An academic who went undercover to test the willingness of corporate service providers in onshore and offshore jurisdiction to provide anonymous shell companies for criminal activity has become the latest confirmed speaker for next month’s OffshoreAlert conference in London.

Dr. Daniel Nielson will speak about what he and his fellow investigators found when they posed as would-be money launderers, corrupt officials, and terrorist financiers and approached more than 3,700 corporate service providers that form and sell shell companies in 182 countries.

“The experiment allows us to test whether international rules are actually effective when they mandate that those selling shell companies must collect identity documents from their customers,” it was stated in a report entitled ‘Global Shell Games: Testing Money Launderers’ and Terrorist Financiers’ Access to Shell Companies’ that Nielson co-authored and which was published last month.

At The OffshoreAlert Conference Europe, which is being held at The May Fair Hotel in London on 26-27 November, Nielson will explain how providers in offshore jurisdictions compared with their onshore counterparts in terms of their willingness or unwillingness to participate in illegal activity.

Dr. Nielson is among an array of speakers who will discuss all material aspects of conducting business in offshore jurisdictions. They include the chief financial regulators in Jersey, Isle of Man and Liechtenstein, a Swiss attorney who represents Swiss bankers who are suing their employers for turning over information to the United States Government, and various professionals who specialize in law, tax issues, regulations, offshore products and services, and investigations.

Sessions include those on current trends and opportunities in the offshore world, how the signing of Tax Information Exchange Agreements has affected offshore bank deposits, how to identify red flags in offshore transactions, where legal becomes illegal in offshore tax planning, which jurisdictions are hardest – and easiest – to recover assets from, pending political initiatives aimed at OFCs – and a lot more.

For more information, please contact OffshoreAlert at [email protected] or call +1 305-372-6296.

Global Shell Company Experiment: Offshore v. Onshore

Posing as would-be money launderers, corrupt officials, and terrorist financiers in need of anonymous shell companies, a research team solicited more than 3,700 corporate service providers that operate in 182 onshore and offshore countries/jurisdictions. The aim was to see how morally and legally flexible corporate service providers were prepared to be when potentially lucrative – but obviously-dodgy – business was dangled in front of them.

The experiment was documented in a report entitled ‘Global Shell Games: Testing Money Launderers’ and Terrorist Financiers’ Access to Shell Companies’ that was published in September, 2012 by the Centre for Governance and Public Policy, at Griffith University, in Australia.

In this presentation, one of the report’s authors, Dan Nielson, will explain how the experiment was conducted and analyze its results, including comparing how offshore jurisdictions compared with their onshore counterparts.

Please see separate story on iNews Cayman today (4) “Global Shell Games” on the paper Daniel Nielson co-wrote:

Global Shell Games: Testing Money Launderers’ and Terrorist Financiers’ Access to Shell Companies, by Michael Findley, Daniel Nielson and Jason Sharman, Centre for Governance and Public Policy

“For criminals moving large sums of dirty money internationally, there is no better device than an untraceable shell company. This paper reports the results of an experiment soliciting offers for these prohibited anonymous shell corporations. Our research team impersonated a variety of low- and high-risk customers, including would-be money launderers, corrupt officials, and terrorist financiers when requesting the anonymous companies. Evidence is drawn from more than 7,400 email solicitations to more than 3,700 Corporate Service Providers that make and sell shell companies in 182 countries. The experiment allows us to test whether international rules are actually effective when they mandate that those selling shell companies must collect identity documents from their customers. Shell companies that cannot be traced back to their real owners are one of the most common means for laundering money, giving and receiving bribes, busting sanctions, evading taxes, and financing terrorism.”

From beSpecific: http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/031420.html