing out of big banks and investment companies worldwide and right into independent offshore business and financial centers. Business and financial investment advisors had more clients than they could handle however there were a few who wound up getting lost in the offshore rush to quick fortunes. The losers ranged from royalty, business tycoons, emerging companies, medical corporations, and ordinary people living in retirement.

There was plenty of room for fraud and reports that began circulating as tiny island rumors from political dissidents soon reached the internet and a wild witch hunt ensued where the phrase "offshore bank" soon became a dirty word being uttered throughout the media. Clandestine financing in offshore areas soon became known within private industry circles as very risky business, but the primary reason for the offshore witch hunt actually stemmed from super powers and big banks, which were seeing their revenues diminishing very rapidly.

Even though Bank of America, Barclays Bank, HSBC, and many other big banks still and have always offered high yield interest rates on larger accounts, even the phrase “high yield” became associated with fraudulent investment offerings by reports being circulated from government-backed offshore news watchdogs who, interestingly enough, never had any adverse publicity being circulated about the big banks.

In 1996, a major media blitz began out of the United States and the United Kingdom, whose government financial agencies were primary instruments designed to see that open heart surgery was performed all over the offshore world.

Fueling the offshore with hunt was easy for new money grubbers like David Marchant of KYC News, Inc. out of Miami, Florida.

A conscious decision was secretly made by many nations who were susceptible to economic influences wrought on them by super power governments to support a major media blitzkrieg in order to ruin offshore financial investments and deposits. Not only were government targets retired citizens, but bold expatriates abroad who were running their own offshore businesses. Government objectives were simple. Curb the capital flight to all offshore tax havens, which had been inundated with money from thousands of people around the world.

From the internet to United Press International, the Wall Street Journal, and more media centers, both the United States and United Kingdom began claiming that thousands of independent offshore banks and international business companies (IBCs) were nothing more than fronts for swindlers, con artists, and fraudsters who were targeting retirees, religious groups, and more throughout much of North America.

To get the idea across fast, to citizens around the globe, government agents began leaking confidential information to a few key small business financial news firms on the internet about secret criminal background checks they had made on employees of independent offshore business and banks. Invasions of privacy were of no concern. This was an economic war where the primary targets were the largest independent financial business entities threatening big bank revenue loses by virtue of simply being in business offshore.

The governments couldn’t change their laws quick enough so they resorted to the good old fashioned rumor mill, which worked very well through clever manipulation of various media organizations both large and small that typically mimicked internet bulletin board business jealousy gossip where no one could tell who was saying what about whom, except people on the ‘inside’.

In 2000, one of the greatest examples of how this was done occurred in Panama where the U.S. government secretly targeted a global financial firm, i.e. The Harris Organization (THO), by locating two (2) out of 180 employees that had old criminal backgrounds in America for smuggling marijuana (about 300-pounds), served jail sentences, and had completed their obligations to the letter of the law.

Even though the two (2) employees were not then employees of THO nor did they ever handle or arrange for investment monies and deposits, their previous criminal records served to only fuel a fire with relentless internet financial business news stories that the Panamanian firm (THO) as well as its CEO, i.e. Marc Matthew Bosma-Harris were somehow involved in drug smuggling, which FOIA reports from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency proved otherwise. It didn’t matter. The offshore with hunt was on and another government agency was fueling the fan waver internet message boards to cripple that firm.

Harris became the target of wild rumors, business jealousies, and outright disgust amongst his colleagues because of a small but select group of internet financial business news bulletin boards that claimed Harris and his THO firm was a money laundering organization that employed drug smugglers. That was the end of not just THO and Marc Harris, but also 180 Panamanian jobs.

Marc Harris, although claiming to be a Panamanian citizen, had never formally renounced his United States citizenship at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate abroad, but claimed he was a Panamanian citizen who was no longer under any jurisdiction of the United States.

While living in Nicaragua, Panamanian industrialist Marc Harris was abducted by Managua, Nicaragua federal officials - on a request TELEX’d from the U.S. Department of Justice through the U.S. Embassy there – to seize Harris and hand him over to U.S. government agents on June 10, 2003. Harris was flown to Florida (USA), imprisoned, and indicted for another company's distribution and sale of a refrigerant known as Freon, which for decades the United States has openly allowed the use of, but supposedly because of environmental concerns, changed the law prohibiting that type of Freon to be handled through the United States.

The Freon, according to government claims, was their foundation to support the claim that any “illegal or unlawful” merchandise where funds had been transferred from U.S. hands to an offshore bank and that then transfers that money to a U.S. citizen was enough to support the criminal charges on Harris.

Substantiation for a criminal complaint levied on Harris who may have received profits through third or fourth parties turned out in disaster for Harris never sought to properly take a formal oath of renunciation at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate while abroad ‘after’ becoming a citizen of his desired new country. That meant that Harris had to have achieved a dual citizenship capacity and then renounce his citizenship, otherwise the U.S. still had entitlements to prosecute Harris under U.S. law.

Just making an exodus from the country of original jurisdiction and taking up residency abroad does not constitute being an expatriate or ex-pat as they are more commonly called.

Without Harris having gone through the proper steps, the U.S. had a valid claim to seize in order that he may answer charges being levied against him for violating what the federal government considers to be a serious violation of any U.S. laws from abroad or otherwise.

