Showing posts with label South Beach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label South Beach. Show all posts

Saturday, December 8, 2018

Lots of glitz but little-to-no-heart in latest N.Y. Times T Style Magazine travel story re #SoFL, pre #ArtBaselMiami; Remembering what Congress said about Miami Beach's Art Basel's role in the UBS scandal

Lots of glitz but little-to-no-heart in latest N.Y. Times T Style Magazine travel story re #SoFL, pre #ArtBasel Miami Beach; Remembering what Congress said about Miami Beach's Art Basel's role in the UBS scandal

So, speaking of Art Basel...


Above, a December 2016 photo of my very creative and versatile artist friend Daniel Jayd from Montreal, down here for Art Basel 2016, at one of the most popular outdoor #ArtBasel Miami Beach exhibits at Collins Park on Washington and 19th Street, of Miami Mountain by Ugo Rondinone, which people were positively buzzing about.
Daniel is crazy talented with paint, brushes, pencils and a camera, and is a very smart, friendly and savvy guy, and has represented canada at many prestigious festivals and even at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. It isn't bragging if it's true.
http://www.studiojayd.com/biography

https://www.facebook.com/daniel.jayd

 @ArtistJAYD https://twitter.com/ArtistJAYD






Not that you asked but I'm somewhat incredulous by much of this recent N.Y. Times T Style Magazine travel story re things to see and do in the Miami area, pre #ArtBaselMiami invasion, since so much of it reads more like what you'd expect to find inside some free sponsored-magazine in an upscale hotel lobby on Miami Beach. More glitz than illumination
That this is in the NY Times style magazine is, well, in my opinion, quite telling, when you think about what sort of interesting story could really be told, and the really unique places and things to do down here.








 Reading it, you would not know it was written by someone like Evan Benn who has actually lived in South Florida for a while, worked at The Miami Herald, and should know a thing or two about what's new and fun in this area that visitors would find worthwhile.

 N.Y. Times T Style Magazine
Where to Stay, and What to Eat, in Miami

Beyond the umbrella-lined beaches and Art Deco architecture of South Beach, Miami is cementing its reputation as Florida’s cultural and culinary capital.
By Evan Benn

Nov. 9, 2018
For those who haven’t visited in a minute, some of the recent changes Miami has undergone may come as a surprise. The Design District, which for years was a maze of traffic cones and construction dust, is now brimming with fashion boutiques and places to stop and grab a cup of coffee, a taco or a scoop of local soft-serve ice cream. A $500-million investment to get ahead of rising sea levels has left the roadways of Miami Beach repaved and less prone to flooding — an especially welcome change in South Beach’s buzzy Sunset Harbour neighborhood, where the tables of locally beloved restaurants like Pubbelly Sushi and Stiltsville Fish Bar spill out onto the sidewalks.
Meanwhile, cultural capital has poured into the region, bringing with it new museums like Frost Science downtown and the Institute of Contemporary Art in the Design District, complementing the annual Art Basel Miami Beach fair that arrives each December. Then there is Brightline, a new high-speed rail service, which zips passengers from Miami to Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach in less time — and with less aggravation — than it takes to drive those routes on Interstate 95. The project’s next phase will extend the line all the way to Orlando.
Read the rest of the article at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/09/t-magazine/miami-travel-guide.html

 Now I'm no art expert, though I do read Art in America once in a while, and my Mother was one of the volunteeers who helped Christo and his wife Jeanne-Claude with Surrounded Islands Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida, 1980–83,




but I much-preferred #ArtBasel themed NYT pieces in past Novembers that actually gave an informed POV re new artists and their art and why we ought to see it -or shun it- since as we all know, avant-garde rarely comes this far south.


Some more reasonable takes than Evan Benn's effort:










Those NY Times articles in the past actually tried to educate and inform you about something rather than reading like talking points from micromanaging corporate publicists.
Here are a few of them...



























I know from personal experience how many Airbnb hosts in Hollywood and South Florida are able
to turn a profit for the year in large part because of the reliability of the #ArtBasel crowd coming into
the area from out-of-town or even overseas. That's how I met my friend Daniel.

Talented successful creative people who will not be buying large meals every night -or even sleeping much- per se, because they are SO busy networking and yes, actually trying to SELL their creative efforts and arrange future exhibitions, not be impressed by fancy window displays of throw pillows and wicker sofas near Lincoln Road.

