These private investment corporations or PICs are designed for the purpose of holding and hiding one person s assets. The assets can be real property, money, stock, art or other valuables. The nominal officers, trustees, and shareholders of these shell corporations are, in turn, often shell corporations controlled by the private bank. The PIC then becomes the holder of the various bank and investment accounts, and the ownership of the private bank s client is buried in the records of so-called secrecy jurisdictions, such as the Cayman Islands. They have shell companies in secrecy jurisdictions managed by shell corporations which serve as directors, officers and shareholders.
Private bankers specialize in secrecy.
Even if a client doesn t ask for secrecy, the private banker encourages it. Look at this brochure for Citibank s private bank on their international trust services. Secrecy is such a priority that private bankers are often told by their superiors not to keep any record in the United States disclosing who owns the offshore PICs established by the private bank. One former private banker told us he and his fellow bankers had to hide cheat sheets in their desks, because they weren t allowed to keep names of the offshore accounts they were managing. Since they couldn t remember the names and numbers of all those accounts when they needed them, they would keep a secret list in their desks or with a secretary to help them remember.