Harris faced federal criminal charges alleging money laundering, wire fraud, conspiracy, tax evasion and a host of various and other sundry U.S. federal criminal allegations and was eventually found guilty of some federal charges while he was also found not guilty of other criminal charges relating to the Freon.

Another prominent case of the superpower nation media blitzkriegs involved an independent group of banks operating out of the Caribbean.

Just on the tiny island of Grenada in the West Indies, over 45 independent offshore banks and International Business Companies (IBCs) alone were closed down amidst financial failures attributed to either internet message board rumors on the internet, small local papers, other media outlets who sent their stories to wire services, and/or government pressures for the tiny nations to come into compliance with new global sweeping laws designed to curtail offshore investment banking and business whether they had been legitimately established banks or businesses there.

In particular, one offshore independent bank, i.e. First International Bank Of Grenada Limited (FIBG, Ltd.), fell victim to what originally appeared on the surface as nothing more than predatory business practices cleverly campaigned through private collusion through the media by another independent offshore bank, i.e. Bank Crozier, who in 1999 became a fierce competitor against FIBG, Ltd. in a bitter struggle for international investors and depositors.

Before any of the independent offshore banks and International Business Companies (IBCs) had first arrived on the tiny island of Grenada in the West Indies, its Grenada Financial Services Authority (GIFSA) had already secretly contracted with Kroll Associates, Inc. to conduct all of its background investigations for applications being reeled in by the Grenada Economic Citizenship program, specifically designed to lure independent offshore banks and International Business Companies (IBCs) to Grenada.

In 2004, the Offshore Informant online news group discovered that Kroll only went and obtained cursory information regarding these independent offshore entities directly from the Grenada Chamber of Commerce.

Kroll then, turned the information around and sold that same information back to the Grenada Financial Services Authority as Kroll background checks on the same offshore entities that the Grenada Chamber of Commerce had obtained from GIFSA.

In essence, there were absolutely no thorough investigations released by Kroll back to any Grenada government agency for which it received money for in the first place from Grenada.

The U.S. government had secretly contracted with Kroll to first obtain notice of any offshore entities entering Grenada by virtue of GIFSA applications that would have to grant the offshore license to the offshore entities coming into Grenada.

It’s now quite logical to assume that Grenada’s offshore financial sector was specifically created and designed by U.S. government intelligence agencies to locate and trace capital flight from all superpower countries.

Furthermore, it becomes quite apparent in lieu of this new information that the U.S. government could very well be the actual fruit of the forbidden financial tree for losing thousands of investors and depositors monies from all over the world who became victims of purposeful collapsing of both Grenada’s and other country’s conduits through a vast range of big, commercial, and independent offshore banks and International Business Companies (IBCs) that had anything to do with Grenada financial services.

It wasn’t until 2002, when the internet website, i.e. Offshore Informant, began with its new refreshing design specifically to expose anomalies occurring within independent offshore sectors.

While focusing on getting to the root of the bank closings and government interventions that were taking place indirectly through media outlets, it too came under attack by the offshore witch hunt primarily by those internet websites, which were being supported by superpower government agents.

Business, financial and economic bulletin boards worldwide took note at the in-depth studies being provided while critics of the Offshore Informant ridiculed their information for being long winded and too vague about what was being reported.

The Offshore Informant discovered however, incredible information that led professionals to the real reasons behind the closure of FIBG, Ltd. in Grenada.

While the Offshore Informant paints lengthy historical perspectives in reports that name-names and firms dating back to just after the turn of the century all the way up through current events and beyond with analysis of offshore markets, economics, and industry news and witch hunts, it might be perceived as too lengthy a reading that nearly rivals all of John Le Carre’s spy novels put together.

The Offshore Informant did discover that the First International Bank Of Grenada, Ltd. competitor bank, i.e. Bank Crozier, with its CEO, i.e. Peter Johansson, happened to be very close friends with the primary internet news website bulletin board known as Offshore Business News and Research, Inc. (now, KYC News, Inc.), and it’s host, i.e. David Edmond Marchant, a British citizen who was recruited by a U.S. government intelligence contractor, i.e. Kroll Associates, Inc., through its agent, i.e. Tom Fedorek, who brought Marchant out of his investigative journalist job at the Bermuda Sun and right into permanent residency status within the United States for the express purpose of supporting superpower government compliances throughout the world.

The media blitz of Offshore Business News and Research began being questioned by professional around the world after the Offshore Informant began dissecting the offshore market and rumor mill so, Marchant began a second (2nd) website called World Compliance, and then subsequently changed the name of his former website to KYC News, with even more money being funneled into it through its government supporters in an effort to continue to shoot down and otherwise destroy independent offshore business and financial investments.

After prodding and probing Marchant’s own intelligence sources, the Offshore Informant turned up the heat on Marchant himself until he admitted publicly his close association with Peter Johansson the CEO of Bank Crozier. Marchant went even further though by admitting that Bank Crozier's CEO had been "long time friends” and when interviewed by the Offshore Informant on the Offshore Business News and Research website bulletin board about Crozier going after FIBG, Ltd. In a predatory business fashion, Marchant quipped that he felt there was nothing criminally wrong with business competition like that.

The Offshore Informant further found that Crozier Bank had made arrangements directly with Marchant for the bank to carry and advertise Marchant's financial business news rumor website flashes in real-time in order to carry on campaigns against independent offshore banks, except for Bank Crozier, the Bank of Bermuda which was recently bought up by one of the largest banks in the world, i.e. HSBC bank.

