Chapter 336 MacArthur's Resentment
Everyone present was interested in the policies of the Cayman Islands. Hardy smiled and said to Andy, "Andy, you come and introduce it to everyone."
These days, Hardy and Andy have been studying the Cayman Islands. The idea of establishing the Cayman Islands as a tax-free area and a tax haven was proposed by Hardy, who told Andy about his understanding of future tax havens.
Andy was horrified by the concept of tax havens.
Taxation is the most important part of a government's operation. If the government does not collect taxes, it cannot operate. But Cayman is different. Cayman is a small place and requires very little funds. Moreover, Cayman belongs entirely to Hadi himself. As the boss of the Hardy Group, Hadi does not care about the taxes collected.
If the Cayman Islands were made into a tax haven, the benefits would indeed be enormous.
Let’s talk about the Hardy Group first. It has many industries overseas, including Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Italy... and Japan in the future.
The asset size is approximately US$200 million.
If these companies make money in the future and transfer the profits back to the United States, the United States will charge them a huge sum of money.
In the past, most funds were transferred to Switzerland, but Switzerland also requires paying some taxes, and the fund management fees are not low.
If the Cayman Islands becomes a funds transit center in the future, these taxes will not have to be paid, which will greatly reduce tax expenditures. That will be a huge amount of money, and the larger the scale of the industry, the more money will be saved.
In addition, it can also become a concentration of other trade funds. If others settle in Cayman and transfer money to Wells Fargo, the amount of funds of Wells Fargo will expand rapidly, and it can develop into a global super bank in a short period of time.
As long as there is money in the bank, it is convenient to do anything you want.
These days, Andy, along with his lawyers and financial team, has been continuously improving the financial management policies of the Cayman Islands, and now some initial results have been achieved.
“The Cayman Islands will adopt a tax exemption policy in the future and will not impose any direct tax on any individual or company.”
"The threshold for setting up a company in the Cayman Islands is very low. People from any country can register a company in the Cayman Islands without any nationality restrictions, as long as they are over 18 years old."
“Registered capital is US$50,000, but capital verification is not required.”
"To open a company, you only need one shareholder and one director, and the shareholder and director can be the same person. Apart from the need to apply for a license for banking, insurance, military, etc., there are no other restrictions on the company's use."
“In addition, foreign exchange can flow freely in and out of the Cayman Islands. The government does not impose any restrictions on funds, and even does not need to register the owner. All you need is a fund code and withdrawal password, which is highly confidential.”
After Andy said this, the first thing that everyone in the room thought of was money laundering.
This is complete money laundering without any restrictions, which can be described as blatant and unscrupulous.
For many people, this one is simply too important.
"The Cayman Islands is a self-governing territory of the Commonwealth of Nations, so it is protected by the United Kingdom, which ensures the safety of the Cayman Islands. However, the Cayman Islands is also a self-governing territory and can implement its own administrative laws, regulations and taxation policies."
"Cayman Island companies will be charged account opening fees, annual report fees and annual audit fees. These are fixed fees used to maintain the company's operations. There are no other fees."
People know that
This amount of money is nothing for a company and can be completely ignored. It is estimated to be only a few hundred or a thousand dollars each year. However, if there are many companies, a lot of money can be received every year, which is enough to maintain the expenses of the Cayman Islands.
Andy continued:
“Opening a company in the Cayman Islands makes it easier for companies to conduct cross-border operations and circumvent trade barriers and foreign exchange controls. The registration procedure is convenient and management is easy. It is very suitable for overseas investment operations, such as our investment in Japan this time,” said Andy.
“If this is true, it would be fantastic. We have a lot of investments overseas and we can re-register the company in the Cayman Islands and put these overseas companies under the name of the Cayman Islands company. This way we can pay less tax and it will be more convenient for capital flow,” said a representative of a consortium.
The other responsible persons also nodded.
They are all bigwigs in the financial field, so they can naturally see the benefits of tax avoidance in the Cayman Islands at a glance.
Some people think more.
The vice president of Morgan Stanley asked, "How many banks are there in the Cayman Islands now?"
