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08 June 2007
America Goes To War Against - wait for it - The Cayman Islands
Politics is rather like Alice in Wonderland: you chomp on a little pill called 'Power' and all at once you see dragons instead of dormice. This week, chief US Senate dreamweaver Max Baucus (Democrat - Montana) wants to send a GAO team to the Cayman Islands to investigate a nest of anti-American activists housed in a sinister 5-story building called Ugland House.

'I want the GAO to go looking in one of the most likely places shady tax transactions could be sheltered, and that’s this building in the Caymans,' said Baucus. 'The Ugland House office building in the Cayman Islands has been the source of much debate on the Senate floor over the past few years. It’s time the Finance Committee found out what’s really going on there,' echoed deputy necromancer Senator Chuck Grassley.

And what will the GAO swat team find when it bursts its way into the heavily-defended fortress of Ugland House? Oh, Maples and Calder's very polite receptionist. Maples and Calder is the largest law firm in the Cayman Islands and has practised Cayman Islands law for more than 40 years. The firm opened additional offices in Hong Kong in 1995, London in 1997, the British Virgin Islands and Jersey in 2004, Dubai in 2005 and Dublin in 2006. It now has over 550 lawyers and staff worldwide.

But of course neither Senator actually believes anything will be learnt from this GAO jolly, which will give some staffers a well-earned holiday at the taxpayers' expense. This is just a piece of political theatre, another step forward in the demonisation of 'offshore'. It suits American politicians to play such games in front of their constituents.

The response of the Cayman Islands government to this latest jab from Capitol Hill is to say, rather wearily: 'Law enforcement, regulatory and tax information exchange channels between the Cayman Islands and U.S. – some dating back more than 20 years – offer no protection for Americans who are seeking to evade their tax obligations. The Cayman Islands has solid working relationships with the Treasury (including the IRS), the SEC, and the Department of Justice; a product of extensive cooperation between our two countries.'

'Substantially all of the answers to the questions that the Senate Committee on Finance is requesting the GAO collect are fully in the public domain,' adds the Cayman official.

The GAO, a more sensible and realistic organization than the Senate, knows very well that nothing will be achieved on its trip, conceding that the GAO "may be limited in its ability to obtain information in the Cayman Islands".

If the honourable senators really want to find out what is going on at Ugland House, why don't they give Gus Pope a ring on +1 345 814 5570; he is Maples' listed contact for the Cayman Islands. Gus has practised with Maples and Calder in the Cayman Islands since 1987 and as a partner since 1992. He is consistently ranked in international legal guides as one of the leading lawyers in the Cayman Islands and is actively involved on governmental committees relating to the funds industry in the Cayman Islands. Gus also currently serves on the management committee of the firm. He graduated with a law degree from Cambridge, and has an LL.M degree from the University of Pennsylvania where he was a Thouron Scholar, so he probably speaks American.

You have been reading an entry on the following blog:

Jeremy Hetherington-Gore Unleashed
Jeremy tackles the difficult issues head on!
Contact: jeremyhetheringtongore@yahoo.com





More entries from this blog:

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Goodbye To Privacy
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03 January 2008
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Two more countries join the mighty euro while the dollar slumps ever further into the shadows an ...

19 November 2007
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Congress and the Treasury are up in arms about the patenting of tax strategies. Why? What is wro ...

28 October 2007
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Last week saw the remarkable spectacle of a US Democrat proposing to reduce corporation tax by 5 ...

09 September 2007
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02 September 2007
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So the forces of darkness have won. With a fanfare, the UK government has brought into force its ...

21 August 2007
The Last Supply-Sider Felled
So the Tories, the UK's only hope of low taxes, have joined the governing socialists on a Colber ...

14 August 2007
King Canute Spotted On Brighton Beach
Well, it is August, after all, the month in which desperate journalists try to persuade men to b ...

11 August 2007
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It's good to see that privatization is continuing in the USA despite the best efforts of the Dem ...

28 July 2007
Don't Put Your Husband On The Board, Mrs Worthington
So the UK Treasury is going to ignore morality, equity and common-sense by legislating to punish ...

22 July 2007
Down With Corporation Tax!
The CATO Institute criticizes the US Treasury for failing to cut its high corporate tax rate, bu ...

15 July 2007
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So the European Parliament, after agonized deliberations dominated by trade union champions in t ...

26 June 2007
Will The Treasury Get To Bert Smith Before The Grim Reaper?
Bert Smith lives in a house in Malta he built with the (mostly cash) proceeds of car-dealing in ...

08 June 2007
America Goes To War Against - wait for it - The Cayman Islands
Politics is rather like Alice in Wonderland: you chomp on a little pill called 'Power' and all a ...

06 June 2007
Down With The IMF!
The IMF has just wasted another slab of your money telling us what we already knew about Switzer ...

24 May 2007
Everyone Wants To Live Offshore
Research shows that out of 60 million UK residents, all but two (the Queen and Gordon Brown) wan ...

15 May 2007
Tax Harmonization Disharmony
Imagine your company does business across a union of some dozens of states each of which sets it ...

11 May 2007
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How sad to see yet another offshore territory getting telecommunications so hopelessly wrong, as Dig ...

 

Other Blog Entries:

09 March 2008
Goodbye To Privacy

These last two weeks have seen the 'offshore' tax haven of Liechtenstein in the pillory for tryi...

20 February 2008
Panama Today, Tomorrow And Always

This Christmas season 2007 everyone is asking: What is happening in Panama? Every single hotel...

03 January 2008
Another Nail In The Currency Coffin

Two more countries join the mighty euro while the dollar slumps ever further into the shadows an...

02 December 2007
Please Turn Out The Lights As You Leave

The report that no fewer than 3.8 million British and Irish own overseas properties means that a...

19 November 2007
Hands Off The Poor, Starving Tax Lawyers!

Congress and the Treasury are up in arms about the patenting of tax strategies. Why? What is wro...

28 October 2007
The Death Of Corporation Tax

Last week saw the remarkable spectacle of a US Democrat proposing to reduce corporation tax by 5...

07 October 2007
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If I mention the dread words 'accounting standards' you will stop reading at once. Nothing comes...

23 September 2007
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Another bunch of investors have had their fingers burned after investing in hedge funds based ap...

16 September 2007
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The news that Hannover Re is thinking of moving its base from highly-taxed Germany to lightly-ta...

09 September 2007
Flat Tax, Not Flat Earth, Please!

Why is it that trade unions, especially European ones, seem to be stuck in a 19th century econom...

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