Marchant’s website and a few others in his tightly knit group of rumor mill message boards on the internet, focused solely on posting huge stories about Bank Crozier's competitor, First International Bank Of Grenada, Ltd. as well as The Harris Organization, and Imperium Bank (Grenada) and Imperial Consolidated targeting their CEOs personally in their offshore witch hunt.

The Offshore Informant, a fledgling internet news website run by only one (1) person, i.e. Paul Collin, spurred so much curiosity amongst financial business and economic professionals due to his own personal background having worked full-time as a U.S. government intelligence official that a global investigation was begun into the affairs of Bank Crozier in both Grenada, St. Lucia, Spain, and in both Western and eastern Europe where original investments seemed to have come from along with deposits into The Crozier Group of companies operating worldwide until they began being closed and their CEO, i.e. Peter Johansson, arrested in Spain in 2003, which the Offshore Informant foretold of would happen in Spain to that CEO in a posting that hinted of this at the OffshoreAlert (Offshore Business News and Research) website message board in 2003, just shortly before Johansson’s eventual arrest in Spain. The post went ignored and Johanssen was subsequently arrested and jailed on serious charges.

The Offshore Informant four (4) part report entitled Global Economic Brinkmanship that relates to the downfall of First International Bank Of Grenada, Ltd. Mentions a world investment advisor and arranger by the name of Gabriel MacEnroe, who was quoted in U.S. federal court records as being affiliated with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the U.S. Treasury Department was finally arrested in South Carolina (USA) but fled and still remains as an international fugitive from justice in the United States for similar activities that he had been arranging that caused the downfall of the First International Bank Of Grenada, Ltd.

Gabriel MacEnroe had made his long time residencies in both in Egham, Surrey, UK and St. Gallen, Switzerland has now disappeared off the map, abandoning family, friends, and long time associates after the Offshore Informant released their four (4) part Global Economic Brinkmanship report on the internet

On January 5th, 2004 after five (5) long arduous years by several government probes, law enforcement investigations, accountants, and news media campaigns the U.S. government finally produced a federal criminal indictment, which was unsealed in a Portland, Oregon (USA) federal court.

The indictment resulted in a few arrests and mentioned a few other arrest warrants as having been already issued but “sealed” and then “unsealed”, which pertain to a few other members of the First International Bank Of Grenada, Ltd. Financial team.

FIBG, Ltd. bank founder and original CEO, Gilbert Allen Ziegler, legitimately changed his name to Van Arthur Brink during his tenure with the bank.

Brink left the bank in October 1999 believing that although he was no longer CEO that all records of the bank remained in proper order and that had been properly turned over to the possession of his successor CEOs at the bank. He purposely remained on as a consultant to the bank to assist them if they needed him for any further help.

The record clearly shows that the government of Grenada failed to allow FIBG, Ltd. to exercise their bank deposit guarantee insurance firm to step-in and act in accordance with what their purpose was designed to do all investor and depositor resolutions, but the government refused to allow the bank insurance firm of IDIC to help.

Secondary reasons that investors and depositors of FIBG, Ltd. were unable to recover their monies plus interest was claimed to be in reports by virtue of the incompetent handling of a Grenada-appointed liquidator, i.e. Marcus A. Wide, of the Canadian-based accountancy firm of Price-Waterhouse-Coopers (now, IBM Business Services), who claimed he couldn’t locate any bank records to substantiate the assets of the bank, which were dissolved after Gabriel MacEnroe provided the ruse to the FIBG, Ltd. Board of Directors and CEO, i.e. Mark Kennedy, that a secret consortium of Europeans would be taking over the bank just as soon as the bank divested itself of certain assets so it could be legitimately taken over.

The major assets of the bank were gone and the government of Grenada stepped-in afterwards and closed the bank before its re-insurance firm could properly handle the bank affairs of investors and depositors according to the new dictates of the Grenada government.

The bank complied with the MacEnroe proposal and then he disappeared, leaving FIBG, Ltd. swinging out in the breeze with no assets to show anyone much less its investors and depositors. According to intelligence reports it was Mark Kennedy who entered into a secret contract with Gabriel MacEnroe, which he still won’t talk about. It was learned however by the Offshore Informant that MacEnroe had verbally intimidated Kennedy that if he didn’t do precisely what MacEnroe demanded of him that he was going to be arrested by U.S. federal agents. Subsequent to that meeting and yet another CEO being nominated to takeover leadership of FIBG, Ltd. the documents concerning the assets and the details of what and where those assets had come into possession of the bank originally had totally disappeared after Marcus A. Wide took over the bank as its liquidator.

In response to another internet news story concerning the indictments, arrests, and arrest warrants passed down, the original founder, i.e. Van A. Brink, of First International Bank of Grenada, Ltd. had this to say on January 10, 2004:

“I will [[comment]] on a few items in the below. Van”

[NOTE: The following brief excerpts of an internet news article include brief inserts of Brink’s comments within double-bracket marks (below), in addition too his quote (above).]

========

BCSC target FIBG features broad new indictment

2004-01-08 21:19 ET - Street Wire

See Street Wire (C-*BCSC) B.C. Securities Commission

by Brent Mudry

American authorities have unveiled a broad indictment targeting Gilbert A. Ziegler, the alleged mastermind of the $206-million offshore prime bank fraud of First International Bank of Grenada, whose 13-plus subsidiaries included Cambridge International Bank & Trust Ltd. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.)

