Panama Attorneys Advise Offshore Hedge Fund

Panama Attorneys Advise European investors forming Private Investment Fund
 

Attorneys Lombardi Aguilar Group advised a group of European investors to file before the Panama securities regulators a notice of compliance with private investment fund provisions.

Panama City, Panama ---- Attorneys Lombardi Aguilar Group (http://www.laglex.com/) advised a group of European investors to file before the National Securities Commission (http://www.conaval.gob.pa/ - CONAVAL) of Panama a notice of compliance with private investment fund provisions. CONAVAL is the local securities regulator.

A private investmend fund is a type of financial investment company which generally exempt from most securities regulations and laws and are included under the label of "hedge funds". As a form of transparency for investors, Panama's Law Decree 1 of 1998 allows private investment funds to file their prospectus, background information about their managers and other corporate documents before the local CONAVAL regulator, as long as the company charter provides that: (1) the number of owners of quotas or investors is limited to a maximum of fifty (50) and any offers may be made only through private communications; (2) securities can only be offered to qualified purchases and with minimum investment amounts of USD100,000. The filing does not amount to a registration with the Commission and these funds are not subject to the supervision or scrutiny by the Commission.

The fund is an open-ended private investment fund based in and managed from the Republic of Panama. The main purpose of the Fund is to invest in privately-issued shares of international asset management companies and other similar companies (distributors and/or managers of funds, securities brokers, etc.) outside of Panama. According to corporate documents, the company has a capital is of 30 million euros. Its board of directors has Swiss members and two partners of Lombardi Aguilar Group serve as external directors.  A limited liability partnership called LAG Asset Management, S. de R.L., served as special purpose entity for the subscriber purpose in the incorporation process.
 

Following the local Panama securities laws, the Fund is professionally-managed by another company incorporated in the Republic of Panama which has in place proper risk management, monitoring and internal control procedures. Such risk management process enables the management company to monitor and measure, at any time, the exposure of the investment positions and their contribution to the overall risk profile of the fund portfolio. The Panamanian regulators will require the Management Company to certify in each annual report of the Fund that the procedures and controls for monitoring the management and risk of the Fund are still in place as defined in the Prospectus filed with the Commission.

Current regulations allow the fund to:

a. maintain liquidity in different currencies;
b. issue fully-covered currency options;

c. place deposits with a bank licensed in a foreign jurisdiction;

d. invest in money market instruments or debt securities such as government or international bonds, U.S. Treasury bills, bank certificates of deposit, banker acceptances, floating rate notes, commercial papers, asset-backed securities and repurchase agreements;
e. enter into deliverable or non-deliverable currency forward contracts;
f. invest in privately-issued shares of international asset management companies and other similar companies (distributors and/or managers of funds, securities brokers, etc.).

Dr. Jorge Lombardi, a partner at Lombardi Aguilar Group commented that "we were recommended by colleagues in Switzerland to create and manage this fund, because of previous succesful experience". The legal expertise of the firm and its ability to provide counsel in several languages of the investors was crucial to its selection for this assignment. "My full knowledge of the Italian language was very useful as well as a tool to have a better and fluent communication with the clients", said Lombardi. "The beneficiaries of the fund are in Europe and our correspondents are in Lugano, Switzerland, and after a series of conversations they were convinced that Panama was the place to create it, and that our firm provided the security, confidentiality and confidence they needed". Lombardi is a graduate of Universidad Santa Maria la Antigua (LLB) and University of Paris (3eme cycle, DED).

About Lombardi Aguilar Group
Lombardi Aguilar Group is comprised of Lombardi Aguilar & Garcia and other professionals. The Group was created as an alternative for clients worldwide who seek fast, innovative and effective solutions to their legal problems. The firm currently provides services to individual and corporate clients in Panama as well in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Its partners maintain a commitment with professional ethics and social responsibility by participating in the board of directors of groups such as the Panama Bar Association, the Alliance Francaise, the German and the American Chambers of Commerce (AMCHAM) of Panama, and the Association of Chinese-Panamanian Professionals (APROCHIPA).

The firm centers its law practice in private client services and asset protection (Private Interest Foundations, Trusts), business structures (Offshore Corporations), tax planning, real estate and e-commerce. It also advices in areas of Law such as Corporate, Commercial, Intellectual Property, Maritime, Tax, and Immigration Law as well as related litigation that may arise.

