Legally speaking, an offshore company is nothing else than a company. Is it legal to set up a company? Absolutely. It is what you use the company for that determines its legal status.
Presently, millions of offshore companies are being used across the globe in total legality. Be it to own property, act as a holding vehicle, conduct business, own trademarks , trade...all these activities are done within a legal and tax framework that is known and established by authorities.
When does it become a problem ? Upon using a company with criminal intentions such as but not limited to : evading taxes, launder money, trading without proper license for an activity that requires one, bribery, human trafficking etc
And this is precisely what has brought bad publicity to the industry over recent years. Some isolated cases have impacted anyone owning or having the intention to own an offshore company.
While SFM onboards numerous clients every year, we conduct strict due diligence and Know Your Client processes and are sometimes forced to refuse or report clients that we know, or have strong suspicions, conduct criminal activities.
To learn more about our compliance standards, please click on this
link and refer to the articles 5 to 7 of our T&C’s