 Those folks have been on adrenaline all day after swinging by the Starbucks at Lincoln Road before
9 am, and are racing to the parking garage across from Miami Beach City Hall at the end of the night
as soon as they can, but in slow-motion, so they can get in their car and come back up to Hollywood
and head over to a nice place on the beach or on Hollywood Blvd. downtown and chill a bit.
Decompress!

 I know those Airbnb guests in town for ArtBasel stay locally and spend locally, because I've been with them when they did it, even if local restaurant owners or managers didn't know why they were here or why they looked so tired and exhausted - It's not easy being part of the creative class.

 Just a thought...

 For those of you who want more substance than sizzle, take a look back at one of my posts from over ten years ago...
JULY 18, 2008  Miami's Art Basel's Role in the UBS Scandal

FRIDAY, JULY 18, 2008
Miami's Art Basel's Role in the UBS Scandal
Of course Florida and South Florida in particular is a character in the emerging tax scandal involving Swiss banking giant UBS, and billions of undeclared greenback$.
Why should this 2008 story be any different from so many dozens of crazy stories before it over the past thirty years?

(See: Sen. Levin: Shut Down Giant Swiss Bank UBS, Investigation Reveals Secrecy Tricks Allegedly Used by Swiss Bankers
By BRIAN ROSS, AVNI PATEL, and RHONDA SCHWARTZ, July 17, 2008 http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5394214&page=1 )

It's really great that the Art Basel Art Fair could help facilitate the meet-and-greet card exchanges that led directly to illicit behavior and financial transactions among the monied class.
Friendly, competent help like that down here is VERY hard to find, as we all know from experience.
No wonder UBS kept coming back year-after-year!

As of this morning, the UBS logo still appears in the bottom left of the Art Basel web page
http://www.artbasel.com/
FYI: Art 40 Basel takes place June 10-14, 2009.

In a few years, when they eventually make a feature film out of Tom Wolfe's upcoming novel on the Miami area, I hope they at least do some on-site shooting down here so that some good can come from all the (temporary?) ill-gotten gains.(Who knows, maybe MIA's construction will even be finished by then!)

Regardless of how old the cool as a cucumber Swiss banker Bradley Birkenfeld really is, I hereby nominate Jeremy Irons to play him. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000460/

I can already see him in the role, stepping out of a long dark Town Car at night, impeccably dressed with a tan and saying bon mots to folks who love nothing in the world so much as cultured and erudite people tossing bon mots their way.
A little bit of Reversal of Evidence http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100486/ and a little bit of Damage http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104237/ and pretty soon you're talking Swiss banker with dollar signs in his eyes as he hands out UBS business cards with the familiar three keys on it.

Ironically, I'm doing this post while simultaneously watching Clark Gable and Lana Turner on Turner Classic Movies in 1941's Honky Tonk, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033726/ in which Gable plays -yes- a lovable but tough con man in the Old West.

Naturally, now that I say all these things about characters and actors, I see thru this
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22474914/ and this New York magazine article from early this year, http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/01/inside_tom_wolfes.html that Wolfe's novel Back to the Blood already has identifiable characters, and, none of 'em are Swiss bankers with the savoir-faire to help those with the dough avoid the tax man.
Maybe I'll have to be the one write that screenplay after all!

Herewith, the Swiss variation of a con, except here, rich folks are the easy marks, eager to escape paying Uncle Sam their fair share of the tax load while indulging their haute culture in South Florida.
And remember, as the Herald keeps insisting we must, they're not all snobs, they're just connoisseurs and possible condo-owners to be.

Meanwhile, back in The Miami Art District...
__________________________________

(Numbers in blue are footnote numbers)
from page 3/114 of U.S. SENATE PERMANENT SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS,
STAFF REPORT ON TAX HAVEN BANKS AND U.S. TAX COMPLIANCE,
July 17, 200

On June 30, 2008, the United States took another step. It filed a petition in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida requesting leave to file an IRS administrative summons with UBS asking the bank to disclose the names of all of its U.S. clients who have opened accounts in Switzerland, but for which the bank has not filed forms with the IRS disclosing the Swiss accounts.10 The court approved service of the summons on UBS on July 1, 2008.11 The summons has apparently been served, but according to Swiss authorities the Swiss and American governments are negotiating over its execution.12 This John Doe summons represents the first time that the United States has attempted to pierce Swiss bank secrecy by compelling a Swiss bank to name its U.S. clients.

 from page 6-7/114:

