<nettime> In response to Caymans authorities and concerned public of Loophole4All.com - Press Release

[Paolo Cirio <press.paolo.cirio@gmail.com>]

Press Release. March, 10th 2013, NYC.

* A response to the statements of the Cayman Islands senior official
registrar Donnell Dixon, interviewed by the Caymanian Compass
newspaper about Loophole4All.com, a hack and leak of the Caymans
Company Register website. The full interview on Caymans newspaper:
http://www.compasscayman.com/caycompass/2013/02/20/Artist-sells-fake-Cayman-company-certificates
The video breaking news on Caymans national TV:
http://www.cayman27.com.ky/2013/02/18/hacker-claims-cayman-breach

On the 15th February 2013, Paolo Cirio Ltd. published
Loophole4All.com, an art project with 200,000 Caymans companies ready
to be hijacked. It generated international attention from the press,
concerned locals, and a new peculiar community of pirates of offshore
businesses.

* Paolo Cirio, spokesman for Paolo Cirio ltd., responds to the Caymans press

Mr. Dixon’s statements are false and he is scamming people. Mr. Dixon,
his colleagues, and the Caymans government sell incorporation of fake
shell companies, whose main purpose is to defraud the rest of world,
causing onshore budget deficits and ever-growing impoverishment. Mr.
Dixon’s work must be considered illegal, shameful, and "the biggest
tax scam in the world,” as the U.S. President Barack Obama described
Caymans activity in 2008.

Mr. Dixon lies when he states that the information of companies
registered in the Caymans is public. Simple access to the list of
Caymans companies is granted only by request of a password, under
legal disclaimers and with limited search functionality. Then, for no
more detail than the names, the public must pay $35 for each
additional entity, to reveal only a mailbox address and the date of
incorporation. It would cost the public more than $7 million to get
even a blurry picture of all the bogus companies falsely based in the
Caymans islands. This “public” data is yet another fraud Mr. Dixon
sells.

The Caymanian Compass reports that there are only 92,000 companies
registered in the Cayman Islands. However, the Loophole4all project
discovered 215,880 companies. Many of them had suspicious notes
attached to their names, showing how the Cayman Registry is nothing
near an honest, public account, but has been corrupted by
multinational firms and local lawyers.

Liberating information means moving data from a locked platform and
distributing it in a form that unveils and builds new knowledge. That
is why here for the first time ever, you can download the entire list
of Caymans companies:
http://Loophole4All.com/press/cayman_companies_db.csv
Now with it you can conduct your own investigations, make new art, or
whatever you want to do without the need to ask permission from Mr.
Dixon. However data is not enough. Get informed about the offshore
centers through the video documentary produced for this project:
http://Loophole4All.com/doc.php


* In response to the Bermuda concerned about being the next target
http://www.royalgazette.com/article/20130221/BUSINESS02/702219958
Loophole4all won't reveal the country that it will attack next. Before
that, though, everyone is invited to shop on Loophole4All.com to
crowd-fund the next attack by the pirates of the treasure islands in
the dark international waters of legal loopholes.

* In response to the local businesses of the Cayman Islands that complained
You can request to be removed from Loophole4All.com if you provide
proof that you’re an honest and real local business. However, first
you should ask for more transparency from the Caymans Registry (as
someone of you already did) to be sure that no one else could hijack
your business. As long as it's hard to verify your real information,
it will be in danger.

* In response to the many pirates that brought and stole offshore companies
We cannot confirm that you can withdraw money at offshore bank
branches using a certificate of incorporation as identification.
However, it may work as valid documentation, since the owners of the
companies are anonymous. A clarification for those who asked about the
legality of the project: to steal the identity of a Caymans company is
illegal only in the Cayman Islands, and Caymans court orders have very
little credibility abroad. Avoiding taxes by registering a company in
the Cayman Islands is legal everywhere. However, remember that
hijacking offshore business is here mainly promoted as a form of
protest and not to scam other people - that would invite the attention
of the Interpol. Having a certificate and not using it is totally
legal.
As an alternative to hijacking a company, you can send your
certificates by mail to your country’s Minister of Treasury as another
form of political pressure.
If you buy a hand-signed certificate or a mailbox, you will have the
exclusive ownership of the company with a unique original printed
certificate to collect. The other two basic purchase options are for
unlimited copies.

* In response to tackling offshore centers, I would propose three
simple solutions
- Banning trade with corporations registered in a place without
employees, manufacturing, or sales.
- Banning the promotion and advertising of offshore instruments.
- Establishing an International Tribunal of Economic Crimes.


* Finally, with the following quotes, I'd like to dedicate this
project to people who gave their life for what today I believe is the
front in a war for possible social change through distributing the
power of knowledge.

"I want people to see the truth… regardless of who they are… because
without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public"
Bradley Manning, chat, 2010, unknown date and location.

"Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to
keep it for themselves…  We need to take information, wherever it is
stored, make our copies and share them with the world."
Aaron Swartz, Guerilla Open Access Manifesto, 2008, Italy


* Some early international press coverage about the Loophole for All
Interview: http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/26/4031516/wanna-buy-a-loophole-paolo-cirio-makes-corporate-identity-theft-into
US: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/artinfo/artisthacker-invites-you-to-exploit-corporate-cayman-tax-breaks_b_2718672.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/3005965/200000-caymans-corporations-hacked-art-project
Norway: http://e24.no/utenriks/hacker-selger-deg-tilgang-til-skatteparadis/20338465
Italy: http://espresso.repubblica.it/dettaglio/cayman-sul-web-levasione-20/2201697
Spain: http://blogs.20minutos.es/codigo-abierto/2013/02/28/loophole4all-paraisos-fiscales-al-alcance-del-99/
Greece: http://goo.gl/JvBfU
Germany: http://de.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/869389/hacker-kunstler-paolo-cirio-ladt-dazu-ein-die-steuervorteile
Brazil: http://www.select.art.br/article/da%20hora/paraisos-fiscais-ao-alcance-de-todos?page=unic

Thanks for the attention.


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