JOB REFERRERS

Bank Secrecy - Without this we are not interested. We want the bank to not be able to divulge any information about the bank account including whether or not such a bank account even exists unless there is an order from a competent court in the country where the bank is located. More secrecy than this does not exist any place today. Numbered accounts are gone. Sparbuch accounts in Austria are all gone, yes I know people offer them for sale on websites but they are all long gone and closed down. The bank secrecy laws must be written into the law of the land in question. Belize has no such bank secrecy laws written in their laws, people just seem to trust them even though there would be no legal penalty for them to reveal bank information if they see fit to do so. We want bank secrecy laws to call for prison and civil penalties for any violations in addition to allow for one to bring suit against the bank for violations. Panama meets this test.

MLAT - Mutual Legal Assistance treaty. Many nations have entered into these agreements. For a list of countries that have entered into these agreements with the USA courtesy of the US Government click here:

1. http://travel.state.gov/law/info/judicial/judicial_690.html.
2. It is shocking as to how many countries are in such agreements. Even Panama is in such an agreement but it is fairly limited in scope, see below: Essentially Panama will cooperate in a multi-national case involving narcotics and money laundering (these crimes need to be tied to narcotics). They also will get involved in cases concerning child pornography and real terrorism. If you are not a narcotics dealer and are not a money launderer (money launders are typically dealing with many millions of dollars), not a child pornographer, and not a terrorist you should not be concerned by this. The MLAT requires that there first need to a criminal prosecution case on file in the criminal courts of the requesting government (which means no fishing expeditions) then through diplomatic channels involving the embassies, requests are made for information, then reviewed by Panama officials and a decision on compliance is made or requests for more information are made so a determination can be arrived at. These cases can take months and even years for completion. At times the country where the bank is located has been known to once alerted to the problem, conduct their own investigation first and this usually requires them to seize the relevant records and documents which can stall the process for a long time even years since their justice systems typically moves quite slow and statues of limitation can run out, please don't construe this to mean Panama does this routinely it is just something that does occur from time to time around the world. The MLAT has no application to civil cases such as divorce, bankruptcy, civil judgments, business litigation, any sort of civil litigation, civil tax matters etc. Taxation matters of any sort are not covered by this as far as Panama is concerned. Income tax evasion is a civil (non-criminal) offense in Panama. Switzerland cooperates on income tax cases if the return is filed falsely like all income was not declared, things were omitted or so the complaining government says. Panama has no extradition treaties. Panama passes this test.

Tax Treaties ? Many so called Offshore Jurisdictions are in Tax Treaties. For a list of countries with tax treaties with the USA click here. Panama has NO tax treaty with any country. Even Switzerland and Belize are in tax treaties as are most of the so called offshore jurisdictions. Click here to see a list of countries in tax treaties complete with links enabling you to read the actual treaties, a real eye opener click here: http://panamalaw.org/countries_with_tax_treaties.html.

Type of Bank License - Many of these offshore banks have offshore banking licenses versus regular banking licenses. Let me explain. These island jurisdictions usually have different classes of bank licenses ? one class allows the bank to do business with only residents of the country, the other class usually encountered is the offshore license that allows the bank to ONLY conduct business with non-residents of the country, and they usually have a third class of license that allows the bank to do business with both residents and non-residents. It is a natural conclusion that a bank with an offshore only license is a risky proposition at best since the government won't let them do business with the citizens of their country. The banks we use in Panama are open to the citizens of Panama and are never offshore only banks. Most of the bank accounts being offered by various web site businesses are with bank having only an offshore license.

Corporation Privacy - This is an important point. I see many websites selling offshore corporations from dozens of countries. The only kind of corporation worth anything when it comes to privacy is a bearer share corporation. By this what is meant is the ownership of the corporation rests with the person who has the physical stock certificates of the corporation. Ownership need not be reported or recorded anywhere. A sale of the corporation does not need to be reported. This is what is called a non-transparent corporation and is extremely disliked by many governments who think people have no rights to privacy. In Panama a S.A. Corporation or bearer share company has no ownership reporting or recording requirements. One merely hires professional directors (which we provide) who appear as directors on hundreds of corporations and that is that. Directors are made public but you need not be your own director, we provide professional nominee directors complete with resignation letters and general power of attorney letter. Corporation privacy is especially important since governments have taken to monitoring bank wire transfers including recently the Swift System scandal showing the USA was monitoring Swift Transfers and we do not know to what extent and for exactly how long but is best to assume the worst. If one uses an anonymous bearer share Panama Corporation there is lack of transparency in that no one knows the ownership behind the corporation, they only know the corporation received or sent a wire and the other side of the transaction. This serves to preserve your privacy to a large extent. Imagine how silly it is to use an offshore corporation where ownership is made public and can be computerized thus one could tell in seconds who is the person behind the corporation receiving or sending the funds. This is what is being sold all over the internet as an offshore corporation misleading the people into thinking their privacy is being protected. Once again Panama passes the test.