June 2001 Selected News Clips

FRENCH HYPOCRISY

PARIS. French Socialists continue calls for a European super state and EU-wide taxes. A nation where leftist parliamentarians have made tax haven bashing a sport with unfounded attacks on Switzerland, Monaco and Luxembourg, itself now stands revealed as a hot bed of tax evasion, money laundering and corruption.

ESCAPE TO BERMUDA

HAMILTON. Ex-US corporations of all sorts continue to make the island their new home to escape high US taxes.

TIRED OF BEING CANADIAN?

TORONTO. A leading Canadian businessman bails out, renouncing his citizenship. 96 others did the same last year.

I.R.S. OFFSHORE REPORTS REQUIRED JUNE 30

Foreign Account Form TDF 90-22.1: If you had offshore financial accounts during 2000 with a combined value of more than $10,000, you must file this IRS form no later than June 30th. Get a copy of the form & info at,

WASHINGTON. "The Internal Revenue Service, US tax enforcer, has a history of tactics and transgressions that would "make the hot poker wielders of the Inquisition proud."

OFFSHORE LEGAL STRUCTURES

Consider an LLC combined with a trust. Here are the facts.

IDENTIFY THEFT EXPANDS

It's one of the fastest growing crimes. It can ruin your credit and make life miserable. And credit agencies are in part to blame.

For more information and how to protect yourself, visit here, here, and here.

U.S. PONDERS THE FUTURE FOR FATF, OECD CAMPAIGNS

After US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill publicly distanced the US from the OECD's 'harmful tax competition' initiative, the Treasury Department is understood to be reviewing the whole subject of US support for anti-money laundering legislation.

Even under the Clinton administration, Congress was no push-over for such legislation, rejecting both an attempt to install 'know your customer' rules for US banks, and an administration request for additional funding to be used for tightening up on international money-laundering.

The right-wing activists who have a strong influence on the new administration are fighting from a 'privacy' and individualist platform which has much support in the administration itself and of course from the strong banking lobby in Congress.

THEY PRICE LAUNDERED MONEY

Ask John Zdanowicz for evidence of suspicious activity in cross-border trade, and he'll provide plenty of examples.

There are the cotton pillowcases worth more than $900 each that one importer brought in from France.

There are the disposable batteries sold for hundreds of dollars each.

There are the single-lens reflex cameras -- retailed for upwards of $200 -- which another exporter shipped to Japan for a bargain price of $3.50 each.

Those are just a few examples in a long list of oddly priced items that popped up in an analysis of U.S. import and export data performed by Zdanowicz and his partner Simon Pak, both finance professors at Florida International University.

THE NATION PITCHES A FIT

WASHINGTON. Nation magazine does a hatchet job on Bush, tax havens and financial freedom. It loves the OECD.

And The Nation tries to carve up Citibank as well.

F.A.T.F. “NAME & SHAME” GAME

PARIS. Here, from the belly of the beast, is how the Financial Action Task Force’s game plan is supposed to work.

FORFEITURE LAWS COMPARED

Comparison of civil forfeiture laws, US, UK, Ireland, Australia, with implications of expanding U.K. civil forfeiture laws.

OPT OUT

READ your privacy notices. A new US law allows consumers to exempt themselves from business information exchanges. Banks and credit card firms that trade personal information are now mailing out millions of "privacy notices" informing customers of this right but the opt out provision is often buried in fine print.

U.S. RADICAL LEFT ATTACKS BUSH, O’NEILL

Mother Jones has a fit over the new US pro-tax haven policies.

HOW WE GOT WHERE WE ARE

A UK law firm provides a lengthy history of the OECD, FATF campaign against tax and asset haven nations.

PANAMA COMMENTARY

Derek SAMBROOK's latest observations on the offshore scene, as seen from one of the remaining tax/asset haven nations.

FREE COUNTRIES?

Only 12 free nations out of 161 remain. That's only 7% of the world's countries. 10 of the 12 free countries are among the world's smallest, so freedom occupies less than 7% of the world's land mass.

