May 21, 2013

By: Paul Seymour, Dir. Client Services

[I was recently asked to start doing a periodic radio broadcast on Radio Free Latin America (RFLA), called Offshore Re-education Camp.  It’s being piped in to the USSA from a secret location south of the border via short wave radio signals.  The aim of RFLA is to offer a ray of hope to our poor countryman still trapped behind the curtain with, apparently, no way out.

The show, hosted by Paul Seymour, Director of Client Services at Global Wealth Protection, will provide the truth about offshore entities and bank accounts to those peoples who are continuously bombarded with the party line, and have no access to the truth outside of RFLA.

For those of you who are unable to catch the live broadcasts, we’ll be periodically printing a transcript of the show here at GWP. Lesson 1 can be found here.]

Here’s an outdated, 80’s perspective for you. Listen to this weeks’ lead-in tune here. “I wish I was in Tijuana, eating bar-b-cued iguana”……..A cool little ditty and piece of nostalgia, harkening back to the days when the net flow of migration was moving northward rather than southward.  Before Uncle Sam had started a mafia war in Mexico so that it, and the MIC, could sell to both sides simultaneously.  You know, give them billions in tax-payer dollars with the stipulation that they buy and spray Monsanto poison and kill a few thousand peasant farmers, buy Apache Helicopters and hire “consultants”, etc. etc., while unintentionally arming the “bad” guys as well.

Originally broadcast at 04:20 Monday, May 20, 2013, transcript follows:

Before we get to this week’s current events, I’d like to share a couple of anecdotes.  First, last Monday was a holiday here.  Day after Mother’s day.  Although I put in a fairly long morning on behalf of clients, it was a beautiful day, so I headed into town to kill some time in the afternoon.  Often that means a few pints of locally brewed Chapinero Porter.  I found myself on an outdoor patio which was occupied completely by English-speaking types, which was both unusual and interesting.  Anyway, I finally made eye contact with a table of 3 obvious United Statians, and was invited over.  The normal gringo question is “what do you do?” which is what I was hit with immediately, to which I replied I work in the offshore industry.  I had pegged these three, as NGO, self-proclaimed do-gooders.  Here to selflessly “help” others, by sticking their noses in where it doesn’t belong.  Usually in activities which are so politically motivated, that calling them non-governmental is a joke. 

When I told them that I worked in the offshore industry, I got an immediate, snide, knowing look amongst the three, while the apparent ring-leader said with a knowing smile, “You mean tax evasion, don’t you?”  Well, some of you may have gleaned from previous writings that I have somewhat passionate convictions about the US Constitution, the American patriots who made it possible, as well as the sheeple who have fluttered it away.  You might, then, have some guess as to the nature of my flurried, fact-filled, and borderline rudely aggressive, albeit immediate, response.  If you think I can be a bit harsh in the morning, you should see me after 3-4 pints of porter.  The smiles quickly disappeared, but to their credit, they at least admitted their ignorance while quickly making their way to the door with a hollow promise to arm themselves with more information for the ensuing debate.  Once they left, I was able to have a much more intelligent conversation with the Colombian wait staff, but the point here, is that I was very blatantly reminded of the need to continue with my de-programming series—Offshore Re-education Camp or ORC.  You can see that I’m coat-tailing a bit on Uncle Sam’s tactics.  Doesn’t the 3-letter acronym just exude a sense of authority?  I don’t wanna know how many millions of taxpayer dollars went into the study which determined that sheeple are more easily manipulated by governmental agencies with 3-letter acronyms, rather than 2 or 4 letters.  I only know that there’s a real need to help them find the facts while they’re trapped up there behind the curtain and continuously bombarded with misinformation.

One more anecdote before getting to current events.  Two or three months ago, I was, again, in the Gringo section of town, and bumped into a pair of US mercenaries.  Totally different mind-set from the NGOs, as you might imagine.  Coming from a very old military family myself, I understood these guys, and talk very easily with them.  They were filling me in on what’s going on over in Afghanistan and Iraq.  To my surprise, they told me that Afghanistan is infinitely worse, which I found interesting.  The 2 guys were obviously friends, but quite different from one another.  The smaller of the 2 might have been a junior officer, and was decidedly more thoughtful than the other, bigger, more gung-ho guy.  I’m getting to my point.  After shooting the shit for a little while, Gung-ho repeated a phrase that I’ve heard quite a bit to justify foreign wars.  “I’d rather fight the radical ragheads over there, than in the US”.  I was also watching thoughtful guys’ body language.  I could see he thought that was, maybe, an unfortunate thing for his buddy to say, but I also got the very distinct impression that disagreeing out loud would not only be futile, but possibly unwise, so I only said, “Well, I hope you’re right.” 

