A legal dispute in Canada over the control of trusts has revealed Singapore as one of the temporary destinations for billions of dollars allegedly moved for tax avoidance.
In a ruling published last week, Quebec Superior Court judge Bernard Synnott detailed the allegations from a legal dispute between Montreal-based Blue Bridge Wealth Management and a law firm owned by two Paris-based lawyers over the control of trusts. In addition to the dispute itself, Synnott also highlighted tax avoidance efforts by the two parties which involved billions of dollars and multiple locations.
«Is Canada a tax haven? At least that’s what the parties in this case think,» Synnott said in a «Bloomberg» report citing the ruling.
300-Plus Trusts
According to the ruling, the two sides were involved in the management of as much as tens of billions of euros across at least 300 trusts. In a testimonial by one of the Paris-based lawyers and ex-Blue Bridge employee Delphine Doron, she said that her law firm would regularly destroy computers and use nicknames to protect the identity of trust beneficiaries.
Secrecy of client names was maintained until 2021 when Canadian courts ruled that they could no longer keep information about the beneficiaries concealed from French authorities. Media reports also emerged revealing prominent figures including the Seydoux brothers, cinema moguls in France.
Masterminds
Court papers noted that the mastermind behind the operations is retired Paris lawyer Jacques Le Blevennec, a former official at France’s finance ministry. Le Blevennec worked with Blue Bridge founder Alain E Roch, a former UBS and Julius Baer banker in Switzerland and Canada.
«After Roch meets Le Blevennec in 2005, rich families flock to Blue Bridge with hundreds of millions, even billions,» the judge wrote. «Without beneficiary anonymity, the house of cards collapses, taking with it the income of Roch and Blue Bridge.»
Stopover in Singapore
Billions were initially «hidden» in Bermuda before it signed a tax treaty with France, the judge wrote. The vast majority of the money was moved to Singapore thereafter for two years before shifting over to Canada over fears that the city-state would no longer protect the identity of the trust beneficiaries.
«The court ruled on the application and interpretation of national and international tax rules related to trusts, complex issues which were not before the Court and on which the parties to the dispute have had the opportunity to make neither evidence nor representations,» said a statement from Blue Bridge which disagreed with the characterization of Canada as a tax haven.
