SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

ISIS – Islamic State – suspected link to NZ Companies Office Listings

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A website suspected of being created by the Middle Eastern terror group Islamic State has been registered to an office in Parnell, Auckland, close to the home of the Prime Minister John Key.

Website Khilafah.is was closed down by Iceland overnight as controller of the country’s suffix address name.

Documentation for the web listing shows it was registered to Suite 4551, 17B Farnham St, Parnell, Auckland.
Its owner is described as Azym Abdullah.

Managing Director of Private Box Ltd, Gareth Foster, of Porirua, told TV One News they do provide a mail drop service for Suite 4551 on 17b Farnham St, but said the website’s domain was registered to a Azym Abdullah, who is not a customer of Private Box.

“We will be working with authorities to identify what relationship this account has with the person or website in question (if any),” Mr Foster told TV One News.

On the New Zealand Companies Office listings, the Parnell suite is the registered office for at least 63 companies, including a number that have been struck off.

Under New Zealand’s company system, registration can be done on line with virtual offices providing a legal entity for mail drops.

It is not the first time New Zealand virtual offices and shell companies have been caught up in international security.

Full Story: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/10613951/Islamic-State-site-linked-to-New-Zealand-office

Also see: http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/kiwi-postal-service-horrified-possible-link-isis-6105879

NZ firm named in huge European scam

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New Zealand shell companies may have played a part in the biggest money-laundering operation in Eastern Europe.

A recent investigation by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) exposed an enormous US$20 billion ($24.4 billion) transfer of dirty Russian funds, dubbed ”the Laundromat”.

The complex movement of cash, between 2010 and early this year, was allegedly facilitated by judges, well-connected officials, banks and offshore companies – including at least one New Zealand firm.

[Read more…]

Investigating shell companies

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Criminals use shell companies to launder money, evade taxes and perpetuate all manner of fraud. The author defines and dissects shell companies to help CFEs investigate this threat that can hit uncomfortable close to home….

In many instances, one shell company isn’t enough — fraudsters need a network. Dozens of shells, nominee directors, addresses and fake shareholders might be required to conceal a scheme or criminal plot. Big-time criminal conspirators will utilize shell incorporators to do the heavy lifting and help create a corporate web of disguise that can perplex and confuse the best of investigators.

See full article: http://www.fraud-magazine.com/article.aspx?id=4294983054

Shell games: Investigating shell companies and understanding their roles in international fraud

by Ryan C. Hubbs, CFE, CIA, PHR, CCSA. Fraud Magazine July/August 2014
http://www.fraud-magazine.com/article.aspx?id=4294983054

 

Shell company crackdown imminent

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A long-awaited crackdown on New Zealand shell companies is finally expected to come into force tonight when Parliament votes to ammend the Companies Act.

The Companies Amendment Bill (No 4) will require all New Zealand-registered companies to have a local director, and all directors to file identifying information to the registrar of companies, including the company’s ultimate owner, and their date and place of birth.

Parallel legislation requiring limited partnerships to have practically identical residency requirements, the Limited Partnerships Amendment Bill (No 2), will also receive its third reading tonight.

The new law’s genesis came from revelations in early 2010 that a New Zealand-registered company, SP Trading, had leased a plane loaded with 35 tonnes of guns and explosives that was later intercepted in Bangkok trying to smuggle the arms from North Korea to Iran.

Since the SP Trading story broke, generating considerable international media attention, media have discovered widespread use of New Zealand shell companies for illegal activities including the laundering of drug-sale proceeds, the looting of Eastern European state coffers, and international financial scams.

[Read more…]

Warning over New Zealand shell companies

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NEW ZEALAND has been urged to tighten its company registration process by one of the authors of a major international study into the use of anonymous shell companies by terrorist and corrupt government officials.

Global Shell Games: Experiments in Transitional Relations, Crime and Terrorism by Jasson Sharman, Michael Findley and Daniel Nelson, [to be] published later this month in the United States, launched a series of stings to determine whether international regulations were met ensuring beneficial owners of shell  companies were recorded.

The study made 7400 inquiries of 3700 incorporation agents in 181 countries – including New Zealand – to determine if Financial Action Task Force recommendations were followed.

The results found patchy adherence to regulations. The case of SP Trading, a New Zealand shell company that leased a plane used to run guns from North Korea to Iran via Bangkok in 2010, opens the book and receives considerable scrutiny.

SP Trading was formed by incorporation firm the GT Group, which had enlisted Burger King cook Lu Zhang as a nominee director. Zhang was paid $15 for each directorship, and knew nothing of who was using her company to breach United Nations arms sanctions.

Sharman, a professor at Griffith University in Australia, said the SP Trading case was “lurid” and the GT Group’s shell companies had been involved in other cases of  alleged government corruption.

Following international outcry and an ultimately futile investigation into the SP Trading case, the GT Group left New Zealand, rebranded and was last reported to be operating in Malaysia.

Sharman agreed New Zealand’s present regulations, allowing offshore directors of locally registered companies , effectively puts information about beneficial owners out of reach of domestic authorities. [Read more…]