[[The alleged numbers have a way of growing over time. FIBG Liquidator, Marcus A. Wide, stated that the total amount of deposits actually received was $125.3 million. Now we find that American authorities state the amount as $206 million. I wonder if there is more years available for sentencing, if the number exceeds $200 million. And how would I ever prove otherwise? I have none of the bank's records.]]

In a new 75-page grand jury indictment unsealed Jan. 5 in United States District Court for the District of Oregon in Portland, Mr. Ziegler, also known as Van A. Brink, and four associates are charged with 147 assorted counts of conspiracy, wire fraud and mail fraud. The charges include one count of conspiracy, 22 counts of mail fraud, 19 counts of wire fraud, 103 counts of engaging in transactions with proceeds of crime, and one count each of money laundering conspiracy and forfeiture.

[[As I have previously written, I have been advised that the laws upon which the charges are based are far too complex for me to have any comprehensive understanding without time for intense study.

I was CEO of a licensed Grenada offshore bank, living and working in Grenada at the time and attempting to live and abide with the spirit and intent of the Grenada Offshore Banking Act. To the best of my ability, I did so.]]

In separate cases, Serdar Kalaycioglu, of Montreal, the alleged chairman and chief executive officer of FIBG sub-bank Meridian Investment Bank Ltd., is currently on trial in Miami, while David Frank Rowe, of Langley, B.C., and Gerald Michael Burns, of Scottsdale, Ariz., former executives of Cambridge, await trial in San Jose, Calif., later this year.

All parties remain presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt.

The Oregon indictment of Mr. Brink is the biggest development to date in the broad FIBG case, under investigation for more than five years by various criminal authorities, including the FBI and the RCMP, and regulators, including Canada's most respected securities regulator, the United States Securities Commission, and the B.C. Securities Commission.

Amongst other things, the indictment claims that in early 2000, while Mr. Brink was relocating from Portland and Grenada to Uganda, he bought a $700,000 fleet of 30 Jeep Cherokees from a dealer in Grenada for shipment to the African country.

[[I did previously reside in the Portland, Oregon area. That's true. I moved away from there in 1994 (was not relocating from there in early 2000).

[[The jeeps were not purchased personally. The bank entered into a humanitarian and economic development treaty with the fifty tribal kingdoms of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Union Reserve System was designated in that treaty to be the administrator on behalf of both parties (the Kingdoms and the Bank). I was Chairman of URS (having resigned all offices and authority at First Bank on October 1, 1999).

Part of that treaty was to provide jeeps to the tribal kingdoms so that the work of facilitating the other aspects of the humanitarian aid program could be better facilitated within DRC by them (a country as large as the western half of the United States and in which there has been no road maintenance for the past 40 years-- no way a used Toyota Corolla will get you around in any kingdom in the DRC). As there was no direct way to import the jeeps to DRC, they were to be shipped to Uganda in care of the Union Reserve System. URS was to motorcade them to DRC, where representatives of various kingdoms would then take delivery of them. The jeeps were ordered. They were never sent to Uganda (or anywhere else, to my knowledge).

What crime in the United States was committed, here?]]

THE OREGON INDICTMENT

The current indictment, a second superseding indictment, was filed Oct. 27, 2003, but not unsealed until last week. The initial indictment was filed July 1, 2002, and the superseding indictment was filed Oct. 27, 2003, both under seal.

The named defendants include Mr. Brink, Rita L. Regale, aka Rita L. Brunges, of Hawaii, Douglas C. Ferguson, formerly of Oregon, Robert Skirving, of Oregon, and Laurent (Larry) E. Barnabe, a Canadian national living in Las Vegas.

(The indictment describes Mr. Barnabe as holding himself out as a financial planner and adviser with extensive experience in the financial services industry. It is not known if he is related to Laurent Barnabe, a director of Techbyte International Ltd., listed on the former Vancouver Stock Exchange, in the early 1990s. Techbyte, delisted in 1995, described Mr. Barnabe in 1989 as "involved in financial and tax planning for several major Canadian financial institutions over the last 20 years," with "strong expertise in financial and corporate management.")

The indictment claims that Mr. Brink and his co-defendants defrauded investors in the U.S. and around the world of at least $206-million, starting in July, 1996, by promising annual returns of up to 300 per cent through FIBG and its subsidiary banks, backed by bogus 100-per-cent guarantees from the International Depositors' Insurance Corp. The defendants allegedly claimed the FIBG group held up to $74-billion in trust for its clients.

[[We did have a rate sheet that extended up to 300% per annum at one time. The rate graduated upward, depending upon the amount of a deposit. To my memory, no one made a large enough deposit to qualify for the 300% rate.

It is, of course, much easier for the assertion to be made that IDIC's guarantee was bogus, since both the Grenada government and the Grenada court refused to allow IDIC to step in and perform its function. That IDIC did attempt to perform its role is in the public record.

I can't remember the amount of assets held in trust on behalf of FIBG clients at any particular point in time. Conceivably, there was a day when it was $74 billion. At one point it included $65 billion in appraised Mexican real estate and another $60 billion (I think) of geologically studied and assayed mineral reserves, pushing the total amount over $120 billion. Big numbers, yes. But all was fully documented at the time. Those files were present at the bank, as of when I resigned.]]

