Archive for April, 2009
Missing teen found
(CNS): Update 2:00pm: A teenage girl on Cayman Brac who had been missing since last night has been found. Brandy Moulton (17) was reported missing from her West End home around 8:30 Sunday night, but her parents say they have now found her. No further information has been released.
The police were informed Sunday night as soon as they realised she was gone, her family said.
Brown warns Cayman
(CNS): According to a number of international media reports, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has sent warnings to all of the British overseas territories and crown dependencies in the wake of the G20 meeting telling them to comply with the OECD standards in six months or face sanctions. Brown has reportedly written to all the dependencies and territories, setting a September deadline to sign agreements to share tax information with the authorities.
Cayman has reportedly received its own letter and CNS has contacted the leader of government business’s office regarding the content but is still waiting for a response. Although Cayman has signed a number of bilateral treaties recently, it has also utilised the new Tax Authority Law which was passed in December to enter into a number of unilateral treaties. However, the CI government still does not have an agreement with the UK. In the wake oft he G20 summit, however, Tibbetts stated that the government was working on finalising an agreement with Britain.
The move by Downing Street puts the UK in the unusual position of threatening punitive action against its own dependencies and the countries which it is expected to represent. Brown has also signalled in the correspondence that he wants to tackle not just illegal tax evasion through personal offshore bank accounts, but also tax haven companies used for tax avoidance by corporations and super-rich individuals.
Seven British territories were named by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development when it published, to coincide with the G20 summit, a list of havens that had either not agreed to, or not yet implemented, its international tax standards. Along with the Cayman Islands the grey list also contains Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos islands.
Brown has also reportedly written to the Crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, telling them that he expects rapid further progress to end tax and banking secrecy, even though all three islands were on the so called ‘White List’ which emerged from the G20 summit.
According to the Financial Times, Brown praises the progress made by the territories and dependencies but says he wants increased levels of tax transparency and has said he expects "genuine progress beyond the current minimum."
G20 finance ministers are due to review progress made against tax secrecy towards the end of this year but Brown is seeking to avoid charges of hypocrisy at home for failing to clamp down on what are seen as tax centres with ties to the UK. Turning his attention to tax avoidance rather than just tax evasion, he has encouraged the OECD to work on targeting avoidance with new standards for offshore tax centres.
Michael Foot, a former Bank of England director who was in Cayman last month, has been commissioned to write a report on offshore havens and he will reportedly publish his interim findings next week on the UK’s Budget day, 22 April.
Smear tactics could cost Labour election, Brown told
(The Guardian): Gordon Brown will be told by senior Labour figures this week that he must clean up Downing Street if Labour is to have a chance of winning the next election following the departure of his aide, Damian McBride, who proposed a smear campaign against David Cameron, the Tory leader. As a "furious" Cameron demanded a personal apology from the prime minister , one senior Labour figure warned the party had suffered "reputational damage". McBride, a senior Brown aide dating back to the prime minister’s time as chancellor, resigned on Saturday after the political blogger, Guido Fawkes, uncovered a series of emails outlining plans for a smear campaign against senior Tories.
Cops talk crime prevention with liquor board
(CNS): With license premises seen as key trouble spots the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service (RCIPS) Inspector Anthony White gave a presentation to members of the Liquor Licensing Board as part of the ‘design out crime’ initiative part of the RCIPS’ effort to educate the community on what can be done to help prevent and detect crime. The talk covered various aspects of crime prevention such as how to improve security thought environmental design, lighting and the use of CCTV. Deputy Chair of the Liquor Licensing Board, Lynn Bodden-Smart (left) said the presentation was informative and educational.
“It helps us to realize that if we work together we can prevent crimes. Simple measures can be taken by paying attention to proper lighting and the height of the hedges around parking lots of the liquor licensed premises,” she said. “Installing CCTV goes a long way in securing the premises.”
