Wealth concealment enters an era of geographical ubiquity
PACIFIC
I have just been for a fortnight’s jaunt to the Pacific, in which I sought stories I can tell in the new book I am researching. It was by turns fascinating, fun and frustrating, and I look forward to sharing some of the tales with you. I spent a week in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a little bit of America that feels extremely far from the United States, and a week in the Marshall Islands, which feels extremely far from anywhere.
The journey back was delayed by United Airlines, which cost me a couple of days and resulted in my jetlag colliding with a long-scheduled, weekend-long party at my house, and I am feeling more than a little vague. Apologies therefore in advance that this newsletter is shorter than normal (and if it doesn’t make much sense).
TRUST TAKEOVER
Around 2 a.m. on Saturday, while sitting around a fire, I had a conversation with some friends about dodgy money and, specifically, about the best place to stash it. And, yes, this is the kind of thing I talk about at parties. (I’m pretty sure they were asking my opinion just for interest’s sake rather than because they wanted investment advice, since if any of them were a billionaire, they’d probably be at a more glamorous venue than my garden, but for the avoidance of doubt, seek advice from a regulated professional, etc., etc., rather than from a scurrilous muckraker like me.)
I thought about it for a while and said that the answer was probably South Dakota, thanks to the state’s trust legislation, which creates an unrivaled shield around money placed therein, protecting it from governments looking to tax it, creditors looking to confiscate it and journalists looking to scrutinize it — the three threats to a billionaire’s peace of mind.