Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[XenaLives]

Aug. 5/6, 2006 -- On August 1, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a voluminous 370-page report on the use of off-shore trusts and shell corporations by American billionaires to avoid taxes. The report highlights the off-shore and tax-dodging activities of the notorious Bush billionaire contributors -- Sam and Charles Wyly, also known as the "Wyly Brothers." The Wylys, who came to prominence as the financial backers of various 527 political action committees in the 2000 and 2004 elections (the anti-John McCain Republicans for Clean Air in 2000 and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004), developed a series of 58 interlocking trusts and and shell corporations that maximized stock options and warrants to make huge profits and avoid taxes. The tax avoidance contrivances were used between 1994 and 2004.

Several facts brought out in the Senate report are noteworthy. One is the decision by Sam Wyly in December 2000 to withdraw annuity assets in a Cayman Islands trust associated with the Bermuda-based Scottish Re Group, the global reinsurance company. Nine months later, reinsurance companies were left holding the bag for the 911 terrorist attacks. In September 2000, the assets of two Wyly trusts, Lake Providence International Trust and Castle Creek International Trust, an Isle of Man entity, were valued at $75 million. The Senate report also states that by June 2001, three months before the 911 attacks, the Wylys had completely divested themselves of Scottish Re shares: "After the Wylys decided to withdraw from Scottish Re, the Wyly-related offshore entities began to sell their shares. Ms. Boucher [Michelle Boucher, a Cayman Islands accountant and Canadian citizen who was also a senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Scottish Annuity and Life Holdings, a Wyly Cayman Islands corporation] kept Sam and Evan Wyly [Evan is Sam's son] informed about these sales. In addition, by June 2001, Maverick [Maverick Capital Ltd., a Wyly family $8 billion hedge fund] sold virtually all of the Scottish shares it had purchased."

As the the revelations about the Wylys' dodgy investments in Scottish Re Group were made public in the Senate report, the company's second quarter losses were pegged at $130 million and the firm's stock plunged by 82 percent. After this news broke, Scottish Re's chief executive officer Scott Willkomm resigned.

The Senate report also identifies Winston Thayer Capital Partners as an investor in the Wyly off-shore trust network. Winston Partners is co-owned by George W. Bush's brother Marvin Bush and Marvin's longtime friend Scott Andrews. Winston Thayer Capital Partners is a joint venture with Thayer Capital Partners, which is owned by GOP political majordomo Fred Malek. Until 2000, Marvin Bush sat on the board of Stratesec, the company that had security contracts for the World Trade Center. After leaving Stratesec, Marvin joined the board of HCC Insurance, a World Trade Center insurer.

Maverick Capital is linked to the University of Texas Investment Management Company (UTIMCO), which under the direction of Wyly and George W. Bush friend and partner Tom Hicks (Hicks purchased the Texas Rangers from Bush in a lucrative deal that made Bush several millions of dollars -- Hicks is also co-owned of Clear Channel Communications), invested university public funds in Maverick Capital, the Carlyle Group, Bass Brothers Enterprises (an investor in Harken Energy, on whose board George W. Bush sat), and Perot Systems Corp. (owned by H. Ross Perot). University of Texas Regent and UTIMCO board member, former Texas GOP Rep. and George W. Bush crony Tom Loeffler, also backed the UTIMCO investments in Maverick Capital.

The Senate investigation of the Wylys points out how the Bush family and their cronies use off-shore tax havens, shell and "folding tent" corporations, and tax loopholes to fund their political and covert intelligence adventures. The editor pointed out that an Isle of Man entity called Five Star Trust was used to fund the covert vote rigging operations that engineered the 2004 presidential election. The Senate subcommittee is now unearthing the mechanisms by which the Republicans use tax free money to pay for their "black ops" without leaving electronic trails thus ensuring "plausible deniability."

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/