The indictment claims that starting in February, 1999, Mr. Brink and Mr. Barnabe launched subsidiary banks to gather investors' funds, handle FBIG's administrative duties and serve as a "firewall" or protection for FIBG. The pseudo sub-banks noted include Cambridge, Crown Meridian Bank, Meridian, Wellington Bank & Trust Ltd., Electra Finance Bank Ltd., Harbor Bank & Trust Ltd., New London Investment Bank Ltd., Olympic Investment Bank Ltd., Oxford Bank Ltd., Pacific Investment & Trade Bank Ltd., Sattva Investment Bank Ltd., Renaissance Investment Bank Ltd. and Trafalgar Atlantic Bank Ltd.

[["Firewall" is a useful term. So many different groups were interested in referring depositors to the bank that at one point I suggested they each form their own banks-- and that their banks then be "wholesale" depositors at First Bank. My reason for doing so was that handling individual retail depositors was a time (and staff-numerically intensive) proposition. In Grenada we tripled the physical size of our offices twice in two years (and were packed to the rafters at the most recent location - and under a multi-year lease agreement for that location - while still paying the multi-year lease at the previous (too small) location (we didn't renew the lease on the first facility we had in Grenada). If some group was so intent on bringing in depositors, I felt it only reasonable that they provide their own facility and staffing, telephone and fax lines, long distance expenses, etc. I was perfectly willing for First Bank to pay a premium on yields, if I could get out of having to directly service all of the retail depositors. Hence, the banking "system" of banks that deposited at First Bank was born.

I had not heard of Trafalgar Atlantic Bank Ltd. until reading this article.]]

According to U.S. authorities, Mr. Brink launched FIBG after August, 1996, when he and Cynthia (Tai) Hastey, an unindicted associate, contracted to buy the paperwork for an offshore bank called Fidelity International Bank from its Canadian owner, unidentified in court documents, for $50,000. Mr. Brink allegedly made Ms. Hastey the beneficial owner of FIBG, as his 1994 Oregon bankruptcy filing precluded him from ownership up Grenada's 1996 Banking Act.

[[In the above paragraph the journalist writing this article seems to mix up Fidelity International Bank, Incorporated (Nauru) with First International Bank of Grenada Limited.

Fidelity was purchased from a Texan owner who used a Canadian firm to broker its sale. Purchased in mid-1996, its depositors were transferred to First Bank in mid-1998.

Ms. Hastey was the legal owner of the common stock of First Bank. That is true. She was also the beneficial owner of Fidelity. That is also true.]]

A year later, in October, 1997, Mr. Brink allegedly created a Class I offshore bank in Grenada called First International Bank of Grenada, or FIBG, which later merged with FIB. Mr. Brink resigned as CEO of FIBG in October, 1999, and moved to Uganda, but alleged stayed on as a director and consulting, controlling its operations.

[[As CEO of Fidelity International Bank I spearheaded the move to see FIBG created and licensed in Grenada. FIBG took on Fidelity s depositors in the summer of 1998.

I did resign from FIBG on October 1, 1999. I did not remain as a Director of the bank, nor as controller of its operations. I was available to my successor as a consultant. All he had to do was call. Sometimes he did. I never attended another Board meeting as a director or as a consultant from that point forward to June 2000, when the Board did request that I formally consult with them. At that point I was not brought back as a Director, however.]]

Several key figures had modest roots.

[[I think all of us have "modest roots." We are born naked, fitted with diapers that need changing often and are each made to endure years of elementary schooling, etc. This constitutes a crime in the United States?]]

Mr. Ziegler, who changed names to Van A. Brink, moved from Oregon to Hawaii in 1994 to operate Wheatland Interests, which sold tax avoidance "pure trust organizations," allegedly posing as a banker from Oregon.

[[I did legally change my name from Gilbert Allen Ziegler to Van Arthur Brink in 1998.

The Board of Fiduciary Owners (of which I was never a member) of Wheatland Interest, a pure trust organization, did contract for my services as its agent Managing Director. I can't remember if that was in late 1994 or early 1995. Wheatland provided services under contract, performing editing and transcription services from a sort of catalog of about 100 documents, as I recall, one of those documents being a template for the creation of pure trust organizations.

Between 1989 and 1994 I was a private mortgage banker in Oregon. At no time have I ever represented myself to anyone as having a background in commercial banking.]]

Ms. Regale, who lived in Hawaii, served various stints from 1993 to 1997, working as a realtor, a health food store manager and a fitness centre co-owner becoming chief financial officer of FIBG in October, 1997. She also filed for bankruptcy in Georgia in 1997. Oregon native Mr. Ferguson, a long-time friend of Mr. Brink, moved to Hawaii in 1996 to help operate Wheatland.

[[Mr. Ferguson and I have been friends since 1989, that's true.]]

The indictment claims Mr. Barnabe's main jobs were overseeing the education of investors lured to offshore investments, recruiting and training independent contractors to sell FIBG investment products, setting up FIBG sub-banks and managing commission payments to promoters of FIBG and its sub-banks.

