Corporate Abuses, Offshore, Scoops
In These Times, Jan 17, 2003
Trade unions, workers‘ pension funds and state officials are taking the lead in a campaign to prevent companies from reincorporating in Bermuda and other tax havens”and to bring back those who‘ve already gone.
Arguing that offshore registrations allow corporations to evade taxes, reduce shareholder rights and threaten the security of investments, the AFL-CIO, individual unions and pension funds such as California‘s Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) are filing shareholder resolutions and going to court against companies that move their paper headquarters offshore, where corrupt corporate executives have an easier time cooking the books.
Offshore, Scoops
Asia Times, Jan 8, 2003
At a time when the integrity of global accounting firms is being questioned, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Justice Department are looking into charges that KPMG Zurich, a division of the international audit company, helped Credit Suisse hide hundreds of millions of dollars looted by the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos. A KPMG spokesperson confirmed the investigation.
Dan Burton, a conservative Republican congressman, wrote the SEC that he had been informed that the agency has been presented with evidence against KMPG concerning money-laundering and subversion of a joint Philippine and Swiss freeze order for a series of accounts containing millions of US dollars. Burton, a member of the US House of Representatives International Relations Committee, requested prompt action by the SEC in seeking out the truth. The SEC passed on its information to the Justice Department.
