The following appeared in my mailbox on Friday (31):

“Meet The Real Star of ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ Story

“Want to meet the former U. S. federal prosecutor who brought self-styled ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ fraudster Jordan Belfort to justice? Interested in the true story, rather than the fiction contained in Belfort’s book and Martin Scorsese’s hit movie.

“Former prosecutor Joel M. Cohen, who led the prosecution into Belfort and his boiler room operation Stratton Oakmont, will give the inside scoop on the investigation at The OffshoreAlert Conference, which will take place at The Ritz-Carlton, South Beach in Miami Beach, Florida on May 4-6, 2014. Let’s just say it will paint the conman in a less flattering light than he wants the world to see him in.

“It is one of 23 sessions that will be presented to hundreds of attendees from more than 30 countries who are involved in the highest echelons of international finance, as providers, investigators and buyers of financial products and services.”

The list of speakers is impressive and includes some well known respected personalities from Cayman – Tim Ridley (Former Chairman, Cayman Islands Monetary Authority) and Gonzalo Jalles, (CEO, Cayman Finance.

The list of topics include Tax, Fraud and Finance; How to Locate Bank Accounts; Are Insureds Cheating The Government Or Are Insurers Cheating Insureds?; Investment Fraud; Financial Secrecy; Gaddafi’s Libya; Do banks Lie When Served ……?; The Fraudster’s Playbook; etc.

The one topic that really piqued my interest and is worth the price of the air ticket and the registration conference fee is “Inside the Cayman Islands: The ‘Operation Tempura’ Affair”

What started innocuously as an investigation into letters published by a local newspaper that were critical of the Cayman Islands judiciary quickly spiraled out of control as senior police officers were suspended, a judge unlawfully arrested, and millions of dollars of public funds squandered in what is universally perceived as a national embarrassment.

In this session, panelists with direct knowledge of ‘Operation Tempura’ will discuss the investigation, seek to explain why it experienced so many problems and offer their views on what it says about the Cayman Islands and its relationship with the United Kingdom.

And the panelists are:

Former Auditor General of the Cayman Islands – Dan Duguay

And

Former Covert Participating Informant, Operation Tempura – John Evans

Yes – John Evans whose bio is very impressive:

“John is a former civil servant and local government officer who has worked in accounting and fraud investigation. His background includes extensive IT experience in the old (1970s/1980s) mainframe days. He is a qualified Business Systems Analyst.

“John’s media experience includes time with the Hampshire County Council press office then domestic UK freelance work followed by an intensive overseas schedule during 1991, which included visiting the old Soviet Union, being in Israel during Desert Storm and travelling through Albania as the first ever independent visa holder. During the first year of the war in Yugoslavia, John worked for Sky News, the BBC and other media outlets.

“John first visited the Cayman Islands in 1992 after covering a convention in Orlando. During that trip, he learned to scuba dive and developed a lasting interest in the islands. That eventually resulted in him going to work for Cayman Net News in July 2006 where he took on the job of Sports Editor, which later expanded into taking over the Crime Reporter post and being made the Senior Investigative Reporter. In October 2006, he was voted Cayman Net News ‘Employee of the Month’.

“John’s involvement in what became ‘Operation Tempura’ began in July/August 2007 and resulted in the 3 September 2007 search of his employer’s office. He was then fully engaged as a covert ‘participating informant’ until Operation Tempura went public on 27 March 2008 and then retained as a ‘required witness’ until, following numerous death threats, he left Grand Cayman on 31 July 2008. He returned to Grand Cayman to appear as a Crown Witness in August 2008 and September 2009.

“John is now retired and living in a rural area of the UK but still maintains an active interest in the fall-out from Operation Tempura. His experiences during that investigation have been cited in recent appeals/re-trials in the UK relating to the conduct of CIB3, a now disbanded London Metropolitan Police anti-corruption unit whose members included several leading figures in Operation Tempura. To date, all of those appeals/re-trials have resulted in acquittals.”

Don’t mess with John as others have done in trying to shut him up and shut him out. You will lose and make him even more tenacious (and angry)!

However, there is aperson missing who was originally on the panel and that was:

Martin Bridger – Former Senior Investigator, Operation Tempura.

So what happened? Three weeks ago he was on and now he is off.

Two reasons I was given but not verified and therefore to be taken only with a pinch of salt but came from ‘a man in the know’ – one of my sources – lol.

Mr. Bridger did not want to appear with one of the panelists (can you guess which one?) and – a recent Editorial that appeared in none other than iNews Cayman.

Oh dear. I hope that isn’t true. Sorry……..

There is also an OffShore Alert Conference Partner from Cayman – CayCompass.

And last just look at some of the Cayman sponsors and quite frankly I am surprised at one. In fact I thought it was a mistake but it is not – the list:

PwC, Cayman National, Cayman Finance, Campbells

And

The Cayman Islands Government’s Ministry for Financial Services.