From: Vincent Cate <vince@offshore.com.ai>
Date: Sun, 11 Aug 1996 14:20:52 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Rumors of death of Anguilla Data are greatly exagerated.
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.91.960810204259.1326A@offshore>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Taxbomber wrote:
>This is the work of some journalist hacks who did a major job of
>character assassination by claiming that we (and our provider)
>were involved in selling fake passports.

This is a fraud by taxbomber.  He is totally involved with selling fake
passports.  He calls them "camouflage passports" and they have names like
"British Honduras" of countries that no longer exist, or never did.  He
does not think they are "fake", but the rest of the world does.  He also
suggested opening up bank accounts with these fake passports (encouraging
fraud).

My lawyer called me up and told me that fake passports are illegal in
Anguilla and that I should pull this guy immediately.  I did. It is our
policy to not permit anything on our servers that is illegal in Anguilla. 
My lawyer is where I get the definition of "illegal in Anguilla". 

Tim:
>(I assume this is Vince Cates' site, though I haven't doublechecked...

Yes, taxbomber was using Offshore Information Services.

Tim:
>Longterm, I've never believed there is much safety in locating in *any*
>physical country. (By this I mean advertising and making it clear that one
>is in Country X, said to be "friendly" to tax avoiders, data havens, money
>laundering, etc. 

As a practical matter, taxbomber would have been better off to not state
what country his web site was currently in, let alone who the provider
was.  This reporter seems not to even use email, and I doubt he would know
how to locate a sites provider. 

Tim:
>I'd guess that Vince has had a fun time in the Carribbean, but that he'll
>be closing up shop sometime soon. Once some services are yanked, confidence
>is lost.

I am not closing up at all.  Anything that is legal in Anguilla can be
done from my servers.  If not, then not.  Note that there are no taxes
here, and there are still many things a guy can do here that are not
permitted in other places.  However, fake passports turns out not to be
one of them. 

Sameer:
> Note that the taxbomber site is moving to a provider in the US.

Actually, at the moment http://www.taxbomber.com/ is off in Europe
someplace.  The US provider has been slow to come up with an IP address. 
:-)

   --  Vince