I was just wondering if you actually know what a foundaton is?
A foundatrion is the nearest civil law equivalent to the common law trust. A foundation consists of property that has been transferred into it to serve a particular purpose and is a
seperate legal entity with no owners or shareholders. Foundations are ordinarily managed by a board of directors. Some civil law jurisdictions, such as Belgium and Poland, restrict foundations to public purpose (public foundations) while other jurisdictions, such as Austria, Germany, Greece, Italy, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, Panama, and Switzerland, allow foundations to be established to fulfil private purposes(privaye foundations). In many civil law jurisdictions, a foundation may engage in commercial activities.
Ordinarily,
foundations are highly transparent and highly regulated vehicles that are required to register with the authorities, file annual financial statements and submit themselves to supervision by governmental authorities. In addition, there are safeguards in place to ensure that a foundaton is sufficiently independent from its founder.
The likehood of a foundation to be misused for illicit purposes increases when there is inadequate regulations or supervision over foundations or when founders are allowed to exert significant control over the foundation, which is the case for Seychelles foundations.
In the Netherlands, which does not require prior consent of the government or a
certificate of incorporation to establish a foundation, the authorities have reported that foundations are increasingly used for criminal purposes. Never go where the crowd is find a place uknown to man
In some civil law OFCøs, foundations are not supervised, few public disclosures are required, founders are allowed to excert control over the foundation, and a high degree of anonymity is offered.
In Panama and the Seychelles, for example, government approval is not required for the establishment of a foundation or the amendment of its memorandum and there is no governement agency that supervises foundations. Furthemore, foundation documents containing the identity of beneficiaries (which may include the founder himself) are not required to be publicly filed and the foundation does not have to submit annual reports or accounts. The founder may also use a nominee to form the foundation, thereby ensuring that his identity is not revealed to the outside world.
The Liechtenstein foundation, in particular, has been alleged to have been frequently misused for illicit purposes, including to hide money of corrupt government leaders. Liechtenstein also offers the
anstalt (establishment), a
corporate vehicle that is a hybrid between a private limited company and a foundation. The
anstalt, which offers founders strong anonymity protection, grants founders effective control over the foundation, and mandates few disclosure requirements, is also perceived to be misused frequently for illicit purpose.
I do hope the above brings up a picture in your mind how powerful such a foundation can be
Thanks all for the wonderful help here...Ihave learned soooooooo much.