[[Mr. Barnabe was a representative of a holding company that went into joint venture with a holding company of First Bank's, the outgrowth of which was the creation of several Grenada companies, each of which was headed by a licensed Grenada attorney, if memory serves me correctly. Mr. Barnabe guided in the interviewing and selecting of the Grenada attorneys who became the Managing Directors/CEOs of the various companies - one of which was Offshore Educational Institute, another was Granite Registry Services and a third was Asset Research and Development Associates. OEI did conduct seminars when engaged to do so. GRS did register Grenada companies when engaged to do so. ARDA did contract with various registered companies to refer depositors to the various banks. The banks paid commissions under contract with ARDA to ARDA. ARDA paid a portion of those commissions to various companies, according to those separate contracts it had. All of this was set up according to the advice of hired counsel and by way of legal agreements drafted by legal counsel for those purposes. None of it was in violation of any Grenada law, according to the engaged professional legal counsel.]]

Mr. Barnabe operated the Offshore Educational Institute for investors, offering seminars on such topics as wealth preservation, offshore financial and tax planning, applications for secondary citizenships, and FIBG investments. Speakers included Grenadian government officials, FIBG attorneys, promoters, Mr. Brink, Mr. Barnabe and Mr. Ferguson.

[[Yes, I did speak at several (not all) OEI seminars. I also attended a seminar once when Mr. Ferguson spoke.]]

FIBG had quite a tale to tell. Thousands of investors were allegedly told that FIBG was capitalized with a 10,000-carat ruby worth $20-million and $500,000 in cash, while FIB boasted the same ruby but just $100,000 in cash.

[[I don't recall that OEI seminars had thousands of attendees. At least, the ones at which I spoke did not. Further, other than for the sports stadium in St. George's, I don t think Grenada has a facility large enough to accommodate thousands at a time-- and I never heard tell of OEI renting the sports stadium for a seminar.

Grenada law required capitalization of approximately $2 million for a Class I Offshore Banking License (the license that was issued to First Bank). The Minister of Finance of Grenada issued First Bank's license being satisfied that the bank did have sufficiency of capital.

The evidence of capitalization presented was $500,000 in a cash deposit, the infamous 10,000 carat ruby appraised at $20 million (but booked for $15 million, as memory serves me) and $17 million in publicly traded securities.

The capital structure that the Minister of Finance did approve became controversial in the media, something that did precipitate many questions from depositors (that were truthfully answered to the best of my information, knowledge and belief). I don't recall once "boasting" of the initial capital structure of the bank. We replaced that capital structure as quickly as possible with cash and cash-equivalent instruments issued by Top 100 banks.

Fidelity International Bank, Incorporated (Nauru) was purchased in 1996 before there was one depositor or one business transaction ever conducted. Required capitalization was $100,000 only. The Republic of Nauru was satisfied with the demonstration of capital that was provided and the license was transferred to Ms. Hastey. The infamous ruby was not part of that capital structure.

First International Bank of Grenada Limited (FIBG) was formed and licensed in October 1997 (although the bank did not accept its first deposit until about April 1998). As noted above, the Grenada Ministry of Finance was satisfied that in excess of $2 million USD in capital structure had been evidenced by the bank ($500,000 in cash, the ruby and $17 million in publicly traded securities).

How any of this constitutes indictable crimes in the United States is a complete mystery to me.]]

Investors were allegedly told that FIBG had $200-million in assets under management in 1996, rising to $2.5-billion by Aug. 1, 1997, and more than $100-billion by that Dec. 31. FIBG was said to have "assets held in trust, managed on behalf of clients" of $74-billion as of Dec. 31, 1997.

[[I believe all of that is likely accurate. But why is accuracy an indictable crime in the United States? I don't get it...]]

Documents in late 1998 show FIBG also planned to claim it had assets of more than $50-million in gold concentrates, and a few weeks later, that it had more than $100-million in gold concentrates per month in bonded warehouses.

[[Interesting to note the phrasing above that FIBG also "planned" to claim that it had...

I do recall a discussion about that. It involved a transaction that I don't think was concluded. Therefore, whatever "planning" occurred was just that: planning. But since when is a licensed Grenada offshore bank planning to lawfully/legally acquire assets a criminal offense in the United States?]]

Both banks claimed impressive deposit coverage. FIB purportedly had "blocked assets" of $3 for every $1 deposited by investors, while FIBG and its subsidiary banks purportedly had blocked assets of $10 for each dollar deposited.

[[No, I have gone over this in detail a number of times. In Fidelity days we did contract with private asset owners to "block" assets in favor of depositors. The ratio the bank did maintain was in excess of 3:1 in such asset blocking.

In FIBG days the bank acquired an enormous amount of assets far in excess of 10:1 vs. deposits. But these were not "blocked" under contract with third parties. These were owned by the bank. IDIC was the "third party administrator" of the bank's "self-insurance" program, i.e. the bank had to demonstrate to IDIC that it did, itself, have assets amounting to 10:1 or more of its deposits held, which demonstration the bank did make to the satisfaction of IDIC's independent legal counsel.]]

Investors were allegedly told that FIB engaged in "mortgage flipping," debenture trading and the purchase and sale of investment-grade financial instruments to generate its high rates of return, while FIBG purportedly bought investment-grade paper at a discount, which it sold at a high price to a pre-determined market.

[[For the most part I believe the above statement is true. Not only that we "told" depositors these things, but that we also did those things. I think we may have "flipped" a mortgage or two. That wasn't the bank's primary focus, however. Nor do I recall ever telling anyone that it was a principal way the bank conducted its business.

