New leaked documents indicate Belgian residents go through the Isle of Man and a British trustee to keep some financial transactions quiet, according to new reports by Le Soir, De Tijd and Knac.
The three papers analysed data gathered via a joint study by the Organised Crime Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and the Distributed Denial of Secrets collective.
The Isle of Man is a tax haven located 50 km off the English coast. The small island is home to two branches of the Caribbean-based Cayman National Corporation (the Cayman National Bank Limited and the Cayman National Trust Company Limited).
The two Manx businesses admitted they had been hacked on the 18th of November: two terabytes of data was copied and published on the internet, including the names and addresses of 3,800 account-holders. The cyber-attack has been attributed to hacker-activist Phineas Fisher.
The leaked data was discovered by the Belgian tax inspection department and secured by the Belgian internet service center (Bisc). The tax department said a dozen Belgian and Dutch residents have already been identified.
The media group’s analysis revealed a dozen residents are on the Manx bank’s listings, but at this stage it is not possible to judge the legality or illegality of their activities and transactions.
The Brussels Times