White noted that there are lots of inexpensive ways people can use to protect themselves. “The more people hear these ideas and suggestions the better. The fear of crime often outweighs the chances of becoming a victim and we’re determined try and address the very real fear of crime that people are feeling. We need to work together to help make people feel safer.”
Anyone with information about crime taking place in the Cayman Islands should contact their local police station or Crime Stoppers on 800-8477 (TIPS). All persons calling Crime Stoppers remain anonymous, and are eligible for a reward of up to $1000, should their information lead to an arrest or recovery of property/drugs.
CIMA moves to protect Clico policy holders
(CNS): A new cease and desist order has been issued to the troubled insurer Clico (Cayman) Ltd. by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) prohibiting the firm from issuing insurance policies of any kind, except for new additions of dependants on existing individual health policies (family cover) or new additions of employees on existing group health policies. CIMA has also directed Clico to maintain all assets here in Cayman to ensure the satisfactory coverage of all its policy holder liabilities.
On 9 April CLico was also stopped from transferring any of its assets and funds to any affiliated company without the Authority’s prior written approval. The order not only restates the directive issued to Clico by CIMA on 3 March but also expands Clico’s reporting requirements as well as preventing the firm from issue any type of policy.
A public notice issued by the Authority said the cease and desist order was to safeguard the public interest and to protect the Company’s policyholders while CIMA continues its examination of Clico’s affairs. “The Authority requires the Company, among other things, to submit to the Authority, within a specified time, specified information on its health insurance policies, policies with investment features, and life insurance policies. The Authority has expanded the Company’s ongoing reporting requirements,” CIMA stated.
The notice states that CIMA expects Clico to continue to honour its obligations to its Policyholders. “The ongoing examination of the Company by the Authority does not preclude the Company from honouring these obligations,” CIMA said adding that because the investigation into Clico is ongoing it is restricted in its ability to provide full details on the matter. It said that it would however, provide updates to the public s as and when it is in a position to do so.
In its first order CIMA prevented Clico from new policies with investment features and refrain from receiving any new premiums on existing policies with investment features. At the time Clico issued a statement saying that was continuing to service all its existing policies and was fully available for client support. On Tuesday of last week the Supreme Court in the Bahamas ruled that CLICO Bahamas should be wound up, to safeguard the funds of policyholders, creditors and stakeholders of the company; and to clear the way for liquidation.
Colonial Life Insurance Company (Trinidad) Limited, trading as Clico (Cayman) Ltd., was licensed in April 1997 as an Approved External Insurer in the Cayman Islands under section 4(7) of the Insurance Law 1979. The Company is also an Approved Insurer under the Health Insurance Law. Clico (Cayman) Ltd. is a branch of Colonial Life Insurance Company (Trinidad) Limited. Colonial Life Insurance Company (Trinidad) Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of CL Financial Limited. On 30 January 2009 the Trinidad government and the country’s Central Bank announced they had reached an agreement with the CL Financial for the provision of a package of financial support for the group’s financial services companies. As a result of the above action Clico is now under the control of the Central Bank of Trinidad & Tobago and Andrew C. Musaib-Ali has been appointed as managing director.
Controversial cop on shortlist
(CNS): Richard Brunstrom, the Chief Constable of North Wales who said the legalization of all drugs was “inevitable”, that Ecstasy is “far safer than aspirin” and that prohibition does not work, is on the shortlist for Commissioner of the Cayman Islands, according to reports in the British media. Brunstrom is also nicknamed “the Mad Mullah of the Traffic Taliban” because of his campaign against speeding motorists and is known for his hard stance on teen drinking, claiming that alcohol abuse, particularly by children, was the biggest cause of anti-social behaviour in North Wales.
The chief constable’s prediction that hard drugs would be decriminalized within ten years caused a storm of controversy in 2007, and was criticized by Ken Jones, president of the UK Association of Chief Police Officers. Speaking on the BBC’s Today programme in January 2008, Brunstrom said that repealing the Misuse of Drugs Act would destroy a major source of organised crime. "I’m certainly out of step with the majority of senior police officers, but not all of them."