In May 2008, a second international tax scandal broke when the United States arrested a private banker formerly employed by UBS AG, one of the largest banks in the world, on charges of having conspired with a U.S. citizen and a business associate to defraud the IRS of $7.2 million in taxes owed on $200 million of assets hidden in offshore accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. The United States had earlier detained as a material witness in that prosecution a senior UBS private banking official from Switzerland traveling on business in Florida, allegedly seizing his computer and other evidence. In June 2008, the former UBS private banker, Bradley Birkenfeld, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the IRS.8 His alleged co-conspirator, Mario Staggl, part owner of a trust company, remains at large in Liechtenstein. The current UBS senior private banking official, Martin Liechti, remains under travel restrictions. This enforcement action appears to represent the first time that the United States has criminally prosecuted a Swiss banker for helping a U.S. taxpayer evade payment of U.S. taxes.9

On June 30, 2008, the United States took another step. It filed a petition in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida requesting leave to file an IRS administrativesummons with UBS asking the bank to disclose the names of all of its U.S. clients who have opened accounts in Switzerland, but for which the bank has not filed forms with the IRS disclosing the Swiss accounts.10 The court approved service of the summons on UBS on July 1, 2008.11 The summons has apparently been served, but according to Swiss authorities the Swiss and American governments are negotiating over its execution.12 This John Doe summons represents the first time that the United States has attempted to pierce Swiss bank secrecy by compelling a Swiss bank to name its U.S. clients.

from page 9/114:

Marsh Accounts: Hiding $49 Million Over Twenty Years. James Albright Marsh, a U.S. citizen from Florida in the construction business, formed four Liechtenstein foundations, two in 1985, one in 1998, and one in 2004, and transferred substantial sums to them. LGT assisted him in establishing the two 1985 foundations, using documents that gave Mr. Marsh and his sons substantial control over the foundations and strong secrecy protections. By 2007, the assets in his four foundations had a combined value of more than $49 million. Although LGT became a participant in the QI Program in 2001, which requires foreign banks to report information on accounts with U.S. securities, LGT did not report the Marsh accounts. Instead it advised Mr. Marsh to divest his LGT foundations of U.S. securities, and treated the accounts as owned by non-U.S. persons, the Liechtenstein foundations that LGT had formed. After Mr. Marsh’s death in 2006, the IRS apparently discovered the Liechtenstein foundations through the documents released by the former LGT employee. Mr. Marsh’s family is now in negotiation with the IRS over back taxes, interest and penalties owed on the $49 million in undeclared assets.

 from page 16/114:
Mr. Birkenfeld testified that UBS also provided its Swiss bankers with tickets and funds to go to events attended by wealthy U.S. individuals, so that they could solicit new business for the bank in Switzerland. He said that UBS sponsored U.S. events likely to attract wealthy clients, such as the Art Basel Air Fair in Miami; performances in major U.S. cities by the UBS Vervier Orchestra featuring talented young musicians; and U.S. yachting events attended by the elite Swiss yachting team, Alinghi, which was also sponsored by UBS. A UBS document laying out marketing strategies to attract U.S. clients confirms that the bank “organized VIP events” and engaged in the “Sponsorship of Major Events” such as “Golf, Tennis Tournaments, Art, Special Events.” This document even identified the 25 most affluent housing areas in the United States to provide “targeted locations where to organize events.”

 page 19/114:

Olenicoff Accounts.
These concerns are further illustrated by the recent criminal prosecution involving UBS accounts opened in Switzerland by Mr. Birkenfeld for Igor Olenicoff. Mr. Olenicoff is a billionaire real estate developer, U.S. citizen, and resident of Florida and California. From 2001 until 2005, Mr. Birkenfeld and Mario Staggl, a trust officer from Liechtenstein helped Mr. Olenicoff open multiple bank accounts in the names of offshore companies he controlled at UBS in Switzerland and Neue Bank in Liechtenstein. For a time, Mr. Olenicoff was Mr. Birkenfeld’s largest private banking client. To service these accounts, Mr. Birkenfeld met with Mr. Olenicoff in the United States and elsewhere, communicated with him by telephone, fax, and email in the United States, and advised him on how to avoid disclosure of his accounts and assets to the IRS. In 2007, Mr. Olenicoff pled guilty to one criminal count of filing a false income tax return by failing to disclose the foreign bank accounts he controlled. He was sentenced to two years probation and 120 hours of community service, and paid six years of back taxes, interest, and penalties totaling $52 million. In 2008, Mr. Birkenfeld pled guilty to conspiring with Mr. Olenicoff to defraud the IRS and avoid payment of taxes owed on $200 million in assets hidden in accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Their alleged coconspirator, Mr. Staggl, remains at large in Liechtenstein.

 page 42/114: one of the most fascinating parts of the story!

