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Pacific News Minute: Panama Papers: A Vanuatu Housekeeper is Tied to N. Korean Arms Deal

Vanuatu Daily Digest
Vanuatu Daily Digest

The so-called Panama papers disclosed details of thousands of shell corporations set up in tax havens around the world, including many Pacific Island nations.  Those nations and the law firm involved, Mossack Fonseca, argue that these operations are perfectly legal and are not designed to cloak criminal activity...but, as we hear from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute...sometimes they do.

Back in 2009, Security forces in Bangkok seized a cargo plane loaded with 35 tons of rocket propelled grenades and other weapons, en route from North Korea to reportedly, Iran.... an arms deal banned by the UN Security Council.

The plane was owned by a company in the United Arab Emirates, operated by a company in the country of Georgia, leased by a firm called SP Trading, an entity wholly owned by another corporation, VicAm Ltd, of Aukland.

A story published this week by McClatchy, identifies the director of VicAm, as Nesita Manceau, a 53 year old Filipina who worked as the housekeeper for an eccentric British-ex pat named Geoffrey Taylor at his home in Vanuatu.  According to the story, she and other so-called Zombie directors perform just one function: they cloak the identity of the real owner.  Tim Johnson's piece for McClatchy cites an inquiry from the British Virgin Islands in 2011, asking Mossack Fonseca about a company called Fincom Trade, Ltd.  They got the name and address of its director...Nesita Manceau of Port Vila, Vanuatu.

She apparently received little for her services...her husband told MClatchy she'd moved back to the Philippines and was too poor to own a phone.  Oh, and that North Korean arms shipment? No one was ever held accountable.

Over 36 years with National Public Radio, Neal Conan worked as a correspondent based in New York, Washington, and London; covered wars in the Middle East and Northern Ireland; Olympic Games in Lake Placid and Sarajevo; and a presidential impeachment. He served, at various times, as editor, producer, and executive producer of All Things Considered and may be best known as the long-time host of Talk of the Nation. Now a macadamia nut farmer on Hawaiʻi Island, his "Pacific News Minute" can be heard on HPR Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
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