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US hopes to seize VI-linked jets

admin — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 17:00:01 +0000

US hopes to seize VI-linked jets

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admin Mon, 06/20/2022 - 17:00

Monday, June 13, 2022

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Business - The BVI Beacon

Original Article

US hopes to seize VI-linked jets

A federal court in New York has authorised the United States government to seize two private jets collectively worth $410 million that are allegedly owned by a Russian oligarch and registered via “shell companies” in the Virgin Islands and elsewhere, according to an affidavit filed for a seizure warrant in court on Monday.

The planes — a $350 million customised Boeing 787-8 and a $60 million Gulfstream G650ER — are allegedly owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich through companies registered in the VI, Cyprus and Jersey.

The planes are currently located in the United Arab Emirates and Russia, respectively, according to the affidavit, signed by Special Agent Alan Fowler of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The application — which was filed under seal before being approved and unsealed on Monday — requested the seizure warrant for the airplanes for alleged violations of the Export Control Reform Act and the recent sanctions issued against Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.

Mr. Abramovich is one of several oligarchs targeted by the West in recent months as part of attempts to isolate and weaken Russian President Vladimir Putin in return for the invasion.

The affidavit claimed Mr. Abramovich owned both airplanes through “a series of shell companies” — two registered in Cyprus, two in Jersey, and one in the VI.

The VI firm, Wenham Overseas Limited, was alleged to be the owner of the Boeing — “one of the world’s most expensive private airplanes,” according to the affidavit.

Luxury jets

The US alleged that in 2017, the Boeing was sold to Wenham for approximately $93,650,000 as a “green” aircraft, meaning without a finished interior. In 2018, it was allegedly flown from the US to Europe and customised into a luxury jet.

“In connection with the purchase transaction, Mr. Abramovich’s representatives disclosed during meetings that Mr. Abramovich was the ultimate beneficial owner of Wenham,” according to the application.

The application alleged that Clear Skies Flights Limited, owner of the Gulfstream, and Wenham are both wholly owned subsidiaries of Jersey-based Wotton Overseas Holdings, and that in turn, all of the shares of Wotton are owned by Cyprus-based Finservus (Trustees) Limited, a nominee for the Cyprus-based Europa Settlement Trust.

“I believe that Mr. Abramovich was the beneficiary of the Europa Trust,” Mr. Fowler wrote in the application.

On Monday, OffshoreAlert reported that Jersey’s corporate registry showed that both Wotton Overseas Holdings Limited and Clear Skies Flights Limited also originated in the VI, before being continued to Jersey in June 2017.

VI-linked yachts

The affidavit is not the first time that vessels linked to the VI-registered Wenham have been identified in recent months.

In April, the Financial Times reported that two luxury yachts worth a combined $60 million — Halo and Garcon — allegedly registered to Wenham had been located in Antigua and Barbuda. The Caribbean country announced at the time that it was willing to help the United Kingdom seize the yachts, but only if the UK sought such assistance via an international treaty.

Last week, however, the Antigua Observer reported that both yachts — which would normally depart the island well before hurricane season — were both still moored in Antigua’s Falmouth Harbour.

Sir Ronald Sanders, Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the US, told the Observer that the UK would have to make a mutual legal assistance treaty request in order for any action to be taken.

“We have heard nothing further from the UK authorities concerning an MLAT request,” Sir Ronald said in the June 1 Observer report.

He added that since all ports and harbours in the country have been forbidden from doing business with sanctioned entities, the yachts will remain in place for now.

The post US hopes to seize VI-linked jets first appeared on The BVI Beacon.

The post US hopes to seize VI-linked jets appeared first on The BVI Beacon.

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SO2 - February 6

admin — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 02:50:01 +0000

SO2 - February 6

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admin Mon, 02/21/2022 - 02:50

Sunday, February 6, 2022

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Jamaica Observer

Original Article

SO2 - February 6

First...

This is the story of "black in blue," began the ITV news broadcast in a segment discussing Pilots of the Caribbean: Volunteers of African Heritage in the Royal Air Force - an exhibition currently on display at the Royal Air Force (RAF) Museum in Cosford, England. The exhibit highlights the Caribbean people who fought for Britain in two world wars. Though integral to British history, their stories are not well-known hence the reason that the RAF Museum has regularly mounted the ever-growing exhibit since 2014.

Their beginnings

The 1948 arrival of Empire Windrush is thought to be the single Caribbean migration to England. But, here's a fun fact: Of the 500 Jamaicans onboard, more than half served in the RAF. According to the exhibition notes, "In two world wars, African-Caribbean people volunteered to serve in the Royal Air Force. These volunteers fought, and died, for the mother country and for freedom, and thereby helped preserve the values and the heritage they shared with their white comrades." For each World War, approximately 6,000 black people from the Caribbean, Africa and Britain served in the RAF.