THE OECD BATTLE REPORT

The Center for Prosperity & Freedom sums up the anti-OECD battle in a memo to tax haven leaders.

TAX FREE CANADIANS

Unlike US citizens forever doomed to pay taxes, Canadian citizens can become non-residents and bid Canadian taxes good-bye.

AMERICAN COLONIALISM

KWAJALEIN ATOLL. Having unjustly tarred the Marshall Islands for alleged money laundering, the US government treats its inhabitants like colonial vassals.

OECD THREATENS US LAWS

Noted offshore legal expert, Bruce Zagaris, explains.

U.S. TRIAL LAWYERS

Yet another reason Americans move their finances offshore; the rapacious greed of litigious US attorneys.

HIGH TAXES = BLACK MARKET

ATHENS. A highly politicized GREEK tax system causes tax evasion and a black economy of 30% of its GDP.

COMPUTER VIRUS NOTIFIES POLICE

Consider the wider implications of a new rogue "worm" that invades your computer, looks at your files, then reports you to the police.

U.S. FBI CAN INVADE FOREIGN COMPUTERS

A federal judge rules that FBI agents can download evidence from computers of suspects outside the US, that foreign PCs are beyond protections of US law.

U.K. CYBER COPS SNOOP SOFTWARE

New trojan software allows police remotely and secretly to monitor in suspects' computer activities anywhere in the world.

U.S. POLICE GET MEDICAL RECORDS

U.S. police searching for criminals may get broad access without a warrant to private medical records.

PGP AT 10

Phil Zimmermann's Pretty Good Privacy encryption software was first released on June 5, 1991.

GOING POSTAL

The U.S. Postal Service conducts constant customer surveillance program, reporting suspicious activity to the police.

DIGITAL CASH STRUGGLES ON

It's not dead, but it it isn't very lively either.

TAXES

U.S.A. The IRS wants to inform on foreign citizens who invest in America. The Free Congress Foundation explains why not.

Is the US estate tax "repeal" real? Maybe not!

U.S. SUPREME COURT LIMITS SEARCHES

The US Supreme Court rules that police violate the Constitution by using a heat sensing device (and many other devices) to peer inside a home without a search warrant.

OUT DAMNED CARNIVORE!

The courageous Rep. Dick ARMEY, Majority Leader of the US House of Representatives, demands the Atty. Gen. kill the spying beast CARNIVORE, once and for all.

INVASION OF PRIVACY -- WHY PERSONAL SECRETS ARE NO MORE

In digital age, information can be a matter of life and death, Amy Boyer was being tracked. The beautiful young girl was soon to graduate from college. Not yet 21, Amy was still living at home with her family, whom she loved greatly. She and her boyfriend were planning to purchase a home and begin the next stage of their life together. A hard worker, she held two part-time jobs while she attended school. With many friends and a loving family, she had no reason to think she had any enemies.

Liam Youens was a young man who had gone to school with Amy. From at least the 10th grade, he had been obsessed with her. Eventually, he began a Web page to chronicle the ways in which he watched her. He discussed how he planned to kill her, her family and then himself. But he had difficulty keeping tabs on Amy. He had dropped out of college after a year and was living at home, which afforded him limited use of a car. Amy often wasn't home when he was driving by to spy on her - she was probably working - and Youens needed to find out where she was if he was going to carry out his plan.

He was able to find Amy because she was being tracked - just as we all are. Youens simply needed to know who could pull together the information available in public documents and elsewhere. Using the Internet, he paid for several public-record searches for personal information about Amy. He then obtained her Social Security number from Docusearch.com, a private investigation agency in Boca Raton, Fla. Finally, he paid $109 to get the address of Amy's workplace.

At 4:30 p.m. Oct. 15, 1999, Amy left her job at a dental office. As she was getting into her car, Youens pulled up, jumped from his vehicle and fired 15 shots into her. Her injuries included a fatal head wound. Youens used the 16th bullet to shoot himself in the head.

