It had taken only forty years to squander what it had taken generations to build, to let the country to fall into a state of almost irreparable ruin as a result of the utopian ideas of its leader. A reference lesson for any Marxist minded politician to learn what can happen when a state’s money is thrown away in distant foreign wars in defence of an alien ideology, such as Cuba undertook on behalf of the Soviets in Angola, Mozambique and other lands.
It was true that there was education and health for all in Cuba...when the dollars existed to pay for drugs and specialist medical equipment. But health and education were traded against poverty and fear. It would take generations to erase those ideas and rebuild the country in a democratic, non-egalitarian but pragmatic form.
Other countries which had the same level of development as that of Cuba in 1958 had done better and without the proximity of the USA and its markets or tourism potential.
Some would argue that in Cuba there was little pollution, that life was simple, industry and mass production as known in developed nations were almost nonexistent, as was the consumer society. Certain pretended that Cuba was an egalitarian society, but how many would exchange their recent model car, DVD, PC, beer and good food for the daily lot of a Cuban….without doubt very few!
AeroCaribbean flew to Kingston, Jamaica. There were two flights a week. From there Kavanagh had been informed he could pick up a connecting flight to George Town, Grand Cayman.
He booked a return flight for the Friday of the following week. It seemed a good idea, even if he eventually decided not to use the return ticket. The advantage of Cuba was that the international press and satellite TV were almost exclusively reserved for the upmarket tourist hotels, news from outside circulated very slowly amongst Cubans.
The arcane ups and downs of capitalism and the change in fortune of its adepts were not a priority for the Cuban authorities. The only news that seemed to excite them was that of Elian.
As a result, whoever he chose to be, Kavanagh or Ryan, he could fade into the crowd without too much concern and without taking too many complicated precautions.
How many times he could do that was not certain. But he felt that dollars would in any case smooth away the eventual difficulties. He would cross that bridge when he came to it, in the meantime a tourist visa was valid for sixty days, and he had even heard, it could be extended indefinitely by friends and dollars.
The Cayman Islands are situated 300 kilometres northwest of Jamaica and about the same distance south of the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. There were three islands, the largest being Grand Cayman with the capital George Town, and two much smaller islands about 100 kilometres to the east.
Grand Cayman was a squiggly island lying in a turquoise sea, a mere 25 kilometres long with a population of only 27,000 or so inhabitants. It was an island paradise with fine white coral sandy beaches and clear waters protected by coral reefs from the ocean. Kavanagh was pleased to note that it was expensive and catered mainly for the rich, and was therefore exclusive.
No questions were asked on arrival at Owen Roberts Airport, he presented his John Ryan passport which was given a friendly but cursory examination. He had now taken on the appearance of a first class tourist. He took a taxi to the hotel which his guide book had informed him was the best on the island.
The Hyatt was located on West Bay Road on Seven Mile Beach, a district known for its nightlife. The hotel was a luxury establishment for the first class traveller, tastefully built in colonial style architecture. The hotel was almost fully booked and Kavanagh accepted, without the slightest hesitation, a three room suite on the fourth floor overlooking the sea. He handed over his Gold Card and checked in, in the name of John Ryan.
It was not unusual that the hotel was almost fully booked, given the size of the island, and the financial and business interest of a great many of its visitors. The first class hotels had an almost year round season with the possible exception of the hot and humid summer months and even then demand could be heavy.
In the hotel lobby he noted at once that most of the guests were English or American. It would be necessary to keep his face as far away from inquisitive eyes as possible.
After settling in he decided a visit to the hotel barbers shop was on his immediate program. He joked to the young hairdresser that he was on holiday and needed a fashionable style that went with the light beard that he was growing. He asked that his hair be cropped as close as possible. In the lobby shop he then fitted himself out with a smart pair of dark glasses. Looking at himself in the hotel lift he felt very satisfied with his trendy new look, to the point he almost failed to recognise himself.
He found it somewhat amusing that he owned several companies on the island and had a fortune deposited in its banks but had never set foot in the place. His first task was to visit his lawyer, Martin Wender, who would guide him through the maze of companies and accounts that had been set up on Kavanagh's behalf, which ran from Grande Cayman, to the Bahamas, passing through St Martin and the Virgin Islands.
With the help of his guide he swotted up on what he already partially knew. Caymans were British and the crown ensured the stability and continuity of its institutions. The local money, the Cayman dollar, followed the movement of the American dollar. He had known that there were many law firms that could fix up shell companies as vehicles for his financial operations and he had used one of these firms, which is how he came to meet, be it virtually, Martin Wender.
The governor of Her Majesty, the Queen of England, had signed a treaty with the United States of America to provide mutual assistance in order to prevent crime linked financial transactions. The treaty entered into force in 1992 but had remained to a great degree ineffectual.
The treaty foresaw the exchange of information on transactions related to visible crime, such as laundering drug money, racketeering and the like. Kavanagh’s investigations had indicated that most white collar crime was virtually undetectable. In any case he had not committed a crime other than provoke the ire of his investors. His companies were sound and he had not stimulated the rise or fall in the value of the shares of Swap by insider trading or in any other way.
Perhaps he had momentarily abandoned ship, but that was in the face of the storm which had arisen over minor details at the outset of his rise to riches, a storm created by the gutter press.
Business in offshore tax havens was quite legal he reasoned, after all it was no different to Foreign Sales Corporations, or FSC’s for short. These were American owned companies in tax havens such as the Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and Bermuda, to name a few. Those companies were used for re-exportation of goods to the final customer of the USA based parent company avoiding taxation on profits. It was a loop hole in the US fiscal regulations that gave an economic advantage through fiscal gains to companies such as Boeing and other giants but also many less well know small and medium sized businesses.
The authorities in the Caymans pretended that it was impossible to deposit a briefcase full of greenbacks in one of their banks. Kavanagh knew that the reality was quite to the contrary. Of course officially, anonymous transactions were no longer possible, but there was no difficulty in creating the names of fictitious persons or specially created companies, there existed a whole string of law firms available for just that purpose.
Fiscal evasion was not a problem since direct taxes did not exist on the islands and of course there were no currency exchange controls, nor for that matter were there taxes on revenues or profits.
The advantage was of course, as in other tax havens, the penal code of the Caymans punished severely the betrayal of account secrets or the revelation of the identity of companies who invested in the islands. There were no political parties, unions, or welfare state.
The Cayman Islands’ banks held hundreds of billions dollars in their accounts, a considerable amount for a population of 27,000 inhabitants. There were over 500 financial institutions, one for every 54 inhabitants, plus 350 insurance companies, 30,000 busin
ess companies, and over 1000 investment funds registered there, including the Ryan Investment Fund.
In addition there were the most important international law and accounting firms to serve the needs of so many wealthy customers. Many of the major international banks were content to operate through a simple letter box.
Chapter 7
Limerick, Ireland