"Only Wells Fargo," said Andy.
Cayman belongs to Hardy, and Wells Fargo is Hardy's private industry, which is 100% controlled by the shares. Naturally, Wells Fargo will serve as the clearing bank.
Wells Fargo Bank will be used for settlement.
Whether it is money for money laundering, smuggling, drug trafficking, or corporate funds preparing to move funds overseas to avoid taxes, they will all be deposited into Wells Fargo Bank in the Cayman Islands.
These bigwigs immediately realized that a huge amount of funds would flow into Rich World in the future, causing Rich World's funds to expand rapidly.
These financial groups also have banks and are very jealous of this money. Some people asked: "Can we open a bank in Cayman?"
Just now, Andy said that there are no restrictions except for banks, insurance companies, military companies and other companies. In other words, there are restrictions on the above three types of companies.
Andy said:
“Of course we welcome banks and enterprises to set up in Cayman, but there are indeed restrictions. We all know that in Cayman, where there are no taxes and foreign exchange controls, the role that banks can play is simply too great.”
“So we stipulated that if you want to open a banking, insurance, securities, trust, fund or other financial industry in Cayman, you must either pay a certain amount of tax, which is, of course, much lower than other places, or allow Wells Fargo to invest.”
Finance makes too much money.
The Cayman Islands' policy is so relaxed.
There will certainly be many financial industries ready to take advantage of this loose monetary policy to make profits, which will invisibly rob Hardy of his resources.
The Cayman Islands is tax-free because it can help Wells Fargo collect funds, but it is not kind enough to provide services to other banks for free.
After hearing Andy's explanation, everyone felt that his request was quite normal. If he had a dominion like this, he would not let others take advantage of it for nothing.
Fortunately, what Hardy asked for was to invest in a financial branch opened in the Cayman Islands, which did not involve the foundation of the consortium. It was just to make partial profits from the circulating funds in the Cayman Islands, which the consortium found completely acceptable.
“We at Morgan Stanley are preparing to open a branch in the Cayman Islands.”
“We at Manhattan Bank are also planning to open a branch in Cayman.”
“Mellon Financial also intends to open a financial investment division in Cayman.”
Subsequently, people from the DuPont Group, the Cleveland Group, and the Texas Group also expressed their intention to open financial institutions in the Cayman Islands.
As for the share ratio.
Hardy's principle is that Wells Fargo must own no less than 30% of the shares of these banks in the Cayman Islands.
In addition to making money, Wells Fargo will also sign free capital flow agreements with these banks. Hardy's goal is to establish a strong financial relationship network, and these banks will have extremely smooth financial flows with Wells Fargo in the future.
Someone wants to trace the flow of funds.
It's as difficult as climbing to heaven.
Because he may face obstruction from the world's largest financial system.
The U.S. government must be wary of this network of power, because the politician who issues the order must consider the consequences of offending several major financial groups.
After several consortiums agreed to purchase Japan's seized assets, Hardy submitted the quotation sheet to the Johnson government.
After reading the quotation, President Johnson's first impression was that the unit price was a bit cheap, but when he saw the total price.
570 million US dollars.
Then my heart was moved.
Japan is now extremely poor. They still owe hundreds of billions of dollars in war reparations. The government has no money, and the people have no money either.
If I could get this 570 million US dollars.
There are many things the U.S. government can do.
Hardy told President Johnson: "I hope the president will present this list of deals to Congress. If Congress agrees, I will sell them out, so that I can recover some funds, which are very necessary for rectifying the Japanese economy."
"Okay, I will submit it to Congress as soon as possible. I believe they will be happy to get rid of these useless assets and restore Japan to self-sufficiency." President Johnson said.
President Johnson then submitted a bill to Congress, asking members to review it and vote on it at the subsequent session. As long as Congress passed it, the matter would become legal and no one could find fault with it.
Each member of parliament was given a copy of the Japanese military supply price list.
