From Amandala

BELIZE CITY, Since the revelation of the Panama Papers, the sensational leak of a bounty of information from the private Panama offshore firm, Mossack Fonseca, the repercussions are not only being felt across the globe, but also here in Belize.

As previously reported by Amandala in our Tuesday issue, it is alleged that Lord Michael Ashcroft and several of his associated companies are featured in the Panama Papers as having done business with Mossack Fonseca. Belize Corporate Services (BCS), a subsidiary of Ashcroft’s company BCB Holdings, is reported to have begun using Mossack Fonseca to provide shell corporations for its clients in 2006.

According to reports in British media based on the early reviews of the Panama Papers, in November, 2013, Belize Bank International established an account for a new International Business Company whose owners were Messrs. Jurgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca, the Panama firm’s founding partners, and another partner Christopher Zollinger. The new International Business Company (IBC) was called M.F. & Co. (Belize) Limited and cooperated with BCS in creating companies and acting as registered IBC agents in Belize.

The registered address of M.F & Co. (Belize) Limited is recorded as #15 “A” Street, Belize City, which is also the office of local law firm Courtenay Coye & Co. Senior partners of that firm, Eamon Courtenay and Christopher Coye, were both senior employees of the Belize Bank Group in the past, with Coye having held the post of Managing Director of Belize Bank International until April, 2013.

Belize Bank International (BBI), as recently reported by Amandala, is yet to pay a Supreme Court judgement of US$3.5 million handed down in late 2015 in a case brought against it by Evergreen e-Pay Processing, Ltd. Based on the published judgement of Justice Courtenay Abel in that case, Evergreen, a company registered in Nevis in the Eastern Caribbean, had established a working relationship with Belize Bank International in September, 2012 and claimed breach of contract when BBI suddenly ended the relationship in September, 2013, seemingly based on mounting fines and pressure from credit card companies, Visa & Mastercard.

Graph For A Tangled Web

As part of their agreement with the bank, Evergreen was to introduce credit card merchant clients to the bank and these clients were anticipated to generate up to US$3.5 million in transactions every month. A review of the resultant transactions by Visa & Mastercard revealed several ‘program violations’, in particular a high incidence of cardholder chargebacks. While the published case judgement did not indicate the type of credit card merchant clients which were introduced to BBI, industry experts tell us that a high pattern of chargebacks is usually seen in lines of business such as internet gambling.

Courtenay, an experienced Parliamentarian, is a newly appointed Opposition Senator for the People’s United Party and Coye was introduced this week as the party’s new Treasurer. The firm of Courtenay Coye & Co. has also provided extensive legal representation for companies and interests related to Lord Ashcroft, most recent of which was the appeal case to the CCJ to strike down the nationalisation of BTL.

Late this evening, new information reaching Amandala from a European news source revealed that another Belize-registered shell company has been listed as a part of the Panama Papers. This company, with the name Robertson Financial Corp, is linked to Sergei Roldugin, the Russian businessman, cellist and very close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin. As reported in international media, the Panama Papers allegedly show a paper trail of some US$2 billion in hidden funds purportedly connected to Putin.

Amandala received a very detailed graphic (reproduced in this article) showing an intricate web of shell companies and featuring layers of nested company officers as well as transaction flows related to Roldugin. Most notable on this chart is the listing of Roberston Financial Corp’s registered address as 4792 Coney Drive, 3rd Floor Whitfield Tower, Belize City, Belize.

A check of the International Financial Services Commission (IFSC) website indicated that this is the address of registered IBC agent Morgan and Morgan Trust Corporation Ltd. A check of that firm’s website indicates that it is the address of the local office of a large Panamanian-based legal and offshore services firm, Morgan and Morgan Group, which also has offices in several Latin American jurisdictions and in Europe. Based on information provided on its website, the Belize office is headed by three local attorneys, Oneyda Flores, Rishi Mungal and Naim Musa, Jr.

According to the IFSC website, there are 106 registered IBC agents in Belize for the year 2016. With only a few days into the review of the Panama Papers, there have already been reports of at least three entities listed which are connected to Belize. Amandala will, of course, keep following this story.

For more on this story go to: http://amandala.com.bz/news/tangled-web-belize-law-firm-offshore-agent-linked-panama-papers/