By Alec Hogg
In early 2015, regulators in tax havens around the world dismantled Belvedere, the Mauritius-headquartered web of over 200 investor funds controlled by South Africans David Cosgrove and Cobus Kellemann. At the time we reported extensively on developments which were exposed by OffshoreAlert, a specialist in covering murky goings on in tax havens.
On Friday, the Guernsey Financial Services Commission issued a bland statement to say its enforcement proceedings against Belvedere had now ended and no further action will be taken. I asked whether revoked licences would be reinstated or, more importantly, if the GFSC will rescind its investigator’s damning 100 page affidavit. The response: No Comment.
Yesterday, Belvedere issued a statement claiming the no-further-action decision exonerates Cosgrove and Kellermann, proving their innocence. An agitated David Marchant, OffshoreAlert’s editor, says it’s a stretch of the imagination to infer from the “risk averse” GFSC letter that the duo have been cleared: “It calls for a suspension of disbelief.”
DeVere, which the duo accuses of having engineered the whole thing, says Belvedere’s statement is an attempt to “divert attention away from facts published by and action taken by regulators and court-appointed administrators in a number of jurisdictions.” Is this all spin or a turning of Belvedere’s tide? We’ll know. Eventually. There is nothing more powerful than the truth.
