Questions raised over Millennium Bank

The International Financial Services Authority (IFSA) will soon issue a statement about the offshore bank, Millennium Bank.

On the heels of the allegations of fraud made against the Stanford Financial Group, online media organizations Reuters and Businessweek.com ran stories questioning the operations of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines based Millennium Bank.{{more}}

On the Millennium Bank website it is stated that the bank is “wholly-owned by United Trust of Switzerland S.A. a Swiss-registered trust company founded in 1931.”

However, according to an article by Adrienne Cater in a Business Week blog on February 17, regulators in Switzerland are said to have never heard of United Trust. A spokesperson for the Swiss banking authority is quoted as saying: “United Trust of Switzerland is not a registered/licensed bank in Switzerland and has no other license of the Swiss Financial Supervisory Authority.”

“We are confident that our readers will understand the strict obligation that United Trust of Switzerland must exercise on a daily basis to maintain absolute privacy. You can be reassured that we understand your right to access the facts and data you need to make an informed decision. However, until our premier private clients have complete trust in the security of public websites, United Trust of Switzerland’s policy not to maintain a public website will remain in place,” is what the Millennium Bank website states. (http://www.mlnbank.com/EN/about/uts.htm)

In light of this information, Reuters claim that they attempted to contact officials from Millennium Bank. However, the article dated Tuesday, February 17, says: “Millennium did not return calls requesting comment.” (http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE51H08J20090218)

Newsweek also could not get comments from Millennium Bank.

SEARCHLIGHT also made numerous attempts this week to contact Sheryl Hinds, of Millennium Bank, but to no avail.

When Searchlight first contacted the office on Monday, we were told that Hinds was in meetings and could not speak. On the other occasions, we were told by a woman claiming to be her secretary that she was ill.

When we contacted the IFSA, we were told that the Executive Director Sharda Bollers was tied up in meetings all week with officials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) but that a statement will be issued on the issue soon.