Program

Two days of no-nonsense information & practical due diligence tactics to limit your liability under banking and general legislation and to prevent your unwitting involvement in securities fraud, investment fraud and money laundering with special sessions on Hedge Fund Due Diligence, Offshore Financial Centers, Class Action Lawsuits, Asset Recovery, Russian Clients & Offshore Insurance.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007

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Tuesday, April 24th, 2007

8:15 AM - 8:30 AM

Welcome & Opening Remarks

David Marchant, Publisher, OffshoreAlert (USA)

8:30 AM - 9:00 AM

Financial Crime – The Last 12 Months

A review of recent developments in financial crime, investigations and compliance, including taking a look at the clampdown by U. S. regulators on pretexting, relaxations in Sarbanes Oxley Rules, and whether KYC provisions of the USA Patriot Act have been fully implemented yet.

Brendan Hewson, Principal, Global Risk Advisory Services (USA)

9:00 AM - 10:30 AM

Liability & Jurisdiction: Who is Liable When Fraud is Committed & How Do Courts Determine Jurisdiction?

A discussion of the legal standards, particularly those concerning negligence, that must be satisfied to hold banks, auditors, brokers, financial service providers, and professional advisors accountable for fraud that is committed by their clients, both in criminal and civil actions.

Panelists include two class action attorneys who negotiated a $67.5 m settlement with the Bank of Bermuda over its involvement in a Ponzi scheme known as Cash 4 Titles.

Find out what your potential liability is as a professional or financial service provider if a client is involved in an illegal scheme;
Learn what criteria courts use to determine jurisdiction and how they apportion liability when it comes to imposing financial penalties; and
If you are a victim of financial impropriety, learn how you can go about obtaining restitution.

PANELISTS:

Melvyn I. Weiss, Senior & Founding Partner, Milberg Weiss & Bershad LLP (USA);
Z. Scott Birdwell, Senior Counsel, U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of International Affairs (USA);
Delano Bart, former Attorney General for St. Kitts & Nevis (St. Kitts & Nevis);
Tracy A. Nichols, National Practice Group Leader, Securities Litigation Group, Holland + Knight (USA);
W. Gordon Dobie, Litigation Partner, Winston & Strawn (USA); and
Lawrence A. Kellogg, Partner, Tew Cardenas LLP (USA);

MODERATOR: Edward Davis Jr., Founding Partner, Astigarraga Davis (USA)

10:30 AM - 11:00 AM

Refreshment Break

11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

Multi-Jurisdiction Investigations: How To Obtain Information Outside Your Territory

In today's world, there is no such thing as an impenetrable fortress when it comes to obtaining evidence. Regulators and investigators discuss the obstacles in civil and criminal cross-border investigations. How can they be overcome? What level of co-operation – both formal and informal – is being given by the authorities in offshore financial centers to plaintiffs, regulators and law enforcement in the United States and other major countries and vice versa?

PANELISTS

Timothy Ridley, OBE, Chairman, Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (Cayman Islands);
Robert Mathavious, Managing Director, British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission (BVI);
Hillary Deveaux, Executive Director, Securities Commission of the Bahamas (Bahamas);
William Kattan, Director of Legal Services & Enforcement, Bermuda Monetary Authority (Bermuda);
Rodney Gallagher, Consultant to Governments in Offshore Financial Centers (Barbados); and
Z. Scott Birdwell, Senior Counsel, U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of International Affairs (USA)

MODERATOR: Dwayne E. Williams, Partner, Holland + Knight (USA)

12:30 PM - 2:00 PM

Luncheon

LUNCHEON SPONSORED BY

Merchant Risk Recovery & Intelligence, Inc

Merchant Risk, Recovery & Intelligence offers clients a comprehensive suite of services geared toward the full recovery of assets lost as a result of fraud.

Merchant, Risk, Recovery, & Intelligence uses multi-jurisdictional litigation in conjunction with advanced asset tracking and investigation techniques to produce the only satisfactory result - the recovery of assets.

2:00 PM - 3:15 PM

CONCURRENT BREAK-OUT SESSIONS

SESSION A

SESSION B

Hedge Fund Due Diligence: Onshore & Offshore

A Crash Course in Offshore Financial Centers

High-profile hedge fund collapses like the Bayou Group, Portus Alternative Asset Management, and Lancer Offshore with massive losses to investors have emphasized the need for due diligence PRIOR to making an investment. Panelists from onshore and offshore financial centers will, among other things, discuss:

An Overview of the Hedge Fund industry - its significance and what you need to know about it;
Onshore versus Offshore Considerations - what are the key differences between onshore and offshore domiciled funds;
Hedge Fund Failure - reasons for hedge fund failure, including overview of recent high profile cases, and lessons learned;
Researching management; and
Verifying NAVs.

