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Offshore Exposed (Looking at Loopholes in Barbados Canada Treaty)

Submitted by Due Diligence I often post on Barbados Underground about our [Barbados] lack off exposure in the Toronto media. Today I want to point out 17 minutes of media exposure Barbados got (October 2) on the Canadian National news program on CBC TV. The National is probably the most widely watched news program in…

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Submitted by Due Diligence
Giles Gosselin operates SG Global Consultants
Giles Gosselin operates SG Global Consultants

I often post on Barbados Underground about our [Barbados] lack off exposure in the Toronto media. Today I want to point out 17 minutes of media exposure Barbados got (October 2) on the Canadian National news program on CBC TV. The National is probably the most widely watched news program in Canada

The segment, named OFFSHORE EXPOSED, features a Canadian Lawyer, Giles Gosselin, who was formerly a lawyer at Canada Revenue Agency and now lives in Barbados and operates SG Global Consultants  and DGM Bank and Trust, whose directors include Canadian Phillip Armstrong, Senator Geoffrey Cave, C. Anthony Audain, Roger Cave and John Williams .  The segment can be seen (after brief commercials) on this WEBSITE or Google “Offshore Exposed”.

This is from  Ex-Revenue Canada lawyer advice how to hide money offshore on the WEBSITE.

“An exclusive CBC News hidden camera investigation into the world of offshore banking uncovered a former executive with the Royal Bank of Canada and a former lawyer with the Canada Revenue Agency offering advice on how to hide money from Canadian tax authorities.

As part of the joint investigation with Enquête, the CBC’S French-language investigative program, CBC News hired a private investigator, who is also a restaurant and bar owner in Toronto, to test 15 different offshore service providers in Canada and abroad.

The investigator was given a story: over the years he had squirrelled away as much as a million dollars that he hadn’t declared, and wanted to hide it offshore to avoid paying taxes.

More than half of the offshore service providers tested with hidden cameras by the CBC in Canada and Barbados provided advice that wouldn’t stand up to scrutiny, according to CBC experts.”

Also, click the links imbedded in the article.

This is not exactly the type of exposure that I have been referring to. CBC is clearly on a mission to EXPOSE tax avoidance schemes and “tax havens” and I am sure that the folks at Canada Revenue Agency who are working the Barbados Tax Avoidance file have been busy watching the video and Googling Gosselin, S G Global and DGM this morning.

This is not good news for the PM, MOF, GOB and whoever else has been touting Barbados as an Offshore Destination. Given that Canadian “investments” make up such a large part of the Barbados offshore business (75%?), this is sure to have serious implications for Barbados.  Even the “legitimate” investors will be scared away for fear of being audited.

Be sure to watch the second episode of OFFSHORE EXPOSED, to be aired next Monday on CBC’s The National (available online), which is said to be looking at “loopholes” in the Canada Barbados Tax Treaty.

22 responses to “Offshore Exposed (Looking at Loopholes in Barbados Canada Treaty)”

  1. David Avatar
    David

    BU has been warning Barbados nearly five years now that the collapse of the offshore industry is imminent with capital flow now expected to be South to North is harsh economic times.

  2. The People's Democratic Congress Avatar
    The People’s Democratic Congress

    “BU has been warning Barbados nearly five years now that the collapse of the offshore industry is imminent with capital flow now expected to be South to North in harsh economic times” – Comment from David above.

    Now, what are you and BU actually doing about these OECD Canadian USA attempts to dismantle much of our offshore sector?

    Are you just contented to utter such?

    This internet blogsite is also seen across many parts of this world.

    So, where is your local and supra-national revolutionary spirit?

    For, it has been said that the pen is mightier than the sword.

    Though, today, it is more that the right internet use of the laptop, the blackberry, the computer is far more mighty than the missile, in any revolutionary quest for greater consciousness and enlightenment for a people.

