Anonymous Banking

Introduction – Our law firm Panama Legal, S.A. receives a fair amount of inquiries from people around the world asking about obtaining an anonymous bank account in an offshore jurisdiction. Here we will try to clear up what can be done and what cannot be done regarding anonymous banking.

No ID Banking – Most people consider anonymous banking to be where the bank has no ID on the account holder. Direct bank accounts like this have been gone for many years. They were the old numbered bank accounts and the Austrian Sparbuch accounts which were anonymous passbook accounts where the withdrawals had to take place physically in Austria with limits on amounts per day. The Sparbuch Accounts have been gone since 2002.

Numbered bank accounts where the bank had no idea who the account holder was are long gone but they did exist in numerous countries. In any event these accounts are all gone today. What happened is an organization called FATF, the Financial Action Task Force, was formed. It is a non-governmental agency that sort of self-polices the banks. The banks actually agree to this. They set standards for transparency etc. If a bank does not agree to comply with the rules it can find itself blacklisted which means the banks in that country are unable to send or receive international wire transfers which can be devastating to the nation since it can bring international commerce to a screeching halt.

FATF dictates standards for “know your customer”, which all the banks must comply with. In addition there are UN Treaties that the UN member countries have signed that deal with know your customer guidelines. These treaties do NOT deal with bank secrecy, transparency, information sharing or anything like that just the ID requirements banks must require of their clients. So banks must have suitable ID and references on their clients or they run the risk of getting on a blacklist, which is serious. Rest assured any real bank is going to require ID and references from anyone opening an account with the bank. Many banks require their clients to visit in person and some do not. Providing any bank reference letters is not a privacy risk. The banks will treat these as a suspicious transaction and report it to their respective governments as such. For this reason many banks will not provide bank reference letters.

Offshore Bank Secrecy – This is not exactly anonymous banking. This is currently the way the offshore banks operate to protect the privacy of the clients. The banks require ID and references but retain this information and cover it with bank secrecy. This generally works fine unless one is involved in a major criminal case. The degree of protection offered varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Today with all the new Tax Information Exchange Agreements going into effect your information will be shared with any country who suspects an involvement in tax evasion. Eighty-two nation members of the OECD have such treaties in place. Guatemala and Panama do not have tax treaties with other countries. The degree of protection offered varies by jurisdiction.

Anonymous Corporations and Foundations – The use of an anonymous corporation often referred to as a bearer share corporation (or an S.A.) tends to provide more privacy but again is not anonymous banking. When wires come in and go out of the offshore bank account the wires are in the name of the corporation only. The owner or signatory on the account never has his name appear on any wires anywhere incoming or outgoing. This means no one can do a lookup to see who owns the corporation receiving or sending the wires since these corporations are anonymous and no owner’s names appear in any database or public registry. In fact the country itself does not know who owns the corporation. It is still not anonymous banking yet does offer a substantial degree of privacy and protection.

Trust Agreement Banking – This is the best way to accomplish anonymous banking. What is done is the law firm enters into an international trust agreement with the client in writing agreeing to handle their assets, banking etc. for them. The law firm does need to have a copy of some ID from the client; generally a driver’s license and passport copy notarized which can be supplied by email attachment of a scan. No bank reference letter is required.

The law firm will then form an anonymous corporation and open a bank account for said company in Guatemala, Mexico, Costa Rica or Ecuador using a quality bank. Such arrangements are technically possible in Panama but the banks tend to hinder the anonymity and operational possibilities thus rendering it not workable in Panama. So the bank does not know who you are, not even your name and has no ID on you of course. The bank has the law firm listed on the account as the signatory. The law firm knows who you are but that is covered by attorney client privilege that is practically sacred in Guatemala and thus close to impossible to pierce under just about any circumstances including the new Tax Treaties.

To take things to another level the law firm can have the bank account records and trust agreements placed under judicial seal. This means a Guatemala court has sealed the records thus placing another protective shield around your financial matters. The judge who signed it or a higher court could only remove this judicial seal; both scenarios are a most unlikely occurrence. This can be done in Guatemala right now.

You have a power of attorney over the corporation, you can have the online banking pass codes you can have an ATM card or secured Visa card from the account. The trust agreement can have a distress clause in it authorizing the law firm to remove control over your funds in the event of personal or business distress such as divorce, bankruptcy, lawsuits, arrests, blackmail, extortion, kidnapping, etc. This way you no longer have any control over the funds and have plausible deniability if a magistrate in your own country found out about the funds and trust agreement and ordered you to return the funds so the court could place a pre-trial hold on the funds or even outright confiscate the funds. You provide explicit specific directions as to how the funds should be treated or invested during this period of distress and what the conditions are for the beginning and ending of the distress period. In some ways this is better than the old numbered bank accounts when you think about it.

You can fund your new corporation bank account by wiring the funds to the attorney client trust account in Guatemala to avoid any trails from your bank accounts to the corporation. Any transactions involving the attorney client trust account are covered by attorney client privilege and are not normally discoverable in court cases. This is as anonymous as anonymous can be today.

Fees – Generally the fees are $6000 to set up an anonymous corporation, construct a trust agreement complete with distress clause and set up the bank account with online banking having the law firm listed as the signatory and beneficiary owner. We generally use an anonymous corporation formed in the country the bank being used is located in. We use banks in Costa Rica, Mexico, Guatemala and Ecuador. There is also an additional fee of 4% of all funds received into the account on an ongoing basis to cover the costs expenses and liability of the law firm for vouching for the origins of the funds.

Time Frame to Set Up – Generally the entire structure can be operating completely within 2-3 working days of receipt of documents, instructions and funds. We can provide you with wiring instructions to start receiving funds right after we receive scans of the notarized copies of passport and driver license, have the International Trust Agreement signed and have received the fees.

Personal Visit – Coming to Guatemala is not necessary but if you wish to come welcome. We can get you a corporate rate in a suitable 5 star hotel in Guatemala City. The hotel will arrange a shuttle bus to pick you up at the airport. When checked in call us and we will send a driver to pick you up at the hotel and take you to our offices. Please give us at least 48 hours in the country. Many clients visit us personally and many do not – the choice is yours. Guatemala City is located at an altitude of 4900 feet and as a result the temperature is 55 degrees to 75 degrees year round. It is known as the land of perpetual spring. The food is great and the city is surrounded by lush green vegetation. Many major airlines service Guatemala City, which has just recently completed a new and modern airport.

Secure, Private Email: staff@panamalegal.org To protect your privacy, you can communicate with us on our private email server. PGP encryption is available for this address. Our PGP key is available here.   Free, easy voice communication: Skype is a free and easy to use piece of communication software that lets you talk to us by voice or type in a chat with us. The voice quality is excellent and it is free to use. Skype has encryption so the ISP has no idea what was said or typed. This is casual security only. When using Skype be sure to: 1. Go to your system preferences and make sure the correct microphone and speakers are enabled. 2. Go to Skype preferences and make sure the correct microphone and speakers are enabled and the volume is up. Please make the free Skype test call to see if it is working correctly. Our Skype user name is: PanamaLaw.org   http://zfoneproject.com You can use Yahoo Messenger Voice chat with zFone for VOIP communication with encryption. Zfone is open source code software which means no back doors. Together you will have unbeatable military grade encryption. This is the best secure encrypted communications method out there. YMessenger: panamalaworg For complete details, download links and step-by-step instructions, See this page.

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