Deepwater Horizon: Twice offshore (again)

We've posted a few posts recently looking at the Marshall Islands as the home of BP's ill-fated Deepwater Horizon rig. Now Khadija Sharife, who recently posed as a seeker of offshore secrecy in Mauritius, has been on the case. An excellent little blog on the London Review of Books website is worth reading in full. An excerpt:

"Posing as a potential client concerned about disclosure, I was informed by the staff at the Marshall Islands registry that

if the authorities… come to our Registry and Jurisdiction and ask to disclose more information, regarding shareholders, directors of the company etc… we are not privy to that information anyway, since all the business organization and conduct of the entity is performed by the entity’s lawyers and directors directly.

Unless the name of directors and shareholders are filed in the Marshall Islands and become a public record (which is NOT mandatory), we are not in a position to disclose that information."

Well, that sounds familiar, doesn't it? Read the full blog to see the role of Dick Cheney's task force on deregulating standards.