Cayman FRU Head Resigns

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

31 January 2003

The government of the Cayman Islands announced on Wednesday that one of the key players in the collapse of the Euro Bank money laundering trial has resigned.

The trial ground to a halt earlier this month partly as a result of the actions of Brian Gibbs, Director of the Cayman Islands Financial Reporting Unit (FRU), who admitted destroying crucial evidence at the behest of a 'controlling agent' from an unnamed government agency.

Chief Justice Anthony Smellie was forced to acquit the four accused Euro Bank directors when Attorney General, John Ballantyne offered no further evidence against them.

Reporting on a statement released by Governor of the Cayman Islands, Bruce Dinwiddy, the Associated Press revealed that Mr Gibbs, a Briton, had left Cayman around two weeks ago 'because of a potential risk to his personal safety'.

'This has caused considerable distress to him and his familiy,' Governor Dinwiddy observed, continuing: 'He knows that it is impossible for him to return in the circumstances and continue in his job.'

This announcement comes just days after the Cayman Islands Law Society and the Caymanian Bar Association called for the FRU to be restructured, arguing that:

'It is clear from the Chief Justice's findings in the Euro Bank trial that the Financial Reporting Unit (FRU) has been operating in an illegal manner. Therefore it is important that the FRU should, as soon as possible, be restructured to ensure that in future it will operate both effectively and lawfully.'

Recommended