Changes made as beneficial ownership regime reworked
(CNS): Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly presented changes to beneficial ownership legislation to parliament when it met for the last time before the elections. While the Beneficial Ownership Transparency (Amendment) Act, 2024 was passed less than a year ago, the government continues to rework the law to help shape this delicate new regime that allows increasing access to the details of who owns what offshore entities registered in the Cayman Islands.
The law helps the jurisdiction comply with the ever-evolving international standards and ultimately protects the lucrative financial service sector.
The bill states that the amendment to the principal act is to modify the meaning of “beneficial owner” and to provide other enhancements to ensure the sustained effectiveness of the beneficial ownership
transparency legislative framework.
As she explained the need for the changes, O’Connor-Connolly, who took on the financial services portfolio in November after three members of her Cabinet resigned, said that work continued on the bill after it was originally steered through parliament and the government continued to speak with stakeholders in the industry.
During that engagement process, amendments were highlighted by those who had begun using the law to bring clarity to certain aspects of it, she said as she explained some of the changes and why they were needed. She said that these latest amendments have been well-received, especially those that impact the trust sector.
The bill also adds Customs and Border Control to the list of competent authorities that can access the beneficial ownership register.
The premier also indicated that more changes will come as the UK is still keen to see the territories roll out public registers. However, until things change, this jurisdiction remains committed to allowing only those with a legitimate interest to access beneficial ownership information, she said.
The PPM members of the opposition supported the bill, but independent opposition member Chris Saunders voted against it. He said he would continue to object to this legislation until it becomes the international norm and there is a clear level playing field.
Saunders also raised concerns about the access that journalists now have to beneficial ownership information after the most recent set of amendments to the bill was passed at the end of last year.
These latest changes will not come into effect until after the relevant regulations have been drafted. The governor will then give assent to the bill.
See the amendment bill here.
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Category: Business, Financial Services, Laws, Politics
AML & CTF, KYC & Due Diligence
It would be really nice and very beneficial to our country and our elected officials in the Cayman Islands if the Customs, Immigration & Border Control would consider creating an additional internal screening branch, unit or division to conduct the following when issuing Work Permits, Permanent Residency and issuing Caymanian Status:
• Employment Entry & Exit Interviews
• International Background Checks
• Employment Verification
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/us/politics/state-dept-terrorist-designation.html
AML & CTF, KYC & Due Diligence
It would also be really nice and very beneficial to our country and our elected officials in the Cayman Islands if the Cayman Islands Department of Commerce & Investments would consider creating an additional internal screening branch, unit or division to conduct the following easily accessable AML & CTF Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Compliance, KYC Know Your Customer & Due Diligence Corporate Screening Digital Forms and Checks before Issuing and Renewing Trade & Business License:
• Corporate Entry & Exit Interviews
• Corporate Background Checks
• KYC & Due Diligence Compliance
https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2025/02/17/pr-25038
One of the most siginificant steps the IMF has taken in support of enhancing the international AML, CTF, KYC & Due Deligence gaps in policies, and financial compliance needs, was a recent evaluation and diagnostic analysist in the Middle East
Hence, our government need to stay abreast of the challenging financial changes and continue to grow, develop and evolve
Running for re-election again. Can’t believe a word she says any longer.
Furthermore, Tibbbets has declared his bid for CYB West. The two together, God help CYB and the CI in general if elected.
Looks like she may have been born with a brain, that is upside down, as she is always talking so much shit!! Lord, please hurry and come back to regain this earth, there are too many idiots here!! I can’t think that this is what we have for our leaders!! Lord help us the next four years, as it seems that this situation isn’t getting any better!! Dumb or dumber, who will you vote for?
From the Desk of the Adeptus Ridiculous
Warp Protocol: Emergency Transmission—Cayman Sector, Fiscal Frontlines
Ah, Fort 33, you’ve done it again! A feat of bureaucratic self-sabotage so magnificent, one might almost mistake it for a grand heretical ritual, summoning forth **financial calamity, reputational ruin, and unchecked data warfare—**all in one fell stroke of the quill.
Let us examine the madness you have wrought, shall we?