(1) Marsh Accounts: Hiding $49 Million Over Twenty YearsJames Albright Marsh, Jr. (“Mr. Marsh”) is a construction contractor who lived in Florida with his wife and six children, until he died in 2006.117 He, his wife, and his children have always been U.S. citizens. In 1985, Mr. Marsh traveled to Liechtenstein, and LGT helped him establish two Liechtenstein foundations, the Chateau Foundation and Lincol Foundation, which then opened accounts at LGT Bank. Also during the 1980s, Mr. Marsh formed two more Liechtenstein foundations, called Topanga Foundation118 and Largella Foundation,119 apparently using two other financial institutions in Liechtenstein.120 Over the years, these four Liechtenstein foundations opened accounts at five Liechtenstein banks.121 By 2007, the Liechtenstein accounts had assets with a combined value in excess of $49 million.122
This section on Mr. Marsh continues for about five pages with all sorts of secretive legal corporate tactics they employed to keep below the radar. 

 from page 79-81/114:

Using Transfer Corporations to “Cover Up the Tracks” of Client Funds. As indicated in some of the case histories described earlier, LGT documents obtained by the Subcommittee show that it was not uncommon for LGT to set up intermediary, pass-through corporations that were used by the bank, in the words of an LGT employee, “to cover up the tracks” of funds moving into LGT client accounts. When asked about these corporations, the head of compliance Officer for LGT Group confirmed their existence, explaining that these “auxiliary services corporations” served several functions, including the transmission of funds “confidentially.”338

The documents show that LGT used BTS Management Ltd., formed in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), to establish a number of the transfer corporations. The documents indicate that LGT typically asked BTS Management to form a BVI corporation which then opened an account at LGT or another bank, such as Bank du Gothard in Luxembourg. The transfer corporation then received funds or securities from an LGT client and immediately transferred those funds or securities to LGT, if its account was at an outside bank. In some instances the transfer corporation was then dissolved; in other instances, it continued in existence. Once the funds or securities were delivered to LGT bank, they were moved internally within the bank, using a mechanism called “journaling” to transfer them from one LGT account to another, here from the transfer corporation’s LGT account to the client’s LGT account. This internal transfer mechanism makes it much more difficult to trace the movement of funds and securities, since it leaves no record outside of the bank showing that the assets were transferred to the ultimate recipient, the LGT client.

The Subcommittee investigation uncovered several examples of LGT engaging in this practice. For example, Sera Financial Corporation is a BVI corporation that appears to have functioned as an LGT transfer corporation. An internal LGT document describes Sera Financial as a “[s]pecial purpose company (indirect subsidiary of LTV) for portfolio transfers for assets which are to be brought into an LTV structure.”339 The document shows, by account number, that Sera Financial held one account at Banque du Gothard and eleven separate accounts at LGT Bank in Liechtenstein.340 The document explains this unusual account structure as follows:

For each customer, a sub-account or deposit facility is opened under a reference at BdG[Banque du Gothard] and at LGT …. Funds transfers as well as securities deliveries to BdG are in favor of SERA …. BdG is instructed to forward cash values and securities without delay to LGT BIL [Bank in Liechtenstein] in favor of Sera Financial Corp. with specification of the reference. ... As soon as the assets are credited at BIL, they are transferred to the destination account ….341
One example of how Sera Financial was used involves a new trust set up for a U.S. client in 2000. A LGT memorandum to the file discussing the transfer of assets to the new trust states:
“The trust shall open an account in the LGT Bank in Liechtenstein. The transfer of assets should take place using this account. To cover up the tracks from UBS Zurich to the trust in Liechtenstein, I recommend an intermediary Single Purpose Company.”342 LGT decided to use Sera Financial as the transfer corporation. A wire transfer instruction from Gotthard Bank shows how the transfer operation worked.343 It shows that on October 31, 2000, after $1.2 million had been credited to the Sera Financial account at Banque du Gothard: “BTS Management Limited, Tortola, as Managing Director of the company Sera Financial Corporation, Tortola, B.V.I. [h]ereby declares: … that the following beneficiary(ies) is/are entitled to the above-referenced transaction,” naming the U.S. citizen from Florida, known to the Subcommittee as a U.S. client of LGT at that time. The $1.2 million was then transferred to his account.

 pages 96-97/114:


