Elmer’s discs are old news, says Travers
(CNS): The information contained on the two discs given to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks by Rudolph Elmer from his time working with Julius Bear’s Cayman Islands subsidiary is nothing new, according to Anthony Travers, the chair of Cayman Finance. The leaked information is said to contain the names of more than 2,000 people with accounts in the Cayman Islands, but Travers says the US government won’t be gaining any new access to information because of what he described as the “long and established record of banking transparency and a willingness to share information” here in Cayman.
“This information is of historic interest only,” Travers stated in a release. He added that Cayman shares information with the United States and 20 other jurisdictions with which it has tax information exchange agreements, as well as all 27 members of the European Union. “Release of the names of persons who maintain accounts in the Cayman Islands – much like other threats from Julian Assange to post information on WikiLeaks – sounds sensational but is yesterday’s news,” said Travers, who chairs the local finance industry body .
The Cayman authorities entered into a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) with the US Department of Justice to enable information-sharing on all crimes and money laundering more than two decades ago. In 2001 the islands signed a bilateral Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with the United States that provides for exchange of information relating to federal income tax. Since then, it has established similar agreements with 20 other countries.
In 2002 Cayman became one of the first non-OECD jurisdictions to adopt the principles of transparency and exchange of information, requiring local banks, law firms and financial institutions to exercise complete due diligence on all clients. This was in addition to the duty of those institutions to identify suspicious clients and the mandate that every professional confidentially report all suspicious transactions to the government’s Financial Reporting Unit (FRU).
Cayman Finance said that together this led to Cayman being placed on the OECD’s “white list” of jurisdictions when it comes to transparency and regulations.
Elmer handed the discs to WikiLeaks founder on Monday in London and Assange has said that he will disclose the content once the discs have been scrutinized. At the press conference at the Front Line Club he indicated that the time it would take to vet the material would depend on the volume of information and how it was delegated. The Tax Justice Network is one of the groups that might be asked to help in the vetting process, he added.
John Christensen, former economic adviser to Jersey and now director of the Tax Justice Network, on e of the groups TRavers has called the ‘Tax Taliban’ told the BBC that Elmer had felt he had no alternative but to go to WikiLeaks as he had been "raising concerns … for many years.”
Christensen said that Elmer is not the only person who has worked in a compliance role in an offshore bank who has raised concerns with superiors about what is going on inside the banks, only to be ignored. He said the banks need to start taking warnings by compliance staff more seriously when they raise these issues.
Category: Business
This, like all information Julian Assange has leaked, is irrelevant, and a distraction from the real issue at hand: Mr. Assange’s own legal woes.
The information being released may be old news, but I have just watched Elmer on CNN and the BBC news, as well as reading about him in any number of online news services and I can’t help but think that this makes it very current news.
It seems to me that instead of presenting a facade of studied indifference, Travers should be telling whoever will listen that he is unconcerned about the content of the released information because Cayman does not promote or support illegal activity, but that nonetheless the authorities here will monitor the situation carefully and take appropriate action against any individual or company who has broken our laws.
Elmer’s actions may be highly suspect and his motivation dubiousbut this does not rule out the possibility that buried in the released information is stuff which may be embarrassing to Cayman and incriminating to Julius Baer. Maybe the real test is how we deal with this.
The point that Travers is trying to make is that Cayman IS transparent – he lists the various agreements and treaties that are already in place for authorities to investigate tax evasion and to catch criminals. Seems that so far, Elmer has had a bloody hard time getting anyone to listen to him, whichreally should raise eyebrows in this strong anti-offshore climate. if he can’t get a tax man’s interest in whatever information he has, then it must be stale indeed.
So, he has gone after the media, which has latched onto this like a fat kid on a Smartie. There is no doubt that Cayman will be dragged through the mud on this – another poster already pointed out that Cayman will be guilty until we can prove ourselves innocent.
The sad part of this is that even the local population will be quick to jump to the "guilty" verdict, without knowing what it is that they are talking about or what impact their comments have under the global microscope.
I’m confused. To what extent do any of our agreements with other countries call for discosure to foreign authorities of:
– beneficial ownership of Cayman companies
– beneficial ownership of Cayman companies that operate bank accounts
– Settlors of private Cayman Islands trusts, the assets of those trusts and beneficiaries ?
I’m not being obtuse – I really don’t know, so a couple of basic pointers in the right direction would be appreciated.
It does seem to me however that what Mr Travers is stating as being "readily available in any event", is quite different to the information that could potentially leak out of this Julius Baer scandal.
This information is available, following official protocol. When these flash journalists with their square glasses and big chips on their shoulders go marching into the Registrar demanding to see the files on every company in Cayman, they are politely shown the door – and rightly so. Counter to the bleating of Richard Murphy, a person does have a right to a certain amount of personal privacy (speaking of which, I wonder what his views were on the ‘naked airport scanners’?).
If another country’s tax authorities or regulator has reason to suspect that one of their residents is engaging in illegal tax evasion or some other financial crime, they go through the proper channels and the Tax Authority in Cayman provides them with the information that they need. In the GAO report of 2008, it was stated plainly that Cayman is one of the US Department of Justice’s "best partners" because of the high levels of co-operation.
A great loss here is that, in ignorance, many local observers and vastly more international commentators will rush to find Cayman guilty until proven innocent. We need our government and business leaders to step up on the global platform, be proactive not just in the defense of Cayman’s cherished reputation, but too in proclaiming its determined future on a continued path of integrity in all its affairs. Let’s not defend Cayman’s good character, instead let’s humbly boast of this treasured reality.
We need an eloquent PR agent to give a statement to the press right away. This is headline news on the global BBC and needs to have our side told.
Our politicians need a strong public response.
We have one – Cayman Finance.
Keep up the good work Travers. It wasn’t that long ago when issues like this were met with stony, stunned silence from Cayman. Glad to have you on our side.
Re. "John Christensen … told the BBC that Elmer had felt he had no alternative but to go to Wikileaks as he had been "raising concerns… for many years.”
I would be surprised if that interpretation of events was accurate.
My understanding is that Julius Baer (Cayman) began investigating an alleged attempt to extort money from clients, i.e. clients were told to pay up or their information would be given to the authorities.
In an attempt to find out who was responsible, polygraphs were conducted of staff. Mr. Elmer, by his own admission, walked out of his polygraph examination and he was fired for alleged misconduct. He denies any wrongdoing.
The bank and Mr. Elmer then became embroiled in a bitter dispute. According to Julus Baer in a court filing at federal court in California in 2008, the bank began receiving threats sent anonymously by email, which it traced to Mauritius, where Mr. Elmer lived at the time.
One such email dated September 7, 2007 read: "There will be an explosion the Bank today, Friday, at 11.00 pm which will remind everyone on [sic] the September 11th".
Mr. Elmer denies that he was the sender.
Elmer also told people around that time (2002) that he had brain cancer.