CAYMAN GANG OF FOUR FRAUDSTERS LAMB AND BATEMAN UNABLE TO OPEN ACCOUNTS OVERSEAS

Sharon Lexa Lamb, Ryan Bateman, Derek Buntain

Financial investigators who are tracking the flow of millions of dollars stolen by the Cayman Gang of Four have reported that two Gang crew members, Ryan Bateman and Sharon Lexa Lamb, have been turned away, when they sought to open bank accounts in a number of countries. Apparently, the Gang is seeking to spread out their illicit fortune in several countries, including some of the principal offshore financial centers, to lessen the risk that their stash will be found, and seized, by the authorities. Their efforts, more often than not, have resulted in accounts declined.

Most compliance officers, when conducting even the most rudimentary due diligence searches of Bateman and Lamb, will find so many "red flags," or indicia of criminal activity, that accepting these two fraudsters as clients is simply too dangerous to onboard them.

One of the methods through which they are seeking to gain access to an account is to engage a local law firm, and have the firm, using a corporation that it forms on their behalf, but the new trend, for the banks to require all lawyers to disclose the name of the beneficial owner/client, has made this ploy no longer effective.

As for the other two Gang members, Derek Buntain, he is laying low in his native Canada, although he is reportedly under investigation by Canadian law enforcement; Fernando Mendez is still living in the Cayman Islands, seemingly confident in that fact that the principal local law enforcement agency, the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service, will not arrest him, reportedly to keep the negative press about the $450m Cayman Gang of Four scandal to a minimum.

Whether the newly-arrived police leadership will allow the agency's one year on-again-off-again investigation into the Cayman Gang of Four theft to quietly expire, or will move it forward, could affect how foreign investors treat the Cayman Islands in the future. Will the "financial pirates" that are the Cayman Gang of Four meet justice, or will they escape, scot-free ?