Jamaican history-makers

From documented accounts from the Caribbean volunteers: "On arriving in Britain, the volunteers discovered that few British people had met a black person before." This did not deter or hinder many of them from standing out and making history. Sergeant William Robinson Clark from Kingston paid his own passage to England to join the royal flying corps, where he began as a driver. After completing flight training in 1917, he became the first black military pilot to fly for Britain.

Windell "Joe" Walcott MBE from Refuge, Duncans, Trelawny, joined the RAF in 1945 and retired as a warrant officer after 34 years of service. He served in "Cyprus, Germany, Malta and Singapore as an Air Quartermaster supplying military bases across the globe, before retiring in 1979". He passed away in November 2018, but his name will not be forgotten. In August 2021, Building 78 at RAF Brize Norton was renamed 'The Walcott Building' to commemorate his sterling service to the RAF.

Another Jamaican, Sam King MBE, who hailed from Priestman's River, Portland, joined the RAF in 1944. He was posted to the fighter station RAF Hawkinge and served as a skilled aircraft fitter. His career continued with various postings throughout Britain. After World War II, King returned to Jamaica but soon went back to England on the Windrush. He made quite the life for himself in England, where he was instrumental in establishing the Notting Hill Carnival and in 1983 became the first black mayor of Southwark. His campaign was not free from adversity. As stated in his memoir Climbing Up the Rough Side of the Mountain, the racist National Front threatened to cut his throat and burn down his house. Upon his death in 2016, British MP and former Leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn noted, "What a legend, what a loss. London is a better place, Britain is a better place thanks to Sam and his family."

Race and sense of place

The RAF had strict rules against racial bias. But the "colour bar" was lowered between the wars and after. Though they served Her Majesty, many Caribbean RAF volunteers were instrumental in the anti-colonialist movement. Those who returned to the Caribbean were key figures in politics, the attainment of independence, and the establishment of trade unions, especially for the sugar industry. According to the exhibit's curators, "They carried with them the dynamic ethos of the RAF, becoming politicians, lawyers and teachers determined to change their homelands for the better."

Those who returned to England fought for equality and kept "Britain free from nazi domination."

Today and the future

British society has dramatically changed since the 1960s. Black people were instrumental in attaining the many freedoms that contemporary English society enjoys. Black people continue to serve in the RAF, which is now a "progressive and highly effective multi-ethnic force, and the service continues to welcome African-Caribbean volunteers today".

Pilots of the Caribbean: Volunteers of African Heritage was curated by the Royal Air Force Museum in partnership with the Black Cultural Archives. The exhibit runs until November.

Photos: Royal Air Force Museum, Forces News, Black Cultural Archives, ITV, The Latest, and RAF Brize Norton News.

And...

"The news is out! Happy to be joining @worldsailingofficial team," was the celebratory note posted to Jamaican-born sustainability expert and double Paralympic bronze medallist Alexandra Rickham's Instagram account last Monday.

The official announcement was released by World Sailing moments before. Rickham was appointed head of sustainability. She joins World Sailing directly from specialist sports sustainability consultancy Earth to Ocean, where she set up SailGP's sustainability programme and later transitioned into being their diversity & impact manager. The sports executive and professional athlete brings a wealth of expertise across sustainability, diversity and inclusion to the organisation.

Originally from St Ann's Bay, Rickham was born to a Jamaican mother and British father. She became a tetraplegic/quadriplegia and full-time wheelchair user at age 13, after a diving accident during a holiday trip to Jamaica while on break from boarding school in the UK.

Caribbean

Living Standard

Pandora Papers: An offshore data tsunami

admin — Mon, 04 Oct 2021 16:20:02 +0000

Pandora Papers: An offshore data tsunami

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admin Mon, 10/04/2021 - 16:20

Sunday, October 3, 2021

Original Publisher

Offshore havens and hidden riches of world leaders and billionaires exposed in unprecedented leak

admin — Mon, 04 Oct 2021 16:00:01 +0000

Offshore havens and hidden riches of world leaders and billionaires exposed in unprecedented leak

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admin Mon, 10/04/2021 - 16:00

Sunday, October 3, 2021

Original Publisher

Every corner of the world

The Pandora Papers investigation unmasks the covert owners of offshore companies, incognito bank accounts, private jets, yachts, mansions, even artworks by Picasso, Banksy and other masters – providing more information than what’s usually available to law enforcement agencies and cash-strapped governments.

People linked by the secret documents to offshore assets include India’s cricket superstar Sachin Tendulkar, pop music diva Shakira, supermodel Claudia Schiffer and an Italian mobster known as “Lell the Fat One.”

The mobster, Raffaele Amato, has been tied to at least a dozen killings. The documents provide details about a shell company, registered in the United Kingdom, that Amato used to buy land in Spain, shortly before fleeing there from Italy to set up his own crime gang. Amato, whose history helped inspire the highly praised movie “Gomorrah,” is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

Amato’s attorney did not respond to ICIJ’s request for comment.

