"Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to deceive!” -- Madoff Spotlight Turns to Role of Offshore Funds

Scottish author Sir Walter Scott wrote:

"Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!”

From The New York Times:

Federal prosecutors are beginning to consider . . . whether Mr. Madoff and some of his investors used funds based in offshore tax havens to evade American taxes, according to a person briefed on the investigation.

Also under scrutiny is whether certain charities invested with Mr. Madoff had improperly allowed their donors to shift money offshore, and whether foreign banks had withheld American taxes on Madoff accounts, as required by the Internal Revenue Service . . . .

While the inquiries into the role of offshore funds in the scheme are at an early stage, it is hardly surprising that such funds are coming under scrutiny.

Offshore entities played key roles at Bayou Management, a Connecticut hedge fund that collapsed in scandal in 2005, as well as at Enron, which used nearly 900 offshore entities, mostly in the Cayman Islands, to conceal bogus trades and accounting fraud.