This is a list of the major tax havens* we believe to be used by the Teachers Group in 2015.
The group’s key offshore holding companies and financial trusts appear to be registered and still active in Jersey, the Isle of Man, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, with others possible in the Cayman Islands and elsewhere.
Some were identified by Danish police in their 2001 investigation, but others (especially in Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Mauritius) have been registered as recently as 2013.
*Major territories designated as tax havens by the Tax Justice Network’s Financial Secrecy Index, 2013. (The Teachers Group is also commercially active in many other FSI-designated territories, including for example Brazil, India and Estonia.)
Current Teachers Group tax havens:
Jersey
Two secret trusts and at least five major offshore holding companies
Isle of Man
Four known currently active offshore holding companies
Four offshore entities connected with Humana, Planet Aid and Gaia
Liechtenstein
Three known Humana offshore companies, probably involved in the used clothing trade
Cayman Islands
Unknown number of active companies: current information difficult of access
Cyprus
An investment company is a shareholder in the European used clothes trade
Hong Kong
Eight known companies concerned with trade, furniture and drop-in boxes
Mauritius
An offshore company owns banana plantations in Africa
Delaware (USA)
At least five companies, dealing with used clothes, property and schools
London (United Kingdom)
Important companies connected to agribusiness and African art sales
British Virgin Islands
A holding company for USAgain may be active
The Netherlands
Various Humana companies and foundations
Belize
Holding and commercial companies connected to agribusiness
Teachers Group offshore companies
This is a listing of the most important offshore companies we have identified
Jersey
The Farmers Trust and the Hobbhouse Trust (Jersey)
Anonymous trusts, about which it is impossible to find any information at all.
The Hobbhouse Company Limited (Jersey)
Teachers Group offshore ‘money box’.
Fairbank, Cooper & Lyle Ltd. (FC&L) (Jersey, 1991, restructured 2000)
Important catch-all offshore holding company which owns, through subsidiaries, most of the TG landholdings, many school buildings, and several