You may remember the "Panama Papers" from early 2016 - well now the big news is all about the "Paradise Papers." This is a major data leak of millions of files from "Bermudan law firm Appleby, a 119-year-old operation favoured by the global super-rich and big corporations." (Guardian UK).
That happens to include Michael Ashcroft, who, according to the Guardian UK, quote, "faces fresh questions over his offshore affairs after the Paradise Papers revealed a previously unknown trust sheltering his vast overseas wealth."
Of course, we in Belize know all too well about the Ashcroft Alliance's various shell companies and trusts - from Waterloo, to Dunkeld, to Sunshine, to Rocky Reef….for a while there it seemed they were running out of names when they came up with the devilish duo of "E-Com" and "Pillow Talk".
But, we're happy to know that with this latest offering of corporate cloak and dagger, the Ashcroft Alliance has kept it close to home: the centerpiece in this story is the Punta Gorda Trust, which is connected to the Cayo Foundation. A charming homegrown touch for a half a billion dollar trust.
When the BBC News Magazine Panorama tracked down Ashcroft, it seems he didn't want to talk about it:...
That happened last month at the Conservative party Conference in the UK.
Why this trust came to the attention of journalists is that as a Trustee, the law firm Appleby wasn't satisfied with its oversight of the trust. One of its attorneys wrote, quote:
"There have been very large sums of money involved and I am very concerned that there has been inadequate supervision of both transactions and distributions … To put it bluntly, we seem to be told nothing, whereas we carry the responsibility of acting as trustee."
There is nothing illegal about the trust, but Ashcroft's tax status in the UK has been making news for decades there.
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