Amy Boyer was unique in many ways, but her vulnerability was anything but atypical. There was nothing about her that made her especially easy to track. She had a Social Security number, just like you do. She lived in a society in which private investigation firms advertise over the Internet and perform investigations for customers they never meet, just like you do. Her place of employment and other details of her life were available to anyone who wanted to spend a few dollars, and the same is undoubtedly true of you. Amy was a victim precisely because it has become relatively cheap and easy for anyone to get the information necessary to track a person down. Her stalker found out everything he needed to know without her ever knowing she was the object of his study.

Amy's tragic death has spurred some late, but important, discussion of the need for privacy in modern life. There has even been a bill proposed that would forbid companies from refusing services to someone who will not reveal his Social Security number. Another proposed bill would, as New York Times columnist William Safire points out, "[prohibit] individuals from 'displaying to the public' anybody's Social Security number without consent." But even that legislation would exempt the "information brokers" that gave Liam Youens the information he needed to find and kill Amy Boyer.

Although such efforts to protect privacy are a start, in truth they do not take into account the deep-rooted nature of the problem. For instance, even while the use of Social Security numbers has proved so dangerous, many states still prominently display them on their drivers licenses. We are coming closer and closer to living in the "panopticon" - a world of total surveillance.

In 1787, Jeremy Bentham, a British philosopher, made a proposal for prison architecture called a panopticon - (literally, "the all-seeing thing"). The idea behind the panopticon was that a prison would be most secure when the jailors watched the prisoners at all times. Since that was not possible, the next best solution was a structure where the guards could watch the prisoners at all times and where the prisoners never knew if they were being watched. That way, the prisoners would always behave appropriately.

Bentham never sold the British government on his plan, but he has proven to be something of a visionary nonetheless. Our society has become a sort of panopticon. It is all too easy to monitor someone without his knowing about it. We never know when the civil government, corporations or predators are watching us.

Unlike Bentham's prison, which had only one set of watchers, we are now in a situation in which any number of people might be watching us in different ways and at different times. We are being tracked, or at least we can never know for sure that we're not being tracked.

As tragic as Amy Boyer's death is, it probably won't be enough to galvanize the public. Why? Because even though stalking is a growing problem in our society, being killed by a troubled youth - certainly a terrifying possibility - is still not all that likely. The fact is, however, that there are many other ways in which we can be victims of the panopticon. Indeed, even after her death, Amy was a victim of yet another invasion of privacy. The August before she died, Amy's pocketbook had been stolen, so she canceled her credit cards and checks, thinking that was the end of it. But two days after her death made the news in New England, the thieves, who had gotten her Social Security number, were able to assume her identity. They managed to spend $5,000 by using checks in her name.

Whether you realize it or not, you are being tracked, just as Amy Boyer was, and it can cost you time, money, freedom - even your life.

BAHAMAS ABANDONS FINANCIAL PRIVACY

NASSAU. The Bahamian Atty. Gen./Minister of Justice pledges full cooperation with FATF in exchanging financial information. As clients flee the island, he wants off the phony FATF blacklist.

CENTRAL AMERICAN SUMMIT

PANAMA CITY. At the behest of MEXICO's Pres. FOX, Mexico and central American nations sign a pact to develop the area, including the tax haven nations of BELIZE and PANAMA.

SOCIALIST E.U. WANTS DIRECT TAXES

BRUSSELS. EU leaders line up behind a Europe wide tax to finance EU bureaucrats and their many schemes. Euro skeptics are opposed.

"The arrogance of the EU, its bureaucratism rivals that of the old Soviet Union in its wastefulness and self-aggrandizement... its explicitly socialist ideology." A very interesting essay on the EU.

GOLD BACKED CYBER MONEY

In a strange twist of fate, the Internet may be breathing new life into an ancient currency -- gold.

GOING POSTAL 2

An inside look at how the US Postal System spies on customers using profiling and other dubious tactics.

