CIMA DUCKS MEDIA QUESTIONS IN CAYMAN GANG OF FOUR SCANDAL

The Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, commonly known as CIMA, has responded to Cayman media questions, regarding its actions, or lack of them, regarding the $450m financial scandal perpetrated by local financial professionals known to the public as the Gang of Four. CIMA stands accused of ignoring its responsibilities, in properly regulating, subsequently investigating, and failing to enforce Cayman law, and assist the victims, who are Canadian and American retirees and pensioners.

Here are the details of CIMA's specific responses to media queries. Kindly note that no officer or director or CIMA made themselves available to the press. Instead, CIMA sent a public relations officer, whose answers were totally non-responsive to the reporter's questions.

(1) Articles critical of CIMA'S total lack of response to the financial scandal, deemed by many to be one of the largest ever seen in Grand Cayman, were said to be "inaccurate" and "misleading," in a number of material aspects, though no specific details were offered in rebuttal. The CIMA spin-master stated that "legal constraints" precluded it from providing details sufficient to "dispel those inaccuracies." Again, confidentiality is used as a shield, to allow it to evade answering tough questions.

(2) The CIMA statement, that has fully cooperated with all North American regulatory and law enforcement agencies, is totally false. CIMA staff members stonewalled Canadian regulators on all their questions, stating that all the information was "confidential," ducking behind local regulations not ever intended to deny information to regulators or law enforcement.

(3) CIMA did state that it was acting "in the best interests of the jurisdiction." This is a clear indication that CIMA has little or no regard for foreign investors, who end up as victims of Cayman-based white-collar criminals. Nowhere in the CIMA response to questions was any reference to the victims made; only that it would protect the Cayman Islands.

(4) Finally, the press aide stated that CIMA was "acting within its legal mandate." It does have a mandate to protect the investing public, and enforce the laws of the Cayman islands. Six months after it received conclusive evidence of massive fraud, theft, failure to discharge a fiduciary responsibility, acting as an unlicensed bank, and other crimes and regulatory violations, CIMA has failed to take any steps to close down B & C Capital Ltd., bring criminal charges against Sharon Lexa Lamb, Ryan Bateman, Derek Buntain, or Fernando Moto Mendes, the Cayman Gang of Four.

When a group, which included one of the victims, brought this to CIMA's attention last Summer, the most revealing comment made at the time, by a CIMA staff member, indicates the agency's disdain for victims: " They're only tax evaders." The truth is, the ones I know aren't.

If a regulatory body fails in its duties, it should be dissolved, and its leadership sufficiently publicly reprimanded, so that they cannot simply lateral over to a local bank or financial service firm. Either CIMA should be dismantled, or taken over by a UK supervisory body. If that cannot be accomplished, then perhaps the Financial Action Action Task Force should place the Cayman Islands back on its Non-Cooperative Countries and Territories (NCCT) List, until this happens. That's the FATF Blacklist, which is where jurisdictions that cannot police themselves belong.