For more information, contact +507 340-6444, e-mail info (at) laglex.com, or see: Lombardi Aguilar Group http://www.laglex.com/

Keywords: Panama, offshore, hedge funds, private investment companies
http://www.prlog.org/10815190

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July 15-21 Panama Immigration Moratorium Fair

The Panama Immigration Service is having on July 15 to 18 a fair at Atlapa. Illegal aliens being in Panama more than 2 years and not having applied for any visa category may apply for a 2-year special permit. The catch:
- Applicants must pay all fines for overstaying their original tourist visa at $50 a month
- Benefits of the amnesty for "Restricted nationalities" (Chinese, Cubans and others deemed "security risks" by the local government) are subject to approval by the "public force".

The requirements are listed in:
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/47048765/Moratoria-de-Migracion-en-Panama-2010

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http://mensual.prensa.com/mensual/contenido/2010/07/07/hoy/panorama/2255412.asp
Realizarán jornada para legalizar a extranjeros
Rafael Luna Noguera
rluna @prensa.com

El Servicio Nacional de Migración efectuará entre el jueves 15 y el domingo 18 de julio un proceso extraordinario de legalización, con miras a regularizar la situación migratoria de unos 25 mil extranjeros.

La jornada se realizará entre las 6:00 a.m. y las 12:00 de medianoche en el Centro de Convenciones Atlapa, y podrán aplicar los extranjeros que tengan dos años o más de vivir en el país y no hayan empezado los trámites de legalización.

Migración informó que los extranjeros deberán presentar el pasaporte con los sellos que den constancia de su ingreso, y en caso de no tener pasaporte acudir con un testigo que, a su vez, deberá presentar el carné de residente o su cédula.

Tras cumplir con los trámites, y luego de que Migración apruebe cada caso por separado, se les expedirá a los extranjeros un permiso de permanencia provisional, válido por dos años.

Los casos de los ciudadanos chinos, indios, árabes, cubanos, haitianos y peruanos deberán ser aprobados por la fuerza pública.

Los extranjeros que estén en situación ilegal y no la regularicen en estas jornadas, tendrán un plazo máximo de cuatro meses para hacerlo o, de lo contrario, si son detenidos, serán deportados.

En Atlapa eran extensas las colas de extranjeros. LA PRENSA/Jihan Rodríguez

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The immigration moratorium has been extended to July 21.

Pensionado faces 3 years in prison for failure to report offshore account

A 75-year old US citizen faces a 5-year prison sentence for failure to report an offshore account at UBS Switzerland held under the name of a Panamanian corporation with nominee directors. The alleged tax loss to the U.S. was about $60,000.

If only he had hired a lawyer to file the TD F 90-22.1 FBAR form....

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Ex-UBS Client Zaltsberg Admits Hiding $2.6 Million
July 01, 2010, 12:44 PM EDT
By David Voreacos

July 1 (Bloomberg) -- A former UBS AG client who played soccer on the Soviet national team pleaded guilty to failing to tell U.S. tax authorities about $2.6 million held in an offshore account.

Leonid Zaltsberg, 75, admitted that he didn't declare to the Internal Revenue Service a nominee Panamanian account set up with the help of a UBS banker and a Swiss lawyer he didn't identify in federal court in Newark, New Jersey.

"Did you seek advice from UBS employees on how to keep your foreign bank account hidden from the IRS?" U.S. District Judge Stanley Chesler asked Zaltsberg, who answered in the affirmative.
...

Soviet Athlete

Zaltsberg was a member of the Soviet Union's national soccer team in the 1960s and played in the World Cup, according to his daughter, Larisa Beyder, who attended the hearing. He came to the U.S. from Ukraine in 1989 and settled in Milltown, New Jersey, said his attorney, James DiPietro. Zaltsberg, who became a U.S. citizen, was a metals trader from 1990 to 2004, DiPietro said.

Zaltsberg, who is now an adviser to the Ukrainian national soccer team, suffers from bladder and prostate cancer, as well as depression, DiPietro said. He's also had open-heart surgery and four stents inserted, his daughter said.

Zaltsberg, speaking through an interpreter, admitted that he set up a UBS account in 1993, and that he set up the Panamanian corporation, Belton Capital Corp., in 2000. Zaltsberg said he created Belton to hide his assets from the IRS.

In pleading guilty to filing a false tax return in 2003, Zaltsberg also admitted that he failed to file Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, or FBARs, from 2000 to 2007. He will pay $1.3 million, or a 50 percent FBAR on the highest amount of his account, DiPietro said. The tax loss to the U.S., the lawyer said, was about $60,000.

The case is United States of America v. Leonid Zaltsberg, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey (Newark). http://www.justice.gov/usao/nj/press/press/files/pdffiles/Zaltsberg,%20Leonid%20Information.pdf

--Editors: John Pickering

Full text in http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-01/ex-ubs-client-zaltsberg-admits-hiding-2-6-million.html

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