DISCLOSURE

Privacy is an issue that has several faces and several fronts that must be protected. Elsewhere we discuss the value of encryption in preventing interception and misuse of your private communications. Your right to various privileges such as the spousal privilege between husband and wife, the priest-parishioner privilege and the attorney-client privilege can protect you from being required to make self disclosure and permits you to prevent disclosures from certain others.

One of the great attractions of tax haven jurisdictions is the legal framework that controls third party disclosures. When you deal with a law firm, an accounting firm, a trustee company, a bank an insurance company or other financial services organization, the employees of those institutions are prohibited by law from making any disclosures about your confidential business unless you consent in writing. An employee of a fiduciary in the Bahamas or Nevis who is found to have made such unauthorized disclosures can face imprisonment for up to five (5) years per count. This trust is taken very seriously.

At Prudential Trustees, we take the concept of non-disclosure to an additional level. Because we are a private trustee company, we have the ability to cloth our clients in an additional layer of anonymity. If a creditor or governmental agency were to ask a bank or a brokerage house about any financial dealings with our clients, the bank would be unable to make any disclosure, even if it wanted to. Even if it was possible to secure a subpoena from the tax haven's courts, they would be unable to assist because the account would be in the name of the trustee company.

Although no one likes to talk about it, there have been situations where bank employees have been bribed enough to violate their trust and the law. They have given up confidential information. It is easy to determine the identity of bank employees. You can go to their public branch and follow an employee home. You cannot do that with Prudential because we do not disclose the identity of our staff. They are housed away from the executive offices as are the proprietary servers. The physical plant is secure and we do not even allow our best clients access to that facility. Our staff are experienced, mature, well compensated and in our opinion above suspicion. Notwithstanding that, they cannot be bribed if they cannot be located.

A complete privacy strategy requires that you arrange your affairs so that you can always tell the truth if compelled to answer questions in your home country. A plan that requires secrecy and deception is doomed to failure. The strategy must include the ability to communicate with your lawyers, trustee and others in a secure fashion. You should control the flow of information. Finally, the strategy must be proactive to ensure that there is no unauthorized disclosure by your service providers, either intentionally or unintentionally. Prudential applied both sound procedures and new technologies to ensure your privacy in this way.