PANELISTS

Stuart Sybersma, Partner, Deloitte & Touche (Cayman Islands);
Nancy Goldstein, Associate Managing Director, Kroll (USA);
Christopher Byron, Investigative Journalist (USA);
Kevin Jones, Principal, HedgeCheck (USA)

MODERATOR: Vincent Walsh, Advisory Managing Director, Financial Risk Management, KPMG (USA)

What You Need to Know But Won’t Read in Promotional Material. A look at why OFCs exist, products and services that are on offer, important reputational and regulatory differences between the jurisdictions, and sources of information, including a searchable database containing hundreds of international requests for judicial assistance that contain specific details about on-going criminal investigations.

David Marchant, Publisher, OffshoreAlert (USA)

3:15 PM - 3:45 PM

Refreshment Break

3:45 PM - 5:15 PM

CONCURRENT BREAK-OUT SESSIONS

SESSION A

SESSION B

Recovering the Proceeds of Crime for Victims

KYC Databases for Financial Institutions

All does not have to be lost if you have been cheated out of your investment. However, the path to recovery is littered with obstacles which typically require a team of multi-skilled professionals to overcome.

This session will deal with how to devise and implement an asset recovery strategy, covering everything from financing an asset recovery attempt to tracing concealed assets using investigative and legal techniques and then applying to freeze and seize them.

PANELISTS

Martin Kenney, Managing Partner, Martin Kenney & Co. (British Virgin Islands);
Peter Broadhurst, Senior Partner, Broadhurst Barristers (Cayman Islands);
Robb Evans, Principal of Robb Evans & Associates LLC (USA); and
Deborah Morrissey, Supervisory Special Agent, Department of Homeland Security, Immigration & Customs Enforcement (USA).

MODERATOR: Edward Davis Jr., Founding Partner, Astigarraga Davis (USA)

In the current political climate, any financial institution that does not take reasonable steps to avoid providing accounts for illegal activity runs the risk of incurring substantial civil and criminal penalties.

Our panel will take a look at what's new in the fast-growing industry of providing Know Your Customer information to financial institutions to help them comply with the USA PATRIOT Act and other legislation.

This session will, among other things, look at:

KYC Products & Services;
Data Sources;
Online Searches vs. Data Integration;
Politically Exposed Persons, a.k.a. PEPs;
Name-Matching;
False Positives;
A Risk-Based Approach vs. Doing the Bare Minimum.

PANELISTS

Marco Piovesan, Vice President, Information Services Division, ChoicePoint (USA);
Alasdair Macdonald, Founder/CEO, NominoDATA (USA);
Anthony Carey, Business Development Director, Complinet (UK & USA); and
Shaun Hassett, National Account Manager, Financial Services, Accuity (USA)

MODERATOR: Nancy Saur, Director, Bodden Corporate Services (Cayman Islands)

5:30 PM - 7:30 PM

Networking Cocktail Reception

The OffshoreAlert Conference Networking Reception will be held poolside at the Hotel InterContinental. Guests will be invited to kick back and enjoy the spectacular view of Miami Bay at sunset while networking with their peers.

SPONSORED BY

Astigarraga Davis is a boutique law firm with a practice focused on commercial litigation, arbitration and other business disputes. Our commercial litigation strengths include international litigation, international arbitration, financial services litigation including creditors' rights, bankruptcy, and class actions as well as the recovery of assets for defrauded institutions.

Martin Kenney & Co. is a specialist, multi-jurisdictional investigative and litigation practice. The firm concentrates on the representation of persons harmed by economic crime in a multi-jurisdictional setting. The firm uses a combination of traditional and extraordinary measures to gather, most usually on an emergency basis, evidence of serious forms of wrongdoing, and to recover substantial value in many places concurrently.

Free for attendees. Bring your spouse, colleague or friend for an additional $15.00. Includes 2 hour open bar and hors d'oeuvres.

Wednesday, April 25th, 2007

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8:30 AM - 10:00 AM

Tips & Tricks From Investigative Journalists

An experienced investigative journalist can spot fraud from the proverbial one-mile away and will tell you that most news scoops happen by design, not by accident.

Accomplished journalists discuss financial crime & offer tips to financial and professional service providers, investors & investigators on how to detect it by identifying red-flags, including those in promotional material, financial statements, and regulatory filings.

PANELISTS

Christopher Byron, Ex-New York Post columnist and best-selling book author (USA);
John Emshwiller, Senior National Correspondent, The Wall Street Journal (USA);
Chris Carey, Editor of Mark Cuban-owned ShareSleuth.com (USA); and
David Baines, Vancouver Sun, who was once informed by police that there was a contract out on his life (Canada).

MODERATOR: David Marchant, Publisher, OffshoreAlert (USA)

10:00 AM - 10:30 AM

Refreshment Break

10:30 AM - 11:15 AM

CONCURRENT BREAK-OUT SESSIONS

SESSION A

SESSION B

Understanding Offshore Insurance

Russian Clients: How To Evaluate Them

Bermuda has a land area of only 21 square miles and a population of just 65,000, yet is the world's third largest insurance and reinsurance market, with most of the capital and business coming from the United States. "The insurance laboratory of the world," is how the local authorities like to describe the island.