Mr. Birkenfeld testified that UBS not only authorized and paid for the business trips to the United States, but also provided the Swiss bankers with tickets and funds to go to events
attended by wealthy U.S. individuals, so that they could solicit new business for the bank in Switzerland. He said that UBS sponsored U.S. events likely to attract wealthy clients, such as the Art Basel Air Fair in Miami; performances in major U.S. cities by the UBS Vervier Orchestra featuring talented young musicians; and U.S. yachting events attended by the elite Swiss yachting team, Alinghi, which was also sponsored by UBS. An internal UBS document laying out marketing strategies to attract U.S. and Canadian clients confirms that the bank “organized VIP events” and engaged in the “Sponsorship of Major Events” such as “Golf, Tennis Tournaments, Art, Special Events.”405 This document even identified the 25 most affluent housing areas in the United States to provide “targeted locations where to organize events.”406

Mr. Birkenfeld described to the Subcommittee how Swiss private bankers used these events and other means to find new U.S. clients during their trips to the United States: You might go to sporting events. You might go to car shows, wine tastings. You might deal with real estate agents. You might deal with attorneys. … It’s really where do the rich people hang out, go and talk to them. … [I]t wasn’t difficult to walk into a party with a … business card, and then someone ask[s] you, ‘What do you do?’ and you say, ‘Well, I work for a bank in Switzerland, and we manage money there and open accounts.’ And people immediately would recognize, oh, this is someone who could open new business by opening accounts.


page 98/114:


For example, the Subcommittee found that at least five UBS client advisors travelled to the United States for trips coinciding with the Art Basel Art Fair, an annual UBS-sponsored event held in early December in Miami Beach since 2002. The data shows that, over the years, several UBS Swiss client advisors were in Miami during the art show, including three in 2007.On the customs forms completed over the years by UBS travelers prior to landing at Miami International airport, only one client advisor stated that the purpose of the trip was for business, while five described the visit as for pleasure. These client advisors’ trips, however, coincided closely with the dates of the Art Basel event, including an invitation-only private showing. Moreover, the Subcommittee’s analysis of the customs and travel records obtained from the Department of Homeland Security show that a Swiss-based UBS client advisor traveled to New England from June 20-25, 2004, a trip coinciding with the UBS Regatta Cup, held in Newport, RI from June 19-26, 2004.

 pages 105-106/114:

(5) Violating Restrictions on U.S. Activities

The UBS practices just described, related to Swiss banker activities undertaken in the United States to recruit and service U.S. clients, may have violated U.S. law as well as UBS policy. As explained earlier, U.S. securities and banking laws prohibit non-U.S. persons from advertising securities services or products, executing securities transactions, or performing banking services within the United States, without an appropriate license. Moreover, U.S. tax laws may require a foreign financial institution to report to the IRS on 1099 Forms sales of non-U.S. securities effected in the United States, such as by executing a transaction by a broker physically in the United States or ordering the completion of a transaction through telephone calls or emails originating from the United States.

It was to avoid violating U.S. law, exceeding its licensed activities, or triggering 1099 reporting requirements, that caused UBS to issue policy statements restricting the activities that its non-U.S. bankers could undertake while in the United States. Its 2002 and 2004 policy statements, for example, prohibited UBS Swiss bankers, while in the United States, from advertising securities products to their clients, informing clients of how their security portfolios were performing, providing copies of account statements, or using U.S. mails, faxes, telephone calls or email to discuss a client’s securities portfolio.443 UBS also prohibited its Swiss bankers from prospecting for new clients while in the United States, soliciting new accounts, or obtaining signatures on account opening documentation.