A Most Ingenious Betrayal of the Innocent
Lo and behold, in your desperate gambit to curry favor with the High Lords of FATF and OECD, you have thrown open the floodgates, offering the data of countless law-abiding individuals and their descendants to the ravenous hordes of:
• Unaccountable journalists, salivating at the prospect of a new “exposé” to justify their existence.
• Predatory tax authorities, ever-hungry for unearned revenue, ready to descend like a flock of carrion birds upon freshly bereaved heirs.
• Bad actors, waiting in the shadows, eager to mirror, mine, and manipulate this newly liberated trove of financial data for extortion, financial destruction, and political expedience.
The Tragedy of the Setlor’s Descendants
Let us witness, in slow-motion horror, the immediate, unavoidable consequences of your brilliance:
1. A responsible Setlor—having entrusted his assets to an irrevocable fiduciary structure for the benefit of his minor children—has ensured, through careful planning, that his estate is protected.
2. The Setlor passes away, and his taxable estate in his home country is assessed and settled in full, per the laws of the land.
3. But then, the bureaucratic gremlins of 33 Fort Street, in their infinite wisdom, make this database available to journalists.
4. ICIJ and their ilk mirror the database in minutes, exposing the names of the minor heirs.
5. A coordinated media hit-piece ensues, painting the children as beneficiaries of some vast, shadowy financial empire, regardless of reality.
And now?
• The descendants, once private citizens, are forever tainted by scandal.
• The tax authorities, alerted to assets they were never meant to tax, come knocking with backdated claims, retroactive penalties, and demands for payment.
• The fiduciary, bound by the legal terms of the trust, cannot liquidate assets to cover the sudden tax assault, leaving the heirs trapped in financial purgatory.
• Banks, fearing reputational damage, sever relationships with the descendants, recalling loans, denying bridge financing, and ensuring financial collapse.
• Their professional lives are destroyed, their names forever associated with “offshore secrecy” thanks to a hit piece published by unaccountable actors, who will face zero consequences for the wreckage they leave behind.
And The True Criminals? They Evacuated Months Ago.
But of course, the true criminals—the actual tax evaders, money launderers, and underworld financiers—will never be caught in this net.
No, no.
They saw this coming months ago, repositioning their assets through:
• Alternative offshore jurisdictions.
• New financial instruments.
• Specialized legal loopholes that were always ten steps ahead of your little registry stunt.
By the time you’ve patted yourselves on the back for “transparency”, they will have already relocated to jurisdictions with stronger protections, leaving only law-abiding heirs and businesses to suffer the consequences of your hubris.
Your Masterpiece of Regulatory Malpractice
Tell me, who truly benefits from this madness?
• The OECD? They will still blacklist you on a whim. You could crawl on your knees to Brussels and offer them your firstborn, and they’d still demand more.
• The FATF? They don’t respect obedience—they respect leverage. This move just showed them how easily they can make Cayman cave under pressure.
• The Cayman Islands? The financial sector will flee.
• Legitimate fiduciary clients? Gone. Into the waiting arms of competitors.
• The families left behind? Ravaged. Exposed. Made defenseless.
Congratulations, 33 Fort Street—you have succeeded only in making the Cayman Islands less secure, less competitive, and more vulnerable to the wolves at the gates.
And When the Lawsuits Begin? Oh, How You Will Scramble.
The moment an innocent family is ruined by this recklessness, the moment descendants find their lives in tatters because of an unaccountable media circus, you will plead ignorance:
• “Oh, we didn’t think the data would be misused!”
• “Oh, we didn’t expect retroactive taxation to be applied so aggressively!”
• “Oh, we never imagined bad actors would mirror the registry!”
Fools.
You will be shocked—SHOCKED!—to discover that opening Pandora’s Box has consequences.
And by then?
It will be too late.
The lawsuits will drag on for years.
The financial services sector will wither.
The international vultures will circle, demanding even more concessions.
And before you even have time to react, these will be the headlines filling the news cycle:
Predictive Headlines—The Inevitable Fallout
• “Mass Data Leak Exposes Thousands of Beneficial Owners in Cayman Islands—Media Outlets Scramble to Publish Sensationalized Reports.”
