Letter from Mr Angry of the Cayman Islands

TJN's Jim Henry recently had an article published in Forbes Magazine, which we blogged here.

The article has generated the usual reply along the lines of "we are not a tax haven or secrecy jurisdiction" from Mr Angry of the Cayman Islands. We publish the full letter below, but we note that, yet again, the author trots out the usual nonsense about FATF and IMF assessments, which are totally irrelevant to concerns about tax evasion.

We don't suppose that many people outside the weird and whacky world of tax havens will attach any credibility to Mr Travers' claims, but just to refresh your memories, here is our 2009 assessment of the Cayman Islands, which has not been challenged.

July 13, 2010

Letters Editor
Forbes Magazine
60 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10011


To the Editor:

The opinion piece by James Henry (“Tax Offshore Wealth Sitting in First World Banks” 07/19/10) contains serious misinformation. The Cayman Islands are neither a “tax haven” nor a secrecy jurisdiction. The Cayman Islands have full tax transparency with The United States and with 27 members of the European Union. The U.S. Department of Justice has had full authority to make enquiry in relation to any file in the Cayman Islands since 1990 in relation to any criminal matter. The anti-money laundering legislation of the Cayman Islands has been evaluated by the International Monetary Fund and by the Financial Action Task Force and the GAO and is found to be superior to that of the United States and most EU jurisdictions.

The financial services sector in the Cayman Islands is transparent and is enormously important to the economic growth of the United States. Cayman financial services institutions pool funds from the international capital markets and direct those funds into investment opportunities in G20 jurisdictions. The impact of those investments in growing the American economy cannot be overstated.

Mischaracterizations of the sort suggested by Mr Henry which fly in the face of the facts create credibility issues for his organization.

sincerely,

Anthony Travers

Chairman
Cayman Finance