When we started Fidelity, we did so by moving to buy and sell tax lien certificates offered by several states in the United States. Perhaps this is what is meant by "mortgage flipping." To me, a tax lien and a mortgage are different items, although both are often associated with creating and discharging or transferring liens on real estate. We didn't have the heart to long pursue the tax lien proposition. Just didn't feel right to make profits at the expense of someone under threat of losing their homes for non-payment of property taxes. We soon turned to other investment strategies.]]

The indictment claims the defendants treated themselves by spending investors' funds on millions of dollars worth of luxury homes in Oregon, Nevada, Grenada and Uganda, assorted real estate, an organic vegetable farm, several Mercedes-Benzes and other luxury cars, furniture, jewellery, a tanning machine, designer clothing, travel, gambling and private jet rentals.

[[A distinction needs to be made between what bank officers and directors may have done personally with their compensation and what the bank did by way of investments. What crime is it in the United States for those engaged by a licensed Grenada bank to spend personal compensation as pleases them?

Investments were made in two executive homes in Uganda. That was at the time the bank was preparing to purchase major interest in a large Uganda commercial bank. Buying homes that visiting Grenada bank officers/directors could stay in while in Uganda was far more prudent, financially, than funding extended stays in hotels.

A presumption in the indictment (that I haven't read) seems to be that if any former officer/director used personal compensation funds to purchase a home, an automobile, items of jewelry (or a tanning machine bed!), they did so with "the proceeds of crime." What crime is that? So far the article doesn't give any specifics.

In terms of automobiles the bank purchased, USED jeeps was as upscale as we went while I was CEO. And if you didn't drive on Grenada roads in 1998/1999, you truly can't appreciate the wisdom in that decision of mine at the time.

Was "gambling" ever done with bank funds? No. Were business meetings ever held in Las Vegas at, say, the MGM Grand Hotel? Yes. Might someone have purchased a roll of quarters and gone gambling with the money? Conceivably. I had business meetings in Las Vegas in 1997. Three times. Each time I allowed myself $100 for entertainment down on the gambling floor. Usually, that meant I could go back to my room within an hour or two. One time it took three or four hours. Exhausting work.

And, oh my gosh! Former officers and directors also spent money on clothing - even DESIGNER clothing!!! And they traveled (to meetings or home for Christmas). Despicable bastards!

There was no private jet travel funded by the bank while I was CEO. I would highly question if such was ever funded by the bank. I can't imagine my successor (Mark Kennedy) approving of such. If someone did charter a private jet flight at some point, my bet is that it would have been funded out of personal savings.]]

While investors lost varying amounts, some had high stakes. Mr. Brink allegedly created a false loan application to obtain a $750,000 home equity loan in mid-1996 for an initial investor, even before he bought the FIB shell from its Canadian owner.

[[Since 1989 I have helped over 1,000 applicants assemble various mortgage loan applications. When you sit down with an applicant and help him/her/them fill out the forms, you ask questions and write down answers also asking to see what sort of supporting documents they might have and telling them, candidly, that everything on their mortgage application will be independently verified, so there's no use lying about anything at all.

Does this mean that applicants never falsify loan applications? In my experience, lying is chronic. Americans tend to exaggerate their financial net worth. Those of other ethnic origins tend to understate anything with respect to the value of their holdings. It is downright comical at times when you get into processing and doing the verifying of financial matters stated on a loan application.

I do not recall helping anyone fill out a mortgage loan application in mid-1996. I sure might have done so. All mortgage lenders have their own loan processing and underwriting procedures. If information was incorrectly stated by the applicant, it will invariably be discovered by the lender. You can explain that five times in an hour to applicants. Invariably, something will be misstated anyway. Weird. It is like everyone assumes that no one really takes the time to verify the facts (even when you repeatedly tell applicants that the financial and credit facts are always verified by lenders).]]

It did not take long for authorities to get wind of FIBG's operations and launch numerous preliminary probes.

In September, 1999, Mr. Skirving allegedly directed Mr. Brink and Mr. Ferguson to prepare a non-disclosure contract preventing him from discussing about FIBG, so he could present it to the SEC during its investigation of the Private Legacy Trust, an associated company.

[[The bank's officers, directors and staff did operate under a verbal contract not to make unauthorized disclosures to third parties (including government agencies). Indeed, such was required of anyone associated with an offshore bank by the Grenada Offshore Banking Act.

I remember at one time discussing this matter. Can't remember who brought the topic up. We concluded that it would be best to have the legally binding verbal contract to which all had agreed reduced to a written document. All employees were required to sign it. It was doing all we could do to assure legal compliance with the law on the part of the bank and its operating personnel, officers and directors. Again, I'm not at all clear on how a Grenada banking operation insisting on abiding by Grenada banking laws and also that is directors, officers and staff do more than verbally promise to abide by such laws constitutes a criminal act in the United States.]]

(In January of 1999, an RCMP search warrant in B.C. showed Canadian authorities had been probing FIBG since at least October of 1998, and the FBI in Portland was conducting investigations in that state, Washington, Kentucky, Florida, Hawaii and Wisconsin.)

[[Yes. There has been much investigation conducted. Of that, I have not the least amount of doubt.]]

While most of the bank transactions noted in the indictment were in various institutions in Grenada, in late 1999 and mid-2000, the group allegedly began moving funds to other offshore jurisdictions, including Discount Bank & Trust in Lugano, Switzerland, Anglo Irish Bank in Austria and Cater Allan Bank on the Isle of Man, all of which were merely innocent conduits.