Other offshore financial centers such as the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and the Turks & Caicos Islands are rivals of Bermuda, but only for certain types of insurance products and services, most notably insurance vehicles known as captives.

Our panel discusses the fascinating and complicated world of offshore insurance and, among other things, looks at:

The types of products and services that are being offered;
The reasons they are attractive to policy-buyers in the U. S. and other major countries, including tax issues;
The reasons that U. S. and European capital is flooding into the offshore market; and
What offshore insurers can do that their U. S. counterparts cannot.

PANELISTS

Hywel Jones, President, Britannia Consulting Group (Bahamas);
David Schiff, Editor, Schiff's Insurance Observer (USA);
Jay Adkisson, Author, Adkisson's Captive Insurance Companies: An Introduction to Captives, Closely-Held Insurance Companies, and Risk Retention Groups. (USA).

MODERATOR: Burke Files, Principal, Financial Examinations & Evaluations Inc. (USA)

Russians represent a lucrative but high-risk clientele. This session will go into what steps you can take to help you determine whether a Russian client is worth the risk.

PANELISTS

Nick Day, CEO, Diligence LLC (USA);
Robert A. Levinson, ex-DEA & FBI (USA);
Natalia V. Poliakova, Founder, The Law Offices of Natalia V. Poliakova, P.A. (USA); and
One Other TBA

MODERATOR: Mike Baker, Principal, Prescience LLC (USA)

11:15 AM - 12:30 PM

CONCURRENT BREAK-OUT SESSIONS

SESSION A	SESSION B
On Special in Aisle 4: Offshore Bank Licenses	International Pre-Employment & Vendor Screening
A look at the investigation and criminal prosecution of Jerome Schneider, who used to make a living from forming offshore banks en masse in lightly-regulated jurisdictions and selling them to U. S. residents, several of whom then used them for illegal purposes. PANELISTS Jerome Schneider, former offshore bank promoter and author of books such as ‘Hiding Your Money’ and ‘How to Own Your Own Private International Bank’ (Canada); Jay Weill, Assistant U. S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, who prosecuted Mr. Schneider (USA); and Jack Blum, Of Counsel, Baker Hostetler, who helped to bring the matter to the attention of U. S. authorities (USA) MODERATOR: David Marchant, Publisher, OffshoreAlert (USA)	The saying 'an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure' is never more apt than when applied to screening potential employees and business partners. You are asking for trouble if you leave such important matters to chance or judgment. Our panelists will show you how to conduct thorough background checks, using databases, sources, and other tools & techniques, to minimize your risks of making mistakes when hiring employees or entering into business relationships. PANELISTS DC Page, Principal, Verasys LLC (USA); Marco Piovesan, Vice President, Information Services Division, ChoicePoint (USA)

12:30 PM - 2:00 PM

Luncheon

2:00 PM - 3:30 PM

United States Senate vs. Offshore Financial Centers

On August 1, 2006, a 400-page report entitled 'Tax Haven Abuses: The Enablers, The Tools & Secrecy' was released by the U. S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

The report came to the conclusions that wealthy U. S. corporate and individual taxpayers were using offshore structures to circumvent U. S. securities, money laundering and tax laws.

The Chief Investigator for the Senate Subcommittee joins regulators in offshore financial centers to discuss its findings.

PANELISTS

Bob Roach, Counsel & Chief Investigator to the Minority, U. S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (USA);
Timothy Ridley, OBE, Chairman, Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (Cayman Islands);
Robert Mathavious, Managing Director, British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission (BVI); and
Rodney Gallagher, Consultant to Governments in Offshore Financial Centers (Barbados).

MODERATOR: Jack Blum, former Special Counsel to the U. S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee (USA)

3:30 PM - 4:00 PM

Refreshment Break

4:00 PM - 5:15 PM

Three Financial Scandals Waiting to Happen & How I Know

OffshoreAlert publisher David Marchant puts his reputation where his mouth is and, using the research techniques that are preached at this conference, identifies three business groups that, in his opinion, are destined for problems and explains why.

David Marchant, Publisher, OffshoreAlert (USA)

5:30 PM - 7:30 PM

Networking Cocktail Reception

The OffshoreAlert Conference Networking Reception will be held poolside at the Hotel InterContinental. Guests will be invited to kick back and enjoy the spectacular view of Miami Bay at sunset while networking with their peers.

Free for attendees. Bring your spouse, colleague or friend for an additional $15.00. Includes 2 hour open bar and hors d'oeuvres.

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SPEAKER FACULTY

Over 40 speakers from the private and public sectors in OFFSHORE & ONSHORE domiciles will come together at the 5th OffshoreAlert Financial Due Diligence Conference to discuss how to identify, manage and avoid unnecessary risk in banking, international finance, and general business.

View Speaker Biographies

Baines, David

Vancouver Sun

Baker, Mike

Prescience LLC

Bart, Delano

Attorney General for St. Kitts & Nevis

Birdwell, Z. Scott

Senior Counsel, SEC's Office of International Affairs

Blum, Jack

Baker Hostetler

Broadhurst, Peter