Naturally, this matter could not be kept secret, and no one wanted to hide it. The Japanese Embassy in the United States quickly obtained the price list. The ambassador's first reaction was that his country's assets would be divided up, and he immediately passed the information back to Japan.
The Japanese Prime Minister and cabinet members felt their hearts bleeding after seeing the price quote. All of these Japanese assets were built with huge investments made by the Japanese people with great effort, but now the price offered by the United States is only one twentieth of the original cost.
In fact, these assets
It has been seized by the US military.
Originally, the Japanese government had given up hope, but later, the Japanese government repeatedly requested MacArthur and bribed him heavily, and MacArthur's attitude changed.
When meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister, MacArthur had already stated that once it was confirmed that Japan's transformation met the requirements, the control would be appropriately relaxed, including the military-to-civilian transformation of seized factories and equipment.
Originally, the Japanese government felt that it had another opportunity.
But now the United States is preparing to sell these seized assets. If they are really sold and become American assets, there is no possibility that they will ever return to the hands of the Japanese.
You know,
These companies basically involve all sectors of Japan's heavy industry and will cause an irreparable and devastating blow to Japan's heavy industry.
Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru quickly visited MacArthur, hoping that MacArthur could stop this.
The U.S. Forces Japan Headquarters was located in the largest building in Tokyo's business district, across the moat from the Emperor's palace. Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru came to MacArthur's office, where MacArthur was reading a newspaper with a cigarette in his mouth. Yoshida Shigeru bowed in greeting.
"General MacArthur!"
MacArthur was now the emperor of Japan, with the power to appoint and dismiss officials. Even the emperor had to pay him respects. When Yoshida Shigeru saw MacArthur, he was as respectful as if he were seeing his own master.
"You called me and said there was something important. What was it?" McArthur asked.
Yoshida Shigeru quickly presented the price list of the seized companies. MacArthur took it and looked at it. Yoshida Shigeru said, "This is a message from the ambassador to the United States. President Johnson submitted this price list to Congress, hoping that it would be passed by Congress. If Congress passes it, these assets will probably be acquired by others soon."
"We learned that this asset price list was produced by Mr. Jon Hardy, the special economic guidance envoy."
Jon Hardy.
MacArthur shifted his position, holding his corncob pipe.
He naturally knew that President Johnson had recently appointed a special economic envoy to Japan to solve the problem of Japan's economy on the verge of collapse after the "Dodge Plan" so that the United States would no longer have to continue investing and aid, allowing the Japanese to be self-sufficient.
The Americans' idea was to control the Japanese, but not to completely kill them, as that would also be a loss for themselves. The ideal situation would be to be self-sufficient while still being under control, which would make it easier to manage them.
In fact, the Americans were also unable to anticipate Japan's subsequent development.
MacArthur was not impressed by Jon Hardy, as it was said that he was once a member of the Marine Corps and a soldier under his command.
But a few years after returning to the United States, he became a billionaire, founded the Hardy Group, and invested in Johnson's successful election campaign. This made a small guy become Japan's economic envoy.
He was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Occupation Forces in Japan and possessed the highest authority, and could command Japan at will. But now, a special economic envoy was created. MacArthur, who used to do whatever he wanted, felt that his authority was challenged, so he disliked Hardy from the beginning.
Not long ago, he received another sum of gold from the Japanese.
The Japanese begged him to take back some of the seized businesses.
Some enterprises must be closed down, such as factories producing battleships, fighter planes, tanks, guns, and ammunition. These will never be returned to the Japanese under any circumstances. However, some supporting ancillary factories can be closed down or not.
For the sake of gold, MacArthur originally planned to release a batch to the Japanese in a few days, but now Hardy has made a price list and plans to sell all those companies, which has disrupted all of MacArthur's plans.
He hated having his plans disrupted.
MacArthur was already unhappy that Hardy had taken some of his power, and now that he had failed to fulfill his promise, he felt even more angry with John Hardy.
"I will telegraph President Johnson to express my attitude and see if this matter can be eased," MacArthur said, puffing out a puff of smoke.
Yoshida Shigeru bowed quickly and said, "Thank you, General, for your mediation."