[[I don't recall any of those institutions being places where the bank maintained accounts. Possibly those accounts were established by one of my successors. Innocent conduits, yes. But First Bank was also an innocent customer of those banks with which it established depository accounts. An offshore bank has no other way to relate to the international banking system than by establishing banking relationships with commercial banks. None of the major banks in Grenada would allow any of Grenada's offshore banks to maintain accounts with them and this at the insistence of the American correspondent banks of Grenada's commercial banks. Thus, First Bank was continually in search of suitable banking relationships so that it could conduct its business.]]

By this time, Mr. Brink was preparing to fly off into the sunset to Uganda.

[[Flying due EAST into the sunset? Hmmm... ]]

In a two-week spending spree in late January of 2000, Mr. Brink allegedly moved $1.05-million in five wires from Grenada to the Isle of Man, to help buy a palace in Kampala. During this period, he also allegedly wired $300,000 to a man in Miami as a down payment for 30 Jeeps. On Jan. 25, 2000, five days later, he contracted to buy 30 JeepCherokees worth $697,592 from a dealer in Grenada for shipment to Uganda.

[[Actually, despite all press reports to the contrary, there was no "palace" purchased in Kampala. Two executive homes were purchased in August, 1999, I believe. The purchase was made by way of a down payment with the balance being paid to the seller in the form of CDs. In January 2000 the seller called me asking how he could cash in on the CDs ahead of scheduled maturity. I told him to contact the bank and see if it was possible, that I was no longer in charge, there. Apparently, he did and (apparently also) the bank consented to redeem the CDs before maturity.

How is a Grenada bank purchasing executive homes in Uganda a criminal act in the United States? I'm real fuzzy on that.

Related to the Jeep Cherokees, as explained, that was related to the humanitarian aid and economic development treaty the bank negotiated with the Congolese kings. I had no desire to open up a Jeep distributorship in Kampala. I was working with the Union Reserve System in accomplishing the administration of the three separate treaties the bank entered with various Congolese groups, one of those groups being the kings.

How is a humanitarian trust administering a treaty between a Grenada bank and Congolese kings a criminal act in the United States? I'm fuzzy on this too.]]

The indictment seeks the forfeiture of Mr. Skirving's luxury house in Henderson, Nev., which he bought for $2.8-million in March, 2000, Mr. Brink's palace in Kampala, a house and the organic farm in Oregon, and a 2000 Mercedes SL500. Although FIBG's investors were allegedly defrauded of at least $206-million, the only other assets noted in the indictment, traced and subject to forfeiture, are two accounts at the bank in Vienna, one with a $600,000 balance and the other with $360,000.

[[Could someone please direct me to this palace in Kampala? I'd really like to see it before I die. Once I see it, I'll gladly forfeit it as requested (since I own no real estate in Uganda or elsewhere). Just send me the quit claim deed. I'll sign. No problem. Of course, with all of that in your hand, you'll still need 2,000 Uganda shillings ($1.00 USD) to buy a cup of instant coffee at the Sheraton Kampala.

Mr. Skirving was a multi-millionaire years before I ever met him or there was either a Fidelity or a First Bank. That he may have personally purchased a nice home in Nevada doesn't shock me much.

A 2000 Mercedes SL 500? Sounds like someone used personal savings to purchase a really, really nice automobile. The bank never provided me with such a car to drive. I dare say that the bank never provided this individual with such a car, either.

Two accounts at Bank of Vienna? $960,000 just sitting there? Sounds like someone's personal savings account to me. I don't believe that the bank ever had an account at a bank by that name and if it did, FIBG Liquidator Marcus A. Wide would have collected on it two years ago.

What crime is committed in the United States if contractors working for a licensed bank in Grenada happen to purchase a nice home, a nice car or deposit what they earned in a bank somewhere?

An interesting article. In reading it, I just can't put my finger on what 142 crimes were committed by myself and those others indicted. The writer does a good job of painting me as a colorful character, however.]]

-END

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While the US and UK are rounding up offshore millionaire expatriates in the wake of offshore witch hunts being carried on by government-fueled media campaigns lodging their own version of the news designed to curtail offshore business and financial investments abroad, both extraditions and prosecutions continue.

An interesting note to ponder is why don’t these offshore millionaires just officially renounce their particular original jurisdiction citizenships at the proper Embassy or Consulate abroad ‘before’ they choose to live and do business permanently from another country? Why do they hang-on to their original citizenships while abroad and then expect any tax relief or immunity from prosecution just because they are living and working in another country?

The answer to some of these questions probably lay in the fact that very few people are even familiar with their country laws governing expatriation and official oaths of renunciation. Even if you have the brightest of international lawyers or barristers, trying to locate these laws, rules, and procedural elements in legal books is extremely difficult to find.

Most citizens are not at all familiar with these difficult to locate administrative boards of review, which actually hold the rules governing citizens and what various countries State Department and Foreign Affair laws can and cannot do. Either that or professionals have just chosen to simply ignore them or believe they don’t exist. The facts are clear now. These laws do exist and must be thoroughly researched by professionals and expatriates who decide to travel abroad favoring independent offshore business financial activities.

Any prudent person wishing to take advantage of offshore opportunities must either decide to appropriately file and pay their country of origin taxes (if due and payable) or become officially and legally true expatriates, which just might serve for longer durations of uninterrupted offshore freedoms.