O’NEILL LIMITS INFORMATION EXCHANGE IN OECD LETTER

Tax-News.com has obtained a copy of a letter written by US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill to a group of his OECD Finance Minister colleagues following his public renunciation of some aspects of the OECD's “harmful tax competition” initiative. The letter, to Gordon Brown of the UK, Hans Eichel of Germany, and Laurent Fabius of France, among others, makes it clearer that O'Neill is both against any attempt to rein back tax competition, but also against the OECD's attack on “discriminatory” tax regimes. The letter also would seem to say that information exchange between countries is only justified when information exists to inculpate a specific individual. This clarification is important in view of the OECD's attempt to portray recent meetings in Paris as heralding the US's recommitment to extensive information exchange.

See a full copy of Secretary O'Neill's letter in Tax-News.com Resources.

KINGDOM OF SEALAND ENDURES

Sealand, the would be "data haven" off the coast of Britain, a "tax haven on steroids," takes on new meaning as New Labour's Draconian plans to restrict British liberties expand.

U.S. COURTS ASSERT OFFSHORE POWERS

A growing trend in US courts has offshore financial implications; successful US lawsuits against foreign persons and entities.

BLAIR KILLS BRIT’S FREEDOMS

LONDON. Curbs on the ancient right to jury trial, greater police powers, asset forfeiture, money laundering restrictions, relaxed evidence rules, eliminating protections against double jeopardy; New Labour's grim second term.

Add to those assaults on freedom, planned UK government computerized checks on every aspect of each citizen's life.

NEW ZEALAND REJECTS O.E.C.D. HOME TAX

Mark Parson alerts us to the NZ government's rejection of an insane OECD idea that owners' home equity be taxed. Isn't anyone safe from these Paris bureaucrats?

TAXPAYERS UNITED

An historic coalition of 33 citizen taxpayer groups worldwide jointly declares against the OECD and EU tax cartel plans.

BIG FIVE ACCOUNTING FRAUD

Arthur Anderson is fined $7 million for the civil fraud of cooking books, the largest US accounting fine ever.

IRS TARGETS SELF-EMPLOYED CONSULTANTS

WASHINGTON. Also a target, their business travel expenses.

C.P.A.s & MONEY LAUNDERING

An expert explains the growing role of accountants in spotting dirty money, and in watching you on behalf of the government.

ABOLISH THE U.S INCOME TAX?

US Rep. Ron PAUL of Texas introduces The Liberty Amendment, repealing the 16th Amendment and ending income taxes.

LAUGHING ALL THE WAY TO OFFSHORE BANKS

Business Week frets over the BUSH administration's policies favoring offshore banking and world tax competition.

RETROGRADE RUSSIA

MOSCOW. As in the old Red days, Russians are spying on their neighbors for PUTIN's KGB style government.

KEY US CONGRESSMAN OPPOSES O.E.C.D.

WASHINGTON. US House Whip Tom DELAY (R-Tex), has come out strongly against the OECD/FATF demands for tax information exchange, threatening to cut US budget funding for any such programs.

THE WORLD'S RICHEST PEOPLE

FORBES magazine publishes its annual list of the richest of the rich; 538 billionaires from 46 nations.

And here's what worries rich Americans,

OFFSHORE BANKS BROADEN APPEAL

Once the preserve of the very wealthy, offshore banks now cater to all sorts of rich people.

OFFSHORE TAX SHELTER UPHELD

ATLANTA. A federal appeals court overturns a 1999 ruling that United Parcel Service illegally used offshore companies as tax shelters. UPS could save $1.8 billion.

W.T.O. THREATENS F.S.C.s

US tax breaks for foreign sales corporations are under fire again from the World Trade Organization.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO HARD CURRENCY?

Contrarian Jim GRANT explains.

FORBES BEST OF THE NET

Forbes magazine picks for "Best of the Net" in:
* BANKING: here.
* INVESTMENTS: here.
* TAX PLANNING: here.
* OFFSHORE NEWSPAPERS: here.
* LEGAL SOURCES: here.