More than 30 entities linked to Epstein can be found in public filings in the U.S. Virgin Island and New York.
See also: Untangling Jeffrey Epstein’s offshore money web
Rather than signing on to OECD system, the U.S. opted to stick with its Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA. The rule requires foreign banks to scour client lists and report anyone who could be a U.S. citizen, or face being barred from operating in the country.
‘Wild West’
That creates loopholes for people putting foreign money into the U.S., with reciprocal data-sharing still a pipe dream for many countries. And offshore specialists are following the cash.
Geneva-based Cisa Trust Co., which advises wealthy Latin Americans, applied for a license in South Dakota, while Trident Trust, one of the world’s biggest providers of offshore trusts, moved dozens of accounts out of Switzerland, Grand Cayman and other locales and into Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
“It’s kind of Wild West stuff” in South Dakota and Wyoming, Christensen said. “Anything goes. The law no longer really applies.”
Such characterizations “seem reliant upon seriously flawed and dated information,” said Will Dinneen, a spokesman for the Wyoming secretary of state’s office.
“I am not sure what he could be referencing in our laws that would indicate that Wyoming is a tax haven or devoid of meaningful oversight,” Dinneen said in an email. “Our business-services laws are substantially similar to those of the 49 other states and include many fraud-fighting provisions.”
A spokesman for the South Dakota governor’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Chinese Cash
Even as offshore money flows to the states, tropical tax havens hold plenty of foreigners’ cash.