Re: CryptoAnarchy: What's wrong with this picture?

[Black Unicorn <unicorn@schloss.li>]

On Sat, 4 May 1996, Sandy Sandfort wrote:

> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>                           SANDY SANDFORT
>  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
> 
> C'punks,
> 
> On Fri, 3 May 1996 jamesd@echeque.com wrote:
> > What tax havens would you like, if you did business in tax 
> > havens, which of course you do not ;-)
> 
> I haven't done any sort of survey lately, but I think the 
> following jurisdictions are all good bets:
> 
> BANKING		Cayman Islands, Liechtenstein, Isle of Man,
> 		Canada(!) for some purposes, United States
> 		for non-US people and or nominee offshore
> 		corporations owned by anyone.
> 
> CORPS./TRUSTS	English speaking Caribbean countries, Hongkong
> 		in certain circumstances, Liechtenstein for
> 		its trust-like entities.
> 
> LIVING		Most anywhere that you like and that isn't your
> 		country of citizenship.  If I had the bucks, I
> 		would seriously look at Campione d'Italia.
> 
> I'd be curious to hear what Duncan Frissell and Black Unicorn
> had to say on this question.

Again, my answers tend to be application specific.

If you are simply trying to protect assets from creditors, I suggest using
at least two jurisdictions, maybe more if you can, and "chain" your bank
transactions just like you would chain remailers.

Creditors with the means to go looking can find a great deal even in
"banking secrecy jurisdictions."  I tend not to trust the Cayman Islands,
but that's more my paranoia and "sixth sense" then anything else.  Take
that concern with appropriate grains of salt.

I've not been pleased with Switzerland lately.

Liechtenstein is wonderful if you have a good deal of cash, but it can be
less interesting for smaller depositors.  I suggest Verwaltungs und
Privat Bank AG (VP Bank Liechtestein) for smaller depositors, and Bank in
Liechtenstein (BIL) for larger depositors.  (Disclaimer: I hold interests
in both these institutions).

Isle of Man has become somewhat less interesting to me because of the UK's
willingness to participate in mutual assistance treaties with the United
States.  Still, for banking and asset protection from private plaintiffs,
it's secrecy is good.

Other jurisdictions I would suggest simply for banking secrecy from
private plaintiffs would include Vanautu (Though I would note that there
is a bit of instability there currently.  It seems the locals dislike the
english governor a great deal and have begun to sound meanacing about it).
While Vanautu has passed a money laundering law, if your application is
not otherwise criminal it's still an excellent option.

For Corporations I would suggest jurisdictions that permit bearer stock to
be issued.  Panama (yes, still), Vanautu, Isle of Man, Cayman Islands.  I
can give a more specific list for people who are serious about their
interest.  Many of the British protectorates are very attractive.

Living?  Again, application specific.  Do you sail?  Ski?

It's important to recognize that general advice which does not tune itself
to your specific needs can be worse than useless.

Ignore almost everything I said above if your expected threat model is
anything more than low to moderately determined private plaintiffs
(divorce, personal injury, typical small to medium business law suits are
all fairly harmless with mere secret banking, but determined attackers
with more resources and government attackers have a great deal more
resources).

>
>  S a n d y
>

---
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