ABSTRACT
“Extraordinarily evil”, declared Manhattan Judge Denny Chin describing Bernie Madoff’s $65 billion swindle of thousands of trusting investors in a reign of financial trickery spanning several decades. Some of the fraudulent proceeds have been traced to offshore hedge funds located in island nations. Back in 1990 when the insidious global deception perpetrated by the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) and its top management began to unfold, there was little indication these two financial tragedies would intersect at the crossroads of offshore finance. As it turned out, BCCI had established legal structures from the outset in multiple offshore jurisdictions, amongst them, spinoffs of Luxembourg entity BCCI SA Ltd, a Netherland Antilles company – Credit and Commerce American Holdings NV and a Cayman Islands enterprise – BCCI Overseas Ltd.
