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Dominican Government Revokes Bank's Licence

Robert Lee, Tax-news.com, London

21 February 2001

The Dominican offshore bank which earlier this month hit out at the US Senate report on Correspondent Banking and Money Laundering - released on February 5 - for "varied half truths, minsinformation and factual errors and unwarranted innuendos", has had its licence revoked by the government. Finance Minister Ambrose George confirmed last week that the operating licence of British Trade and Commerce Bank (BTCB) had been withdrawn, but could not give any further particulars until an investigation by auditors PriceWaterhouseCoopers is complete.

The closure of BTCB comes after a routine examination of the BTCB by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank and the US report, which has already led to the operations of two offshore banks in the Bahamas being suspended this week.

The US Senate report on Correspondent Banking listed BTCB as one of its case studies and said it was the least co-operative of foreign banks contacted during the Senate investigation. It is alleged that the bank is managed by persons with "dubious credentials, abusive of its US correspondent relationships and surrounded by mounting evidence of deceptive practices and financial fraud.'

Another Dominican offshore bank, the Overseas Development Bank and Trust Company Ltd (ODBT), was also targeted by the report, but it is not known whether its own position is precarious or not. However, the Caribbean News Agency reported this week that its director, Christopher Stone, had said that the bank has conducted its business in an above-board manner.

Mr Stone was quoted as saying: 'I attended a meeting with the Finance Ministry to discuss regulatory procedure with the Financial Reporting Unit and the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, and received endorsements of our good standing and our importance to the Dominican economy, by Mr Lambert Lewis, chairman of the Offshore Financial Services Council. During our existence we have never been under investigation or special scrutiny by any supervisory body either in Dominica or elsewhere, and any statement to the contrary is false and without foundation.'

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