    Well, in the book Confessions of an Economic Hitman, the author, John Perkins, in writing about the tenacity of the late Panamanian nationalist anti-imperialist president, Omar Torrijos, to protect the national sovereignty of Panama in the face of American imperialist designs during the 1970s, wrote how, in one of his visits to meet the late general, he saw “the handsome general on the billboard and reading the caption beneath his face – “Omar’s ideal is freedom; the missile is not invented that can kill an ideal, to, yes, symbolize the undying quest by some people for greater freedom from the oppressive imperialist forces of some others like the same OECD, the Canadian US government.

    So, with the motivations behind that kind of ideal already long ingrained and transfixed – eons before and after the coming of that profound statement on the billboard – in the minds of many freedom fighters across the world, where is your and this blogsite’s revolutionary spirit for a greater freedom for all?

    Do you know that potentially you can today have more influence among the masses and middle classes in Barbados than Clennell Wickham did have many years ago?

    As a journalist of some vintage, are you going to feel contented with just behaving consistent (submissive?, passive?) with the comment you made above, and too satisfied with this egoing about “your warning Barbados nearly five years now that the collapse of the offshore industry is imminent……..”, whilst many of these belligerent vices some what help destroy another sector of ours, and therefore help to create greater panic fear mayhem for many people in our country? Are you?

    What is really your political intellectual journalistic role, and as a citizen of this country, at this crucial juncture in international relations?

    PDC

  3. lbj Avatar
    lbj

    BU . You some how failed to mention that Gosselin advised the person that he should place his money in the BVI not Bdos ,as he would asked anumber of questions re source funds.

  4. David Avatar
    David

    @Ibj

    And how would we have known or been able to verify the BVI as the Offshore jurisdiction he is comfortable?

  5. David Avatar
    David

    The Centre Bank and BIBA issued a statement yesterday to reiterate that Barbados is not a tax haven. A recommendation to the Central Bank and or BIBA, get on the CBAV TV Canada station with your message.

  6. Due Diligence Avatar
    Due Diligence

    To PDC – Canada and USA are not attempting to “dismantle” Barbados’ offshore sector, or indeed are they trying to dismantled existing tax treaties; although that could happen some time in the future.

    Governments everywhere are strapped for cash (tax revenue)

    The US authorities are prosecuting (and winning) cases against multinationals that use transfer pricing schemes to ensure that profits are reported in subsidiaries in low-tax regimes.

    And they are working to clamp down on the individuals and businesses who are taking advantage of the offshore jurisdictions to illegally avoid paying income taxes like the character in OFFSHORE EXPOSED, who is seeking to hide unreported assets from undeclared income to avoid paying income taxes to Canada.

    The guy in the video has made a million dollars which he has not reported, and by not reporting the income has evaded paying income tax. If that $1 million was an accumulation of unreported income over a period of 5 years he has evaded income tax of about $250,000. If the tax authorities discover that he has not reported the income; he will have to pay the $250,000, plus interest and penalties so he is on the hook for $300,000+

    One of those interviewed refers to two classes of clients; those who follow the law and those who don’t.

    In the hidden camera discussion in Toronto, Lynn A. Garner of DGM Bank counsels the undercover businessman, who is obviously one of those who don’t follow the law, how to hide the transaction .

    Form an anonymous paper company, use nominee directors (to disguise the true owner), deposit the cash little bit – little bit – little bit to keep under bank reporting limits, and then wire the money to CIBC Cayman for account of DGM Bank.

    He, then gets even better advice from Canadian lawyer and former Canada Revenue Agency lawyer, Gilles Gosselin of S G Global Consultants in the land of Sun Sea and Secretive banks.

    Don’t use Barbados because it is too expensive and has too many reporting requirements. Form a company in BVI where things are much more secretive. Avoid using a Canadian Bank (which would be subject to demands for information from Canadian tax authorities).

    Barbados’ offshore sector is said to be highly regulated

    The Governor of the Central Bank, and every other government official, says that “we do not promote or condone in any way persons who seek to circumvent the law, whether it be of Barbados, that of our treaty partners, or at all

    So, what are the authorities doing to supervise and prevent those in the offshore sector, like Garner and Gosselin, from counseling people like the guy in video on how to hide his money? And what are the consequences to those who do?

