- For 20+ years I was a happy little camper in Brewers Bay. I love to read any kind of newspapers in my hamoc: The Beacon, The Island Sun, just everything. I never forget Collosso`s Column in Island language.
- And I`was always interested in these little business Ads. Mostly people from Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Panama, Belize…
- One day in 2001 I`was reading a name which I know. Mr Peter Hess, Switzerland. Then he was the president of Swiss parliament. And myself I was working for the Swiss Tabloid BLICK. So I bring the story home and publish it.
(See English translation by google below)
- Now, in the aftermath of apocalyptical hurrikan season 2017 the world, and all these countries is asking it self:
Have you?? Dont missunderstand, please. Just askin`
The Virgin Islands lure tax evaders
BY LEO FERRARO AND THOMAS HEER
ZÜRICH – No assets and inheritance taxes, no fussy book-keepers, who look at the companies: The British Virgin Islands (BVI) is easy to handle. The lax legislation attracts dubious companies like the light the moths.
Daniel Thelesklaf, former head of the money laundering office, calls BVI „frequent customers“. In fact, in 1999 and 2000, 12 per cent of all suspicious activity accounts were account holders of companies based on the romantic Caribbean islands.
This is a record: not a single foreign territory appeared more frequently in Thelesklafs dossiers than the BVI. This is not surprising: more than 50000 new companies emerge annually in the Caribbean tax paradise. Five times more than the islands have inhabitants.
The companies are often pure mailbox companies. One such company, Didal Financing Inc., is also the highest Swiss president, Peter Hess, as a member of the board of directors. The Didal was founded by the Panamanian trust company Morgan & Morgan.
Morgan & Morgan also has a subsidiary, Panazur Inc., in Zurich. Panazur Managing Director Rogelio Tribaldos-Alba did not want to say whether the company played a part in establishing Didal Financing. Tribaldos-Alba also did not provide information on the number of Panazur companies involved in BVI annually.
On the Internet the BVI advertise with location advantages. No board of directors has to live on the islands. The consequence: If a third country makes a request for legal assistance, the responsible persons can easily escape the interrogations of the authorities.
The fact that Peter Hess is the highest Swiss member of the board of directors of a company based in BVI, Thelesklaf calls „bad for Switzerland“. „The often unjustifiable attacks from abroad are so less credible,“ he says.
British Virgin Islands: The island of Tortola attracts yachtsmen and dubious mailbox companies.
Comment
By Marcel Siegenthaler Head of Communications
Mr. Hess, what are you doing on the Virgin Islands?
Mr. Hess, stay objective! SonntagsBlick and BLICK never told you to do dubious business.
What we blame you is your questionable dual role: As President of the National Council, you represent our country. And as a board of directors, you stand for mailbox companies in the tax havens of Panama and Virgin Islands.
That harms Switzerland. It causes foreign critics to grow suspicious that our country is struggling too little to be a clean financial center.
That is why, Mr Hess. It was not about legal subtleties into which you fled yesterday.
Your council colleagues, foreign observers and also BLICK want to know one thing above all: Why is the highest Swiss with mailbox companies in deceptive tax havens? What is he doing on Virgin Islands?
As long as you have not answered these questions in a clear way, you are bringing Switzerland into a wrong light.
Pleasew answer, Mr. Hess!
view
Dont missunderstand, please. Just askin`
Leo