Tendulkar’s attorney said the cricket player’s investment is legitimate and has been declared to tax authorities. Shakira’s attorney said the singer declared her companies, which the attorney said do not provide tax advantages. Schiffer’s representatives said the supermodel correctly pays her taxes in the U.K., where she lives.

In most countries, it’s not illegal to have assets offshore or to use shell companies to do business across national borders. Businesspeople who operate internationally say they need offshore companies to conduct their financial affairs.

Africa

News

Govt Seeks To List Biggest Mining Company

admin — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 10:00:01 +0000

Govt Seeks To List Biggest Mining Company admin Tue, 02/02/2021 - 10:00

Monday, January 25, 2021

Original Publisher

Business | NewZimbabwe.com

Original Article

Govt Seeks To List Biggest Mining Company

Bloomberg

ZIMBABWE, banking on mining to end two decades of economic stagnation, plans to list the company in which it has placed state mining assets to raise cash to meet government obligations, the nation’s finance minister said.

Late last year, the government created Kuvimba Mining House Ltd., in which the state pension fund and sovereign wealth fund hold 65%, to house its holdings in platinum, gold and nickel. It intends to use revenue from the company to meet a laundry list of requirements ranging from compensating White farmers for infrastructure on farms that were seized two decades ago to improving pensions.

“In the next two years, it will be a highly profitable group,” Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said in an interview last week. “When we eventually list, government will offload some of its shareholding.”

The creation of Kuvimba, which means trust in the Shona language, is the latest attempt by the government to kick-start its mining industry. While companies have been deterred by local ownership requirements and a frequently changing currency regime, investors from Russia, Cyprus and Nigeria are now exploring digging platinum mines in Zimbabwe, which has the world’s third-biggest reserves of the metal.

‘Hard Currency’

In addition to partnering Russian investors in a platinum venture, Kuvimba plans to rehabilitate aging mines and develop new ones. The company will likely be listed on a dollar-denominated stock exchange that was established in the resort town of Victoria Falls last year, as well as another “hard currency” exchange, the minister said.

The rest of the company is owned by a consortium headed by David Brown, the former chief executive officer of South Africa’s Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd., he said, without giving details about the arrangement.

“We are looking for international skills, skills with a track record and he has a track record,” Ncube said.

Money from Kuvimba will also be used to back entrepreneurs, compensate people who lost the value of their bank deposits when the local currency crashed, bolster funding for veterans of the 1970s liberation war and provide seed capital for a new government worker pension fund, he said.

Zimbabwe’s initial refusal to compensate White farmers was an issue that’s soured Zimbabwe’s relationship with multilateral lenders and the west. Now the country plans to appoint advisers to help it raise the $3.5 billion it has agreed to pay.

With Kuvimba “the government has put something on the table, it has skin in the game,” Ncube said.

“Everything now hinges on concluding the appointment of the adviser and then the work of fund raising will begin in earnest.”

The post Govt Seeks To List Biggest Mining Company appeared first on NewZimbabwe.com.

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Business

New police commish set to arrive in April

admin — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 09:30:02 +0000

New police commish set to arrive in April admin Tue, 02/02/2021 - 09:30

Friday, January 22, 2021

Original Publisher

Local News – The BVI Beacon

Original Article

New police commish set to arrive in April

Mark Collins, a former United Kingdom police chief who has served for more than 33 years, will take up the post of Virgin Islands police commissioner for three years starting in April, according to a Monday press release from the Governor’s Group.

Mr. Collins is currently the lead officer for mental health matters and child sexual exploitation in the UK National Police Chief ’s Council.

He also has served as the chief constable of Dyfed-Powys Police in Wales for four years, following stints as deputy chief constable in Bedfordshire and as borough commander of Walthamstow as part of London’s Metropolitan Police.

In 2020 Mr. Collins was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal as part of Her Majesty’s New Year Honours List, and in 2019 he was made a fellow of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, the press release states.

“I am delighted that Mr. Collins has accepted the position of commissioner of police,” Governor Gus Jaspert said. “He will bring a great deal of experience and knowledge to the role.”

The current commissioner, Michael Matthews, was selected for the position in January 2016.

At the time, he was the chief constable of the police force in the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, a British overseas territory on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

The post New police commish set to arrive in April appeared first on The BVI Beacon.

Caribbean

News

Mte Wambali killed by Covid-19

admin — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 05:40:01 +0000

Mte Wambali killed by Covid-19 admin Tue, 02/02/2021 - 05:40

Sunday, January 31, 2021

Original Publisher

National | Malawi Nyasa Times - News from Malawi about Malawi

Original Article

Mte Wambali killed by Covid-19

Malawi’s legendary musician Mtebeti Wambali Mkandawire on Sunday passed away from complications of Covid-19. He was taken for burial on the same day at Area 18 cemetery in Lilongwe. Wambali was hailed as music evangelist and activist. He won several awards and recognition for his work but he declined an honorary doctorate from Cyprus International Institute of […]

The post Mte Wambali killed by Covid-19 first appeared on Malawi Nyasa Times - News from Malawi about Malawi.

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