Word: caymans
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...Parmalat still owes Deutsche Bank j38 million.) UBS agreed to buy j420 million in bonds from Parmalat, but put up just j110 million in cash for them. In a complex transaction, UBS exchanged j290 million of the rest for credit-linked notes issued by a Portuguese bank in the Cayman Islands, which were then transferred to Parmalat. The notes came with a tough default clause that was triggered when Parmalat went bankrupt in December. The upshot: the j290 million went back to UBS. The banks don't dispute these transactions. The question is: Did the banks demand the unusually aggressive...
...people to form a corporation, only one is needed here. And for a fee, anonymity is assured. "We have a large database of shelf corporations available so that you can establish a history for your company," touts an ad for one service firm on the territory. Is it the Cayman Islands? Monaco? The Bahamas? No, it's the U.S. state of Delaware, and the services offered there are entirely legal. No wonder success is so elusive in the growing international effort to crack down on tax fraud: one man's shady haven is another man's low-tax financial-services...
...finance officials from major Western countries took pains to support the idea of a level playing field in tax matters. But havens say they still find themselves on blacklists even though they have taken action to become more open. "It's hugely discriminatory and arbitrary," fumes Deborah Drummond, a Cayman Islands official. Tax avoidance, says Richard Schmalensee, dean of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, "is like graffiti or pollution: if you want to get rid of it completely you'll be disappointed." Drummond from the Cayman Islands concurs. "You can't prevent fraud from happening...
Prosecutors allege that Parmalat created an elaborate house of milk cartons, using opaque subsidiaries (including one called Buconero, which means "black hole") in tax havens such as the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg to hide the declining state of its finances. Tanzi has reportedly admitted shifting some $630 million from the company to other businesses but insists some underlings devised the accounting fraud. Former chief financial officer Fausto Tonna has given prosecutors crucial details about the firm's labyrinthine bookkeeping...
...Calisto Tanzi, and how did he become embroiled in what the sec claims is "one of the largest and most brazen corporate financial frauds in history"? Prosecutors allege that over the past decade Parmalat created an elaborate house of cards, including opaque subsidiaries in tax havens such as the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg, to hide the true state of its finances. Tanzi has admitted siphoning off around €500 million from the company to finance other family businesses, but insists that some of his underlings are to blame - they were the ones who devised the accounting fraud, he has told...