http://www.thekomisarscoop.com Reports & Analysis by Investigative Journalist Lucy Komisar Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:48:14 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2011/04/russian-deputy-pm-says-1000-russian-banks-are-money-launderers/ http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2011/04/russian-deputy-pm-says-1000-russian-banks-are-money-launderers/#comments Mon, 04 Apr 2011 20:40:45 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/?p=6216 http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2011/04/russian-deputy-pm-says-1000-russian-banks-are-money-launderers/feed/ 1 http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2010/12/shells-shams-and-corporate-scams/ http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2010/12/shells-shams-and-corporate-scams/#comments Fri, 10 Dec 2010 18:18:26 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/?p=5442 The American Interest, Jan-Feb 2011 (online Dec 9, 2010) Corporate secrecy, which involves hiding the identities of company owners from tax and other legal authorities, is itself no secret. It is well known that offshore banking centers such as Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the Cayman Islands have for many years enabled fraudsters all over the world to carry out scams, launder illicit profits, stash stolen loot and hide money from tax authorities. What most people do not know, however, is that there is a vast and growing American offshore. Foreign crooks prize states such as Nevada, Wyoming and especially Delaware for state laws that don’t require them to list owners or even company officials when a new company is formed. Corporate interests and the Obama administration are blocking congressional efforts to change that.]]> http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2010/12/shells-shams-and-corporate-scams/feed/ 1 http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2010/05/the-wall-street-icecapade/ http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2010/05/the-wall-street-icecapade/#comments Wed, 19 May 2010 03:04:10 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/?p=4282 The American Interest, July-Aug 2010 (online May 18, 2010) - As I write this, the U.S. Senate is debating a major financial reform bill in which the credit default swap, a kind of derivative, plays a significant part. An amendment to that bill, proposed by Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), would ban banks from proprietary trading. There are a lot of high-rolling bankers who do not want that amendment to pass, because it will mess up their plans to repatriate foreign profits into the United States, untaxed, by trading in derivatives on their own accounts. The clearinghouse ICE Trust U.S. forms a central part of these plans. What is ICE Trust U.S., and who owns it? ICE US Holding Co., which was established in 2008 as the parent of ICE Trust U.S., is located in the Cayman Islands. Yet none of the owners of ICE US Holding Co. are based in the Caymans. Among the owners of the Cayman’s company are Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, which are headquartered in New York. Bank of America, which now owns Merrill Lynch, is based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ]]> http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2010/05/the-wall-street-icecapade/feed/ 1 http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/07/qa-tax-havens-bank-secrecy-and-tricks/ http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/07/qa-tax-havens-bank-secrecy-and-tricks/#comments Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:26:51 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/?p=1744 http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/07/qa-tax-havens-bank-secrecy-and-tricks/feed/ 0 http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/05/oecd-tax-havens-deal-falls-short-critics-say/ http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/05/oecd-tax-havens-deal-falls-short-critics-say/#comments Fri, 08 May 2009 20:10:31 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/2009/05/08/oecd-tax-havens-deal-falls-short-critics-say/ http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/05/oecd-tax-havens-deal-falls-short-critics-say/feed/ 0 http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/04/irs-on-the-track-of-tax-cheating-john-does/ http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/04/irs-on-the-track-of-tax-cheating-john-does/#comments Fri, 01 May 2009 03:08:41 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/2009/04/30/irs-on-the-track-of-tax-cheating-john-does/ http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/04/irs-on-the-track-of-tax-cheating-john-does/feed/ 1 http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/03/tax-havens-in-spotlight-at-g20-meet/ http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/03/tax-havens-in-spotlight-at-g20-meet/#comments Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:32:29 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/2009/03/29/tax-havens-in-spotlight-at-g20-meet/ http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/03/tax-havens-in-spotlight-at-g20-meet/feed/ 2 http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/02/offshore-tax-cheating-could-become-criminal-money-laundering-offense/ http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/02/offshore-tax-cheating-could-become-criminal-money-laundering-offense/#comments Wed, 11 Feb 2009 22:33:43 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/2009/02/11/offshore-tax-cheating-could-become-criminal-money-laundering-offense/ The law aims at cases in which money passes through tax havens. It targets not just the evaded taxes, but any money that is part of the scam.]]> http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/02/offshore-tax-cheating-could-become-criminal-money-laundering-offense/feed/ 2 http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/02/is-ny-gov-paterson-protecting-corporate-tax-evaders/ http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/02/is-ny-gov-paterson-protecting-corporate-tax-evaders/#comments Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:48:12 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/?p=1627 http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/02/is-ny-gov-paterson-protecting-corporate-tax-evaders/feed/ 0 http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/02/exclusive-how-one-funds-profits-ended-up-in-the-caymans/ http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/02/exclusive-how-one-funds-profits-ended-up-in-the-caymans/#comments Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:59:42 +0000 Lucy Komisar http://thekomisarscoop.com/2009/02/05/exclusive-how-one-funds-profits-ended-up-in-the-caymans/ Why would a New York investment fund manager run operations through an office in the Caymans? "This type of structure is for optimising taxes," explained Max Obrist, a Cayman Islands official of the global Julius Baer Group (Zurich). He told IPS that "generating" the income where a company was actually based, "you would pay much more taxes". Obrist was describing a company shifting claimed earnings to tax havens to evade home taxes. He allegedly helped Julius Baer Investment Management (JBIM) New York do just that. ]]> http://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2009/02/exclusive-how-one-funds-profits-ended-up-in-the-caymans/feed/ 1