Is Fiu In Seychelles Private ?

By Author: Ariel Brady
Total Articles: 245
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Something is wrong in the tropical paradise of the Seychelles, business owners and their clients are struggling to understand how and why such as major business problem could have occurred. The introduction of the privately owned Financial Intelligence Unit was supposed to signal a change in the way customers were protected from unscrupulous business owners, more and more it is legitimate business owners who are now turning to the courts for help in their dealings with the FIU.

Placing a private company in charge of regulating business owners was always going to be a difficult situation, would a profit driven company like the FIU be fair and impartial in its dealings with business owners? Hiding the company behind the smokescreen of being a legitimate government agency only adds to the deep misgivings many business owners who have crossed paths with the agency have about its motivation. So concerned have some Seychelles business owners become about the role and tactics of the FIU that a court case has been brought in the US to determine the private company's legitimacy.

Understanding the problems surrounding the ...
... FIU is often difficult for most people outside the Seychelles, largely because the business practices of the group seem to smack of blackmail and extortion. In basic terms, the FIU investigates complaints made against a business by a customer or another business owner. Although this seems like a good idea, the FIU has taken things a step further by seizing of the assets of each company a complaint is made against. Without a serious investigation taking place the FIU then offers to free the assets for a charge of 50 percent of the assets owned by the business. If a company refuses to pay the charge their assets are frozen indefinitely, which hardly seems fair on the strength of a simple business complaint.

Dan Troy is an expert in offshore company formation and very interested in all legal aspects regarding the jurisdictions and the behavior of the local governing bodies.