Despite these prohibitions, it appears that UBS Swiss bankers in the United States servicing U.S. clients routinely undertook actions that contravened the UBS restrictions.Mr. Birkenfeld described, for example, an art festival sponsored by UBS in Miami each year, which he attended with other Swiss bankers for the express purpose of soliciting new accounts. “We went to these events. We went to dinners, we went to art exhibitions, we went to private homes as private bankers, knowingly by management that they were paying for our hotel, paying for our airfare, paying us our salary, and getting us tickets to the UBS VIP tent to drink champagne with clients.”444 He testified that he witnessed Swiss bankers soliciting new accounts and completing account opening documentation while in the United States. He testified that in some cases, “instead of saying, ‘I signed it in New York,’ they brought the forms back to Geneva and they put in ‘Geneva.’”445 When asked whether he had promoted securities products during his trips to the United States, he responded, “We were promoting anything.”446
Mr. Birkenfeld also told the Subcommittee that UBS Swiss bankers routinely communicated with their U.S. clients about the status of their accounts, including their securities portfolios. He said that some Swiss private bankers communicated with their U.S. clients by telephone or fax, or by sending occasional documents to them in the United States by overnight mail.447 He said the bankers sometimes used code names during the telephone calls, so that the U.S. client would not have to identify themselves by name, in case anyone was listening.448 He said that U.S. clients generally did not like sending or receiving emails via computer, “because they didn’t want that link, for obvious reasons.”449 Nevertheless, some clients did use email, as shown in the case involving Mr. Birkenfeld and Mr. Olenicoff, examined further below. Mr. Birkenfeld also described how Swiss bankers brought into the United States information about clients’ accounts and securities portfolios. He told the Subcommittee that his day-to-day interactions with clients were in direct contradiction to the restrictions set out in UBS’ policy statements. He indicated those policies simply were not enforced while he was at the bank.450

from page 108/114:


Contrary to this representation by UBS, however, a Subcommittee review of the relevant travel data for the Swiss bankers determined that, from January to April 2008, UBS client advisors made twelve trips to the United States, travelling from Switzerland to New York, Miami, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. The Customs I-94 Forms indicate that, on half of these trips, the Swiss bankers indicated they were travelling for business purposes, while on the other half, the Swiss bankers indicated they were travelling to the United States for non-business purposes. With respect to Mr. Liechti, head of the UBS Wealth Management Americas division, the I-94 Form shows that he arrived in the United States on April 20, 2008, on business. There is no record of his departure to date.

The clear contrast between the UBS policy restrictions dating back to at least 2002, and the activities undertaken by UBS Swiss bankers while traveling in the United States, as described by Mr. Birkenfeld in his deposition, in connection with his recent indictment, and in internal UBS documents, suggests that until recently, the UBS restrictions were not being enforced. This lack of enforcement, in turn, raises concerns that UBS Swiss bankers with U.S. clients may have been routinely violating not only the bank’s internal policies, but also U.S. law. UBS is currently under investigation by the SEC, IRS, and Department of Justice regarding the activities of its Swiss bankers in the United States.

And in the end...

D. Analysis

Unlike LGT, UBS did not generally refrain from conducting banking operations within theUnited States. UBS Swiss bankers targeted U.S. clients, traveled across the country in search of wealthy individuals, and aggressively marketed their services to U.S. taxpayers who might otherwise never have opened Swiss accounts. UBS practices resulted in its U.S. clients maintaining undeclared Swiss accounts that collectively held billions of dollars in assets that were not disclosed to the IRS. UBS serviced these accounts, in part, by offering banking and securities products and services within the United States that UBS Swiss bankers were not licensed to provide. Swiss bank secrecy laws hid not only the misconduct of U.S. taxpayers hiding assets at UBS in Switzerland, but also the actions taken by UBS bankers to assist those U.S. clients.UBS has now stopped all travel by its Swiss bankers to the United States, issued morerestrictive policies, and is conducting an internal review to gauge the nature and extent of the problem. UBS also cooperated with this Subcommittee in its efforts to gain a full understanding of the facts and issues.from the:
U.S. SENATE PERMANENT SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS,
STAFF REPORT ON TAX HAVEN BANKS AND U.S. TAX COMPLIANCE,
July 17, 2008 at: http://abcnews.go.com/images/Blotter/REPORT-Tax%20Haven%20Banks%20(July%2017%2008).pdf



Dave
Snapchat: SoBeHoosier
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Saturday, May 4, 2013

While Miami Dolphins stadium renovation deal was going south in Tallahassee, rather bravely, in between all this week's downpours, DJ Boris and his friends managed to party at the Surfcomber Hotel in South Beach, as part of Winter Music Conference 2013.; @MiamiDolphins Stephen Ross, his media flacks & pols at #MiamiFirst lost the battle and the war -both FL House Speaker and FL Senate President were against it; Time for Ross to open his own checkbook or sell the team; South Florida pols who supported Ross will find that comes with a downside that voters won't forget!; @willweatherford, @PhinPhanatic


fashiontv YouTube Channel video: DJ Boris and Friends Party at Surfcomber Hotel in Miami, Winter Music Conference 2013, FashionTV, Uploaded May 3, 2013. http://youtu.be/ahr0QNQKFPw

 I wasn't there myself, but I hear that... afterwards, they gathered around in small groups and talked amongst themselves about: the reluctance of the Obama Administration to arm the rebels in Syria, the death-spiral trajectory of the Gang of Eight's pro-amnesty immigration reform legislation in Congress, and what they liked the most about their favorite U.S. and foreign fashion bloggers.

