Design 21: Social Design Network

http://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/regulation/three-jailed-in-4m-offshore-investment-scam/1050198.article Two men and a woman have been jailed for their part in a £4m offshore boiler room scam based in Spain and Ireland. Brian OBrien and Lynne D’Albertson controlled the operation from Sussex, through a firm called Secure Trade & Title, which acted as a supposedly secure funnel for share purchases. James Pye was a “boiler room” manager in Barcelona, Spain. At Southwark Crown Court yesterday, O’Brien, D’Albertson and Pye were sentenced to eight years, four and a half years and six years imprisonment respectively. The defendant yet to be sentenced is called Damien Smith, who managed a boiler room in Limerick, Ireland. He pleaded guilty yesterday and will be sentenced in May. O’Brien had entered into an exclusive agreement with two companies, a Canada-based oil and gas exploration company called Golden Dynasty Resources and a UK technology firm called Claimtracker, to help them raise capital through the sale of their shares. O’Brien instructed a number of boiler rooms to push the sales of the firms’ shares but unknown to the two companies, their shares were being sold to investors at far higher prices than had been agreed. Prospective investors were subject to persistent persuasion to buy shares in the two firms and were purportedly offered at a discount. They were also promoted on the basis that the companies were about to be listed on a recognised stock market, giving the shar...

http://www.metacafe.com/videosabout/slatewellholdingsltdcyprus/ A lot has happened to Cyprus over the past 12 to 18 months as the country found itself caught up in the conflagration of the Eurozone debt and banking crisis. As a result, some taxes have been raised on both individuals and companies, but, on the whole, Cyprus remains an attractive jurisdiction for holding companies. Cyprus is no longer an offshore jurisdiction in the strict sense of the word, but its tax regime, coupled with its location at the cross roads of Eastern Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Asia, an extensive network of double-tax treaties, its membership of the European Union and its sophisticated European business environment and stable economy mean that the island has become an ideal place to locate holding, trading and intermediary companies. Cyprus's taxation regime doesn't stand out particularly among its offshore competitors, but changes to tax legislation approved in 2002 gave Cyprus the lowest rate of corporate tax in the EU at 10%. Cyprus has also adopted the EU's 'Code of Conduct' on 'harmful tax practices' and is placed on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) 'white list' of tax compliant jurisdictions and therefore has a reputational advantage over some of its offshore competitors. Cyprus was also rated as the most attractive tax regime in Europe (with the net attractiveness score of 90%) by a 2009 KPMG poll, ahead of Ireland, Switzerland and Malta. Th...