Swiss-leaks Reveal Belize Millions Stashed

There is a report that surfaced earlier today in Caribbean news outlets, about billions of dollars being stashed away in Swiss Banks. The report claims that the funds were deposited by citizens of thirty countries in the wider Caribbean.  The information was contained in a throve of sixty thousand internal Swiss Bank documents, leaked by a former employee of the H.S.B.C. Bank in Switzerland and made available by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.  The list identifies the countries, but does not name the individuals. Most of the countries are offshore financial centres and it is not specified if the account holders are bona fide nationals of the countries or merely persons who acquired nationality and are passport holders. Topping the list is Venezuela with fourteen point eight billion which is followed by Bahamas, Cayman Islands, British Virgin Island and so forth. Now, according to the report, fifty-four million U.S. dollars the equivalent of one hundred and eight million Belizean dollars, were traced to nine Belizeans, but as we said, they aren’t named. Belize is ranked number one hundred and fifteen among the countries with the largest dollar amounts in the leaked Swiss files and the maximum amount of money associated with a client connected to Belize was eight point nine million U.S. dollars. The report says also discloses that one Surinamese national held an account with the HSBC, five customers are from the US Virgin Islands, four from Dominica, one from the Dominican Republic, three from Haiti, one from Grenada and two from Jamaica. In respect the Bahamas, which is a huge offshore financial centre, fifty-five Bahamian citizens or passport holders were associated with the accounts. Likewise, thirteen of citizens or passport holders from Bermuda are associated with such accounts.