London 20.01.2013 | This morning I was reading about how the Cayman Islands are becoming more transparent regarding unreliable companies registered under their jurisdiction. Some time ago, I was conducting due diligence, which led my online research mission to another opaque destination (Saint Kitts and Nevis). I remember being astonished at that time, when I realized that anyone could register to access the St Kitts & Nevis e-Register database for indefinite companies and literally modify entries, add information, change directors, alter addresses, etc., for already registered businesses.
I thought this was a temporary loophole in the database that would be fixed, but it hasn’t been, as I noted today. In any case, I performed some searches and found some intriguing things. The first is that Asdrúbal Chávez, cousin of Hugo Chávez and Vice President of Refining at PDVSA, is a director of something called PDV St. Kitts-Nevis Limited, a joint venture between Chávez and Saint Kitts not defined under the Petrocaribe Agreement.
But imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon the name of Gerard Depardieu, the French actor who has recently been in the news for his tax evasion stance. It turns out that Monsieur Depardieu, or someone impersonating him, registered several companies, such as Rabler Limited, a for-profit company for “growing tropical and subtropical fruits”; a second called Mozart Corporation, aimed at “growing vegetables and melons, roots, and tubers.” Then there’s Orly Limited, for “growing cereals (excluding rice)…”; AeroGraphy Ltd, focused on “remediation activities and other waste management services”…
Who would have guessed? Is Mr. Depardieu about to become a farmer in the Caribbean? The records are a good example of the prevailing opacity in tax havens. In Rabler Limited, the contact details for the registered office are:
36 Sullivan Court, AREEGRA VIC 3480, Basseterre, SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS,
email: [email protected] undefined,
phone: +544454555
In Mozart Corporation, the contact details for the registered office are:
36 Sullivan Court, AREEGRA VIC 3480, Basseterre, SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS,
email: [email protected] undefined,
phone: +9996666
The other companies practically share the above details, the only difference being the phone numbers. That email address belongs to the domain http://www.alfa-xp.com, a “private software development company, with offices in Ashburn, VA (USA) and Moldova (Eastern Europe). The core of the company’s technical team has been working together as a software development outsourcing unit serving local and international clients for the past five years. The company employs over twenty software programmers and IT professionals, all of whom hold advanced degrees in software engineering, programming, and computer administration.”
The managers of Alfa-Xp are Sergey S. Chapkey, Yury Coroban, and G. Martin Lively. Do with those names what you will.
The phone numbers are equally fake.
Depardieu, known worldwide as a successful actor, is destined to be involved in the aerospace business, according to the records (see screenshot).
Now that the chief bully Vladimir Putin has granted him Russian citizenship, although it’s not defined, it’s pretty clear that “Mr. Depardieu” won’t have to worry about his fruit plantations in Saint Kitts and Nevis.