But when they were finished talking about global issues, the got local and while the beer was still cold, they got together in and around the pool, threw the beach balls out, and argued over why billionaire Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, one of the world's richest men, won't pay for the stadium improvements himself that he claims that HIS stadium needs to host another Super Bowl, or, at least get a loan for the improvements for HIS stadium from a reputable bank in Miami. But he doesn't want to do that, does he?

Is it because Ross didn't think any banks in Miami are reputable, or because he just preferred to avoid the paperwork and fees and instead get an interest free loan from taxpayers?

 Field of Schemes blog
Dolphins are proposing to turn the $120 million public subsidy into a $120 million 30-year interest-free loan
By Neil deMause:
March 26, 2013
http://www.fieldofschemes.com/2013/03/26/4792/dolphins-reportedly-offer-to-trim-subsidy-demands-to-136m/








Or, as I wrote in the subject hearder of an email the day I came across this very curious bit of news from Tallahassee -news that not a single Miami TV station mentioned on-air that day or the next- and which none of the Dolphin "experts" and media types said anything at all about, "And boom goes the Dolphins charade" 

Palm Beach Post
Why the Senate president voted against the stadium deal
By Dara Kam
April 29th, 2013
http://www.postonpolitics.com/2013/04/why-the-senate-president-voted-against-the-stadium-deal/

 Hmm-m.. do they not want to make permanent enemies of both Gaetz and Weatherford, only Weatherford?

 In the next few days, if everything works out, I'll be posting the most egregious example of the dozens seen by South Florida residents in recent weeks of the Miami news media's sycophancy disguised as journalism during the Dolphins Stadium PR debate.

 The debate that had support for the question in Miami-Dade County at 22% according to a poll I read about this week, much lower than even the paltry 30% I thought it might get, which would've been a landslide defeat for Ross.
Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford saved him from that embarrassment.

 That post will include what I personally believe to be THE worst example of all, which came from an unexpected source -a usually-reliable person with a great voice.

 Though it may be hard for younger Dolphin fans or people who have moved to South Florida since the 1990's to believe... Once Upon a Time, the Miami Herald had a Dolphins beat guy who was not only a a great writer who penned pieces with genuine insight and nuance, but who was also scrupulously fair and could almost always back up what he said with solid facts and reason. 
His name was Michael Janofsky.

 He was so good and so fair-minded and insightful -yet opinionated- that he left the Herald for the N.Y. Times and was one of their best correspondents for 24 years.

 Anyone thinking that current Herald Dolphin beat reporter Armando Salguero @Armando Salguero was ever going to report on the stadium renovation fight either accurately or without bias, has clearly been proven wrong over the past few weeks. 
How many mistakes can you make in one column or a single Tweet?

 Me, I don't think Salguero will be going to the N.Y. Times in the future.
Just saying...  

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FashionTV YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/fashiontv

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Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Lifeguard Tomas Lopez helps save the day at the city's public beach but get's fired for his trouble. Meanwhile, Hallandale Beach City Hall continues to act neglectful and NOT do what it's legally supposed to do around the beach areas, and nothing happens. Nobody is fired. Just more mindless bureaucratic apathy and incompetency from the same old crew!

South Beach, Hallandale Beach, Florida. This and all photos below are from May 30, 2012 and were taken by South Beach Hoosier. 
© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved
Lifeguard Tomas Lopez helps save the day at the city's public beach but get's fired for his trouble. Meanwhile, Hallandale Beach City Hall continues to act neglectful and NOT do what it's legally supposed to do around the beach areas, and nothing happens. Nobody is fired. Just more mindless bureaucratic apathy and incompetency from the same old tired crew!
Early this morning in an email to the Sun-Sentinel's Ihosvani Rodriguez, I wrote the following:

I  just needed to clarify something.
In your article, Hallandale Beach lifeguard fired after participating in beach rescue
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/hallandale/fl-hallandale-beach-lifeguards-20120703,0,5326638.story do you mean the lifeguard who saved someone from dying,
Tomas Lopez, left one of the HB lifeguard stands that, contrary to what the city's insurance docs likely claim, are NOT now properly grounded for lightning strikes?
© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

 Something the city already knows about, which is the city's legal responsibility and a HB taxpayer's lawsuit nightmare if someone is injured?
Yeah, sort of like the city still not having fixed or replaced 28 broken lights at Bluesten Park, three blocks from City Hall, for well over nine months and counting... 