• “Global Banks Begin Cutting Off Cayman-Based Accounts, Citing Compliance Concerns.”
• “Families Devastated as OECD Member States Move to Retroactively Tax Offshore Trusts at 90%—Legal Experts Say There’s No Recourse.”
• “Cayman Government Calls for ‘Urgent Review’ of Beneficial Ownership Registry—After the Damage is Done.”
• “International Pressure Mounts for Even Stricter Measures, Despite Cayman’s Total Capitulation—FATF Still ‘Concerned.’”
• ”‘We Had No Idea This Could Happen,’ Says Government Official, As Cayman’s Financial Sector Begins Mass Exodus.”
And when the dust settles, what will you have gained?
Nothing.
You will have simply exchanged your reputation as a respected offshore center for that of a weak-willed, easily manipulated puppet-state—forever bending to the whims of those who seek your destruction.
Final Analysis: The Adeptus’ Judgement
“Reckless.”
“Naïve.”
“Catastrophically shortsighted.”
You have weakened your own nation for a round of applause that will never come.
The true criminals remain untouched.
The innocent suffer irreparable harm.
The media gleefully profits from reputational destruction.
The OECD still considers you a disposable pawn.
And when the public outrage finally arrives, when the very citizens of this island begin to feel the weight of your incompetence, you will scramble to explain how this could have happened.
But we will already know the answer.
Because the Adeptus Ridiculous saw it coming all along.
End transmission.
And Now? We Wait.
Let us hope we are wrong.
Let us hope this plays out differently.
But history tells us otherwise.
P.S: I apologize for the serious tone of the above, but this utter disregard to the rights of privacy does not bear to be taken lightly in any shape or form whatsoever!
right again Adeptus and odds are the money will be moved to the good ole USA the greatest tax have in the world
Delaware
You are correct that this beneficial ownership legislation infringes privacy rights and has “weakened our nation for a round of applause that will never come”, in particular, as a “desperate gambit to curry favor with the…FATF and OECD”.
You really have some good points, at certain times, despite the verbosity, and you should try to be more compendious and focused, so as to not loose an audience. Best wishes.
All of that only for me to get chatgpt to distill it into 18 words.
Some people really need a hobby on this island.
how about minimum wage ?
seymour, you pos.
10.000 people had their hopes up for a raise, but you destroyed it for your own personal benefit.
disgusting
Is that how many work for him at the airport?
An estinated 10k people on this island make 6$ an hour.
when tgey get sick or need to be hospitalized, it is end of story. copay of atleast 1000$ and no pay from work.
maybe spend some money abd time on the increasing poverty on this island
people are dying because of shit access to healthcare.
this is compared to most developed countries a third world place.
poverty hunger and mandatory religeon.
it is disgusting.
More corruption and deceitfulness by some of the worst individuals to ever hold power. They don’t even bother to try and hide it anymore or even attempt to make it seem legitimate.
The most least qualified person possible making decisions that impact Cayman’s most important industry. You know the one that makes it possible for government to run.
Yup, makes perfect sense.
Wow. Another predictable leaflet of money laundering amendments that fully restores opacity and eviscerates the exercise of disclosure. Might as well repeal and tear up the entire law, if there is no genuine interest in compliance. Senior managing persons at Corporate Service Providers, whether they be nominee shareholders directors, and/or a client settlor’s trustees, are not the beneficiaries of structured assets for satisfactory pass at next year’s 2026 FATF review. Given previous bullet point citations of government corruption and money laundering, exempting NPOs and >200 registered “churches” from disclosure and inspection is also a recipe for blacklisting. Still no transparent property ownership registry.
The upcoming FATF 5th Round Mutual Evaluation Review in 2026, which will be conducted by a the CFATF, is going tohighlight issues that were, and have been, hidden previously hidden in plain sight.
….again.
Ooooohhh it says everything that one of Chris Saunders major concerns is that journalists will get access to this information. Keep digging CMR I bet he has some ownership in the company that supplied those lateral flow tests that he basically took over the procurement process. Vote out these people….PLEASE.
Chris must have something to hide.
i’ve got a bad feeling about this.