money?

Headlines

Nauru

Where’s the

money?

A small town in Southern Germany is missing US$26 million and the mayor is claiming the money in Nauru.

The mayor of the 3000-citizen town of Neckarsheim, Horst Armbrust, was arrest ed and charged with fraud. The mayor says he has invested the money at the Thalia Bank of Nauru to earn high inter est rates for the town.

The representative of the Nauru govern ment office in London, Martin Weston, says, however, that such a bank is unknown to him. Weston alleges the mayor is a “swindler” and has damaged the reputation of Nauru.

The prosecution’s case is that the mayor was either defrauded by an investment consultant or that he transferred the money to a bank account in Switzerland.

While the stale and the local authorities are desperately investigating the where abouts of the millions, private clubs in the small town are planning to travel to Nauru themselves to look for the money.

The Weekly reports that the town is one of the richest in Germany because a nuclear plant is their major tax payer.

Vanuatu

Free

press

Prime Minister Maxime Carlot Korman has praised the country’s only indepen dent weekly, The Trading Post, and assured it that it has the right to publish in any language it wants.

Korman’s reassurances followed an order from his first secretary, Father Gerard Leymang, to the publisher of the paper, Marc Neil-Jones, to carry some French articles in his English-only publication or face deportation.

Neil-Jones says the Prime Minister, who is the Minister for Media and Immigration, said he fully supports freedom of the press and the weekly has the right to publish in whatever language it wants.

Neil-Jones said it is the government con trolled media that is bound to publish in two or three languages.

He says in order to foster good will and show his appreciation to the govern ment, he will begin running a two or four-page supplement in French as a conciliatory gesture. The Trading Post, which started life as an advertising paper, will be renamed Vanuatu Post.

Cooks

Financial

crisis rocks

tax haven

A number of top companies in New Zealand have been issued with legal notices requiring them to produce docu ments on a series of transactions con ducted with offshore banks in the island’s tax haven.

The Royal Commission of Inquiry inves tigating the Cook Islands tax operation said in a statement it had also issued legal notices to the Inland Revenue Department and the Serious Fraud Office.

Among those named as being required to produce documents are the Bank of New Zealand which is owned by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Brewer DB Group Limited has also received a notice, as has merchant banker Fay Richwhite and Company Limited. European Pacific Group Ltd, a Hong-Kong based banking group which set up the Cooks’ operations, has also received a notice. International accoun tancy firm KMPG Peat Marwick is includ ed in the list of notice recipients.

Others named included the New Zealand

Wool Board, state-owned Television New Zealand, the legal firm Simpson Grierson Butler White, ANZ Bank Ltd and BNZ Finance Limited.

The Royal Commission was set up last year to investigate files taken from a Cook Islands offshore banking operation and leaked to an opposition parliamen tarian, Winston Peters. He succeeded in having them heard and published by

parliament.

The Royal Commission is charged with establishing whether the papers reveal illegal tax evasion.

Meanwhile investors continue to be attracted to the island despite currency

problems.

The island’s Commercial Realty Brokers director, Peter Stenson, says investment is slower than in the past but investors still like the country.

Stenson says there are some monetary aspects which are scaring investors as the banks are advising there are no guaran tees of getting their money out.

Westpac bank was only weeks away from running out of New Zealand dollars (when this article went to press) and the ANZ was close behind, yet there were no moves to buy more reserves.

The reason for the financial collapse includes letters of guarantee for hun dreds of millions of dollars signed by the Prime Minister, Sir Geoffrey Henry.

Stenson says this did not affect investors because they can have accounts set up overseas.

Sir Geoffrey said his country stood to make up to US$10 million from controversial loan guarantees he signed. He said he signed five such guarantees which were to be taken over by banks.

Sir Geoffrey said he did not know how the details of the financial scheme worked but he said he believed the country would make between US$l.3 million and US$2 million per transaction.

Sir Geoffrey denied he signed 22 guaran tees. He said he has cancelled all guar antees.