    If Barbados wants to keep its good reputation as an offshore jurisdiction, the authorities need to root out the bad actors, revote their work permits and send them packing.

  7. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    These countries have major projects on stream and need their cash flow and taxes to move forward and finish their projects, revenue Canada et al has no choice but to clamp down on the flight of capital from their jurisdictions. I always felt DGM Bank and Trust was dodgey.

  8. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    Salable sustainable products … not services.

  9. David Avatar
    David

    @@Baffy

    A mix.

  10. David Avatar
    David

    Reminder, tonight.

  11. iabingy Avatar
    iabingy

    Tax avoidance: Canada-Barbados tax deal loopholes revealed

    By Timothy Sawa, CBC News Posted: Oct 04, 2013 6:54 PM ET Last Updated: Oct 07, 2013 11:01 AM ET

    Lawyer helps avoid Canadian taxes 1:41
    Related Stories

    Tax havens explained: How the rich hide money
    Ex-Revenue Canada lawyer advised how to hide money offshore
    Tax evasion: sophisticated scam revealed by CBC hidden camera
    An exclusive CBC News hidden-camera investigation into the world of offshore banking found professionals in Canada and Barbados willing to help hide business profits in Barbados by exploiting loopholes in a long-standing tax saving arrangement between the two countries.
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/tax-avoidance-canada-barbados-tax-deal-loopholes-revealed-1.1913228

  12. iabingy Avatar
    iabingy

    the mounties always get their man. not to worry.we will find you and lock you up.just a matter of time.take it easy.

  13. David Avatar
    David

    Here is a positive write by the Huffington about this matter:

    http://m.huffpost.com/ca/entry/4061300

  14. David Avatar
    David

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/tax-avoidance-canada-barbados-tax-deal-loopholes-revealed-1.1913228

  15. Due Diligence Avatar
    Due Diligence

    For those BU readers who are thinking that CBC’s OFFSHORE EXPOSED started as a witch-hunt targeting Barbados, it is important to bear in mind that the hidden camera investigation by CBC News into illegal tax avoidance schemes used by Canadians to hide money offshore was the result of a series of random tests by an undercover businessman/private investigator of lawyers, accountants and other service providers offering offshore-related services started in Toronto.

    That it “reveals loopholes and shortcomings in Canada’s system of stopping the flow of hidden money to offshore tax havens” is not surprising.

    As Barbados is the offshore destination of choice by Canadians seeking to avoid paying income tax in Canada, it is not surprising that the investigation led to Barbados,

    It is to be hoped that the authorities in Canada and Barbados will use the results of the investigation to crack down on (crack some heads?) and shut down those lawyers, accountants and other service providers offering offshore-related services advocating and promoting illegal means of tax avoidance, starting with Lynn A. Garner, Gilles Gosselin of S G Global Consultants, Allan Madan, and Andrea Mullin Henry, of Crane Chambers.

    The crack down should, of course, not apply to those Canadian multinationals legally using the tax treaty to minimize taxation for the benefit of their Canadian shareholders, who ultimately pay income taxes paid out of the dividends they receive from the parent company from the offshore profits repatriated from the offshore subsidiaries.

  16. PLANTATION DEEDS FROM 1926TO 2013 AND SEE THE MASSIVE FRAUD, LAND TAX BILLS AND NO DEEDS Avatar
    PLANTATION DEEDS FROM 1926TO 2013 AND SEE THE MASSIVE FRAUD, LAND TAX BILLS AND NO DEEDS

    THER ARE NO LOOP HOLES, THE HOLES WERE PUT THERE FOR THE RICH TO GET RICHER, AS WE ALL LEARN AND SEE ALL THINGS GOING DOWN THE HOLE , INCLUDING THE COUNTRIES , NOW THEY ONLY LOOK TO MAKE THE HOLES SMALLER ,,,, UNTIL THINGS GET WORSE AGAIN,,,,THEN THE HOLES WILL GET SMALLER AND SMALLER STILL.