“…In terms of society, public attitudes change quite rapidly and you need look no further than drinking and driving: in the space of my lifetime drinking and driving has gone from being socially acceptable, almost the norm, to being socially unacceptable. I think that the legalisation and subsequent regulation of proscribed drugs is now inevitable, and I think it’s ten years away, not ten months away."
He also said, "More than half of all recorded crime is caused by people feeding a drugs habit. The government wants evidence-based policy; the evidence is very clear that prohibition doesn’t work, it can’t work, an enforcement-led strategy is making things worse, not better."
According to the Telegraph, he was one of 37 applicants for the £112,000-a-year role of Commissioner of the Royal Cayman Islands, and hasmade it on to the shortlist of six officers after an interview in the Caribbean.“The islands enjoy one of the lowest crime rates in the world and if successful, the 54-year-old will be able to indulge his passion for sailing,” the Telegraph reported.
Among Brunstrom’s more controversial ideas is a call for fatal car wrecks to be removed with their dead victims still inside to ease traffic congestion. In 2007 he was criticised for using a photo of a decapitated biker in a road safety campaign without his family’s permission. He has also stunned himself with a Taser gun to prove the police device was not dangerous, and broke into his own headquarters at night to highlight a lack of security.
In December 2008, Governor Stuart Jackannounced that the new police commissioner would be selected, not solely by the UK through his office as done previously, but by a panel that will include private sector representatives which will take community input into account.
The position attracted 37 applicants from eleven different countries, including the current Acting PC James Smith and former RCIPS Detective Chief Superintendent Derek Haines. It is anticipated that the successful candidate will take up his or her duties in June or July 2009.
Evangelicals stunned by u-turn on gay marriage
(The Washington Times): Evangelical leaders say they are bewildered and stunned by the Rev. Rick Warren’s apparent turnaround on gay marriage after the famous California pastor said earlier this week that he was not a proponent of California’s Proposition 8. Mr. Warren told CNN’s Larry King on Monday that he "never once even gave an endorsement" of the proposition, which said marriage in the state could only involve one man and one woman. The measure won at the polls last November by a close margin, in effect negating an earlier California Supreme Court ruling allowing gay marriages.
Tax-dodge city, USA
(The Guardian): It lacks the palm-fringed sandy beaches of the Cayman Islands. Or the craggy Alpine peaks of Liechtenstein. But should the second smallest US state, Delaware, go on a blacklist of globally notorious tax havens? A wedge-shaped chunk of land 96 miles long sitting halfway between Washington and New York, the state of Delaware is home to 870,000 people, 0.3% of the US population. But more than half of the nation’s publicly traded companies are incorporated here, including 60% of the Fortune 500 firms. One anonymous office block serves as the registered address of more than 200,000 corporations.
London to be ‘electric car capital of Europe’
(The Independent): Motorists would get at least £2,000 towards the cost of buying an electric car under government moves to revolutionise driving in cities. In an interview with The Independent yesterday, Gordon Brown said that this month’s Budget would pave the way for the mass introduction of electric cars. But ministers acknowledge many drivers will need a cash incentive to be convinced to abandon petrol-run vehicles.
Tourists alter stingray habits
(The Good 5c Cigar): Based on the research of a University of Rhode Island professor, tourist activity in the waters off the Grand Cayman Islands is responsible for the disruption of behaviors and an increase in the size of the female population in stingrays. Biology professor Bradley Wetherbee has been studying the effects of sites where tourists feed wild stingrays in the Grand Cayman Islands since 2002. In 2002, 2003 and 2008, Wetherbee traveled to Stingray City, one of the world’s most popular dive sites, where he began his research. "We were interested in how feeding the stingrays was influencing their behavior," Wetherbee said. In the wild, stingrays are known to be nocturnal and maintain a diet consisting of organisms that dwell on the sea floor.