My point, though, is I’ve analyzed that statement, as I’m apt to do, and have come up with a nice analogy.  I similarly, would rather see the sheeple wake up and fight the neo-fascists up there in Washington, rather than have to face the jackboots down here.  Therefore, on with lesson #2, which will cover some current events.  I don’t know about you, but I see so much happening right now, and so quickly, that I can’t help but get a queasy feeling about what might be coming down the pike.

First, let’s rehash a topic from Lesson One: US government credibility, or the lack thereof.  My articles fodder file is overflowing with examples of articles exposing the US government for what it really is, if you just think a little about what you’re reading:

Judge Sentences Widow to Less Than a Minute of Probation in Tax Case

If you just scan the headline, you think, well, at least they didn’t really punish the poor old lady, but further reading shows otherwise.

“(Bloomberg) A 79-year-old widow who pleaded guilty in the largest individual case since a U.S. crackdown on offshore tax evasion began, received less than a minute of probation from a judge who scolded the prosecutors.

“U.S. District Judge Kenneth Ryskamp sentenced Mary Estelle Curran, who had an account at UBS AG, to one year of probation before immediately revoking it in federal court in West Palm Beach, Fla., last Thursday. Curran’s attorney Roy Black told the judge that she was ‘unsophisticated’ about financial matters.

“Curran, of Palm Beach, faced as long as 37 months in prison for failing to disclose to the Internal Revenue Service that she had more than $43 million in Swiss bank accounts. Curran pleaded guilty to two counts of tax evasion in January. She paid a $21.6 million penalty as well as back taxes.”

Only a minute of probation, and thanks for half your money????  $21.6 million?????

This leads me to: IRS Apologizes for Flagging Anti-Tax Groups for Extra Scrutiny

“(Bloomberg) An Internal Revenue Service official apologized for what she called the tax agency’s improper flagging of some anti-tax Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny.

“Lois Lerner, the IRS’s director of exempt organizations, said career employees singled out groups for further examination based solely on their names, not the information they gave when requesting tax-exempt status.

“’They didn’t do it correctly,’ Lerner said today at a conference of tax lawyers in Washington. ‘We would like to apologize for that.’”

Ooops, we’re sorry????  That’s supposed to make it all okay?  This same unconstitutional organization, run by unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats is trying to throw a 79-year-old lady in jail for having money in another country.  They took half of her wealth while destroying what’s left of her life, but when they commit criminal acts, causing citizens great harm (i.e. there are real victims), we’re supposed to accept “I’m sorry”?  I don’t know about you, but that’s not acceptable to me.  It just doesn’t appeal to my particular sense of justice.  We’ve learned that dozens of people, including top officials within the IRS were aware of this illegal targeting for years.  What’s next, going after expat dissidents?  I want to see the same level of criminal justice meted out to these unelected, sociopathic bureaucrats, as they see fit to hand out to others.  Is that unfair?  How many of you out there actually expect to see anything meaningful happen?  We’ll hear the usual ass-covering lip service to justice.  Meaningless committees will be formed, and hearings held.  By the time all that plays out, you’ll be at war with someone else, and the sheeple will have forgotten.  The directly involved scum bags will go free.  Credibility?  Probably not.

Moving on with credibility issues.  IRS Promises to Get Warrants to Read E-Mails

“The IRS has determined that it will follow the holding of a famous case in matters where Internet service providers are approached for contents of e-mail. (Well, that’s nice of them, isn’t it?)

“In Policy Statement 4-120, the service said it will follow the 2010 holding of United States v. Warshak, and obtain a search warrant in all cases when seeking from an ISP the content of email communications stored by the ISP.

“’Accordingly, such information will not be sought from an ISP in any civil administrative proceeding,’ according to the IRS, which added that existing guidance not in accord with this policy statement will be updated.