  17. Canada is vile Avatar
    Canada is vile

    The cra and its puppets like the CBC disgust me. I just sold my house which was our primary residence and we are planning on leaving this vile country (Canada) forever, but I am convinced the bankers or fintrac are going to try and lock the money from the house sale from being wired overseas. No matter if you make all your money legally, these bitches of satan don’t care and want to make anyone into a criminal who wires large sums of money out of the country. I have not even tried to wire any of it as I am afraid of some illegal charge being brought upon me for trying to wire it, I don’t know what to do and I don’t trust anyone since there is not even client-solicitor privilidge in canada anymore, and there is this thing where you turn your client or friend in and get some of their money, it is sickeningly vile, but I don’t know who to trust to give me legal advice on how the hell we get out of this vile country and move our money without problems.

  18. Crusoe Avatar
    Crusoe

    David October 9, 2013 at 8:57 AM #

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/tax-avoidance-canada-barbados-tax-deal-loopholes-revealed-1.1913228

    David et al,

    Unfortunately, these sort of ‘exposes’ if you wish to call them that, target the weakest links and edit to suit their ‘wow’ appeal.

    Why did they choose someone so inexperienced as an attorney to advise? Why not one of the older more experienced lawyers?

    She is actually VERY weak and should have stated that business MUST be done in Barbados not ‘bring in someone and it does not have to be very long’ or some such…wrong. Also, she ‘advises’ that Directors meetings should be held here, no they MUST be held here.

    The whole issue is that the business must be and be seen to be performed in Barbados.

    She was poor at that and this is why I say why did they not ask someone more experienced?

    You know the answer.

  19. Crusoe Avatar
    Crusoe

    Again, regarding the ‘Swiss transfer’ noted in one of the ‘interviews’, this is pure rubbish.

    When asked supposed experts of CBC if this could be detected by AML procedures, he said because there was no cross border transaction it is difficult.

    Absolute nonsense.

    The banks are required by law to declare unusual transaction on accounts, this one would clearly be reported.

    The bank, if it did not report, would be liable.

    So, again, this CBC ‘expose’ is fluff and ‘wow’ factor, but nonsense.

    They have looked for what they see as easy targets and created a ‘story’ with weak substance and trying to stir emotions for the story.

    VERY irresponsible reporting.

  20. Crusoe Avatar
    Crusoe

    I do not get it. The lawyer interviewed, Gosselin, is quoted as saying”Gosselin told the businessman he wanted nothing to do with his plan. But when he was asked if there’s anything preventing someone from opening an account at a bank somewhere and wiring the funds there, Gosselin was recorded on hidden cameras saying: “I just told you how the law works. And if you don’t report the income in Canada, that’s your business.”

    He later told the undercover businessman not to use Barbados because it’s too expensive, there are too many reporting requirements and the stamp they put on his passport when he made this trip could get him caught.”

    That puts Barbados in a good light. Barbados has ‘reporting requirements’, of course!

    So, why does CBC News Canada persist in trying to sell the story against the service provider and Barbados?

    Now, my question…

    Has CBC Canada exposed themselves to a lawsuit from Gosselin, because they sell the story in a headliner as tax evasion.

    But Gosselin clearly, as quoted by CBC, warns against tax evasion.

    However, CBC news ‘sell’ on this largely sheds him and others in a bad light.

    Is it enough that the details written expound on his distancing himself from the client.

    I would think not because the ‘impression’ given, as you have noted by re-publishing here and showing the worry, is that Gosselin is doing something wrong.

    THAT is the issue.

    Hopefully Gosselin’s lawyers can find the precedents to shake up this shoddy piece of journalism.

  21. Alien Avatar
    Alien

    Even some Bajans in senior positions in the offshore business facilitate questionable transactions. Some to maintain their salary and others are unable to stand-up to foreign clients and bosses

  22. Due Diligence Avatar
    Due Diligence

    @Canada is vile November 12, 2015 at 12:40 AM

    A bit paranoid aren’t you?

    If you have nothing to hide, what do you have to fear?

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