Documents leaked online today appear to show that French Presidential Candidate Emmanuel Macron entered into an operating agreement for a Limited Liability Company (LLC) in the Caribbean island of Nevis, and that the company may have had a business relationship with a bank which has been previously involved in tax evasion cases in the Cayman Islands. Macron claimed he was not concealing assets or holding secret offshore accounts less than a month ago.
The first document is an operating agreement drawn up on May 4th, 2012 to form “La Providence LLC” under the 1995 Nevis Limited Liability Company Ordinance bearing Mr. Macron’s name and signature. La Providence is the name of Macron’s former high school in Amiens, where he first met his wife. The decision to form a company in Nevis is suspect, as the Nevis Confidential Relationship Act prohibits the disclosure of information and guarantees the secrecy and privacy of offshore LLCs in Nevis. Nevis has been described by Bloomberg as one of a number of popular tax havens in the Caribbean.
- Screenshot of document showing Macron’s name on the operating agreement for La Providence LLC
A second document is a letter sent to La Providence Ltd. from the First Caribbean International Bank, indicating a business relationship with Macron’s LLC. Forbes reported that First Caribbean International Bank was implicated as a facilitator of tax evasion in 2013. It has also been named by Reuters as a player in fraud relating to the 2015 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) scandals, after it emerged that a representative for First Caribbean had personally collected a check from a FIFA official and then returned to deposit it in an account in the Bahamas.
In April, Macron denied that he was hiding offshore accounts of inheritances from French authorities, even as his opponent Francois Fillion became mired in similar allegations. If confirmed as authentic, the documents would prove these claims to be untrue and provide important clues as to where the hidden funds might be located.
via http://ift.tt/2p6AbPb William Craddick