From its inception before Christmas 2003 the Parmalat scandal promised to tarnish the reputation of several of the leading offshore centres. Since the end of the 1990s, offshore financial centres - prompted not least by a dead weight of pressure from global agencies - have cleaned up their act. Now many are shining examples of innovative regulation and excellent practice. The centres argue that having taken on board the demands of international agencies such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the International Monetary Fund and the Financial Action Task Force on money laundering, they now have regulation which is more modern and more effective than that in the main global financial centres. But their rehabilitation in the eyes of civilised society took a step back with the Enron and WorldCom scandals. The Caymans was famously used as the base for 889 special purpose vehicles set up by the big banks to disguise the true source and purpose of Enron-related funds. Now there is Parmalat. In the early days of the investigation it became clear that the Caymans would again feature in a global accounting scandal. Much of the money which has gone missing in the Parmalat story apparently disappeared through Bonlat, a subsidiary based in Grand Cayman.
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