Top 10 Offshore Headlines from All Regions A recent judgment of the Royal Court of Jersey demonstrates its approach to an application to set aside a trust and certain gifts made under it on the grounds of mistake. Mourant du Feu & Jeune has recently made a successful application on behalf of its client, Mr Gary Kaplan, to secure the discharge of a saisie judiciaire obtained at the United States' behest freezing all his realisable property situate in Jersey. In a culture where gossip is news, where questions are met with indignation instead of answers, and where, by law, the Ministers' definition of "public good" cannot be questioned, facts and fiction are readily and frequently intermingled in the Government's announcements and news releases. A Jersey law trust. A Jersey corporate trustee. Divorcing beneficiaries, both of whom are resident in a foreign jurisdiction. What should you do? What shouldn’t you do? The Cayman Islands seems to be riding through its own version of the ‘perfect storm’. It has faced the challenges of the OECD and successfully made it to the White List as a transparent jurisdiction, in signing over 12 tax treaties with other jurisdictions. A report on the partial suspension of the constitution ofthe Turks and Caicos Islands, a British overseas territory, and theprovisions in their place for the interim governance of the Islandsby the Governor. On October 27, 2009, Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana) and Representative Charles Rangel (D-New York), chairmen of the Congressional tax writing committees, introduced the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of 2009 (the “Bill”) in the U.S. Congress. The International Monetary Fund – the most authoritative voice on world financial affairs – has given the Isle of Man ‘a clean bill of health’ with commendations for both the Financial Supervision Commission and the Insurance and Pensions Authority for the way in which they oversee the Island’s finance sector. Earlier this week, the “Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of 2009” (the “bill”) was introduced in the Senate and the House. The IRS is aggressively targeting foreign companies and the U.S. companies that hire them to perform offshore services for the oil and gas industry on the Outer Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico. | 