In early April, documents released by the American Civil Liberties Union revealed that the IRS was not always compliant with Warshak. (See “IRS Reads Taxpayer E-Mails without Warrant.”)”

That’s it kids.  The entire article.  No analysis, no outraged reader comments.  Just that the IRS has been illegally reading your and my personal, private mail, and they’ve decided to promise that they won’t do it anymore.  We already know very well what an IRS promise is worth……..  I’m speechless.

Let’s wrap up class today with a little news about the reaction of patriotic citizens to all of this increasingly outrageous, immoral, illegal and certainly unpatriotic actions of the power-grabbing bureaucracy.

IRS Sees Increasing Foreign Investment by U.S. Taxpayers

“The Internal Revenue Service has published 2010 statistics on foreign trusts indicating an increasing interest in foreign investment by U.S. taxpayers, and the impact of changes made in 1996 to information reporting requirements.

“The number of Form 3520 returns reporting foreign trust transactions and certain foreign gifts increased from 7,956 in 2006 to 16,242 in 2010, the IRS pointed out, while the number of Form 3520-A foreign ‘grantor’ trust returns rose from 3,819 to 7,051. U.S. ‘persons’ transferred nearly $1.5 billion in assets to foreign trusts in 2010.

“There are two returns—Form 3520, ‘Annual Return to Report Transactions with Foreign Trusts and Receipt of Certain Foreign Gifts,’ and Form 3520-A, ‘Annual Information Return of Foreign Trust With a U.S. Owner’—used to report information about foreign trusts and gifts. Form 3520 must be filed by U.S. persons to report transfers to and distributions from foreign trusts, as well as the receipt of certain foreign gifts. Form 3520-A must be filed annually by all foreign trusts with at least one U.S. owner. Each Form 3520-A represents one unique foreign grantor trust, and provides beneficiary, income statement and balance sheet information.

“In addition, 7,051 foreign grantor trusts reported total assets of $35.3 billion, distributions of $4.0 billion, and net income (loss) of $1.1 billion during this same period.

“In transactions generally separate from foreign trust activity, U.S. persons received gifts or bequests of $7.3 billion from nonresident aliens, foreign estates, foreign corporations and foreign partnerships during 2010.”

Can you say “duh” boys and girls?  It reminds me of the moral: “Relationships – of all kinds – are like sand held in your hand. Held loosely, with an open hand, the sand remains where it is. The minute you close your hand and squeeze tightly to hold on, the sand trickles through your fingers. You may hold onto some of it, but most will be spilled.”  If you haven’t caught on during the past decade or so, it should be very obvious to you by now.  The patriots are voting with their feet, and taking the smart money to the door before it’s too late.

We had a mad rush here at GWP this past December with people wanting to establish trusts and gift their assets prior to the proposed change to the gift/estates tax regs.  The change didn’t occur as proposed, so there’s still time to act before it does change.  Irrevocably gifting assets to a Cook Island, Belize or Nevis trust not only locks in current tax rates, it protects assets from future attachment based on a ridiculous lawsuit, which could only happen in the US, and/or government confiscation due to a baseless accusation, and without due process.

If you come to Bobby or me, and say, “My assets have all been frozen because some neighbor told the DHS I was a terrorist.  I had no notice, nor chance to defend myself in court against the false accusation, and now I have no money to hire a lawyer to try and prove my innocence,” we’re going to ask you, “Do you have anything offshore in a jurisdiction where such outrageous actions are completely illegal, and foreign judgments aren’t recognized?”  If you say no, it will be just like when I asked the Saudi government relations manager at my company back in 2001 what I could do about my stateless condition, and he asked me if I had another passport.  I’m going to have to tell you—“Sorry pal, I feel for you, but you’re screwed”.

This week’s assignment boy and girls is to contact your public servants, and demand that your IRS servants responsible for breaching the public trust, and victimizing the citizens for whom they work, be criminally prosecuted and tossed in jail.

Hasta la próxima muchachos, y mucha suerte.

Paul is an escaped Big 4 CPA (F/S auditor), and Corporate Controller/CFO who found a natural home in the offshore industry with Bobby Casey and the gang at GWP.   Contact him at [email protected] to learn more about the realities of economical offshore asset protection.