 Specifically, the lifeguard stand on South Beach that still has graffiti on it and had metal city signs underneath it for 4-5 months because the city's DPW is so poorly managed and bereft of anything resembling a strong work ethic or attention to detail, to remove them and place them in the correct place? 
And which was still under the South Beach lifeguard stand many weeks after I first called DPW on my cell phone in late May while standing next to it, to complain, when these photos were taken?
Those lifeguard stands?
© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

You mean THOSE lifeguard stands with metal underneath them just asking to be zapped
by lightning?

© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

The beach where not so far away from those old and unsafe lifeguard stands there are faded, 30-year old Broward County signs from when southern Broward County was still using the 305 area code, the Miami Dolphins were still playing in the Orange Bowl, and BEFORE Dan Marino was playing quarterback for the Dolphins?
That neglected public beach?

© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Do you mean the beach where the weekend before the city's Parks Master Plan meeting of Monday May 31st re possible changes and improvements to South Beach, the sign with the meeting info came down, and rather than simply re-hammering it into the wooden pole, someone from the city dragged it next to the dumpster and left it there?
Which, of course, meant that anyone who went to the beach that entire weekend or Monday morning who didn't already know about the meeting would have had no idea about it, or what the rendering on the left actually meant?
That neglected public beach?

I spy: the missing meeting sign hidden next to the dumpster! 
© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

The beach with the nearby dumpster without the fence enclosure the city requires of all businesses owners in the city with dumpsters, to hide the dumpster from public view, just like the city has been violating its own ordinances for YEARS at North Beach?

 After I saw this for myself the afternoon of the meeting, I actually left the beach and drove over to City Hall and spoke in-person with the new Parks Director at her office to both tell her what I'd seen, but to also offer it up as yet another self-evident example of how things were/are routinely done in this city since I have lived here -with a lack of professionalism and with an almost completely contemptuous disregard for the taxpayers and residents of this city.
Which is to say half-assed! And with no consequences for continued sub-par performance.

 But the reality is that in this city, it's DPW who is in charge of the beach, not Parks & Rec.
That's where the blame lies, along with just-departed City Manager Antonio, and the current Mayor and City Commission.
© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved
Could there possibly be any garbage dumpsters in South Florida that are closer to the Atlantic Ocean than these two from the City of Hallandale Beach at North Beach? (The ones you can see because the city doesn't have the required fencing hiding them.) I don't think there are! 
Area to the left is The Apogee condos in Hollywood under construction. 
The public beach where for years, as they do elsewhere, the city just laughs at following its own rules and ordinances, to say nothing of city commissioners ignoring state laws about NOT illegally parking in disabled parking spaces?
© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved
One of the many photos I snapped over the years of Julian's ID on dashboard while he was parked illegally in disabled or disabled- access parking spaces next to the Beachside Cafe at North Beach.  

 (The latter is a common sense state law that for YEARS was routinely abused by former HB Comm. Bill Julian -running again this year- when he drove to the Beachside Cafe, continually parking in what was then THE only disabled parking space nearby, being sure to let everyone know whose car it was, as ID shows.)

 Like the public beach -as depicted in photo above- that has dumpsters that have only needed lids that actually fit and cover the garbage since... 
Those public beaches?

The beaches that rightly ought to be taken away from the control of the city's DPW Dept., who have clearly demonstrated over many years that they are clearly NOT interested in giving HB taxpayers the appealing and clean beach they desperately want, and NOT giving them a dollar's worth of service for a dollar's worth of taxes?
The ones whose care should be outsourced to a licensed and experienced contractor to beautify and properly maintain?
Those public beaches?

Oh, okay, now I got it.
I just wanted to make sure that we were talking about the same beaches in HB I know about, and have been closely observing for years as they have fallen into rapid decline due to the city's very own longstanding neglect, apathy and incompetency.
After all, I certainly wouldn't want to jump to any erroneous conclusions.

Kudos to Tomas for keeping his integrity intact and not hesitating from doing the right thing.
I only wish that most of the people at Hallandale Beach City Hall who've been making the big bucks for years were as deserving of the community's trust, respect and admiration as Tomas was by his display of integrity.
But they're not.

No, sadly, my experience is that when they actually do the right thing, it's usually by accident, NOT by design.
And the proof of that is all around us in this city.
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