One bad apple in a barrel of good apples will eventually turn all the barrels there into rotten ones.

Wouldn’t it be nice if it worked the other way?

Sadly, no.

At least among all the stories of corrupt bankers and lawyers we have published over the last three plus years we have today posted one about an honest one. And he stood in a barrel of ones that although didn’t break any laws there was informal advice provided that could hardly be called honest.

The story is titled “The US lawyer who said, ‘This ain’t for me’”. Please read it in full.

You might also have seen the recent “60 Minutes” programme that showed our honest lawyer with the other sixteen. One of the others was the president of the American Bar Association.

The ’60 minutes’ programme concerned a Global Witness report that showed New York real estate attorneys help foreigners set up shell companies in the U.S. in order to purchase property and effectively hide their sometimes ill-gotten money there.

There wasn’t one lawyer from the Cayman Islands in sight.

All the other 16 lawyers offered advice to the investigative journalist, who had hidden microphones and cameras, how his boss, an African mining official, could park possibly illicit millions in U.S. real estate and other properties. The journalist even hinted and at other times said outright his client earned his money through bribes.

Not our one good lawyer, Jeffrey Herrmann. He flat out denied the man any help.

“This ain’t for me,” Herrmann said with a wave of his hand. “My standards are higher.”

Then the investigator asked Herrmann whether he knew someone else who could help?

“I would not recommend it either,” he said. “Because those persons would be insulted.”

Well said Herrmann. If you were practicing here in the Cayman Islands I would recommend you. And if I ever have to use a New York lawyer you would be top of the list.

One of the lawyers interviewed boasted, “We make the laws, and when we do so, we make them in the way that’s advantageous to the lawyers.”

I always thought that. Thank you for confirming it.

Now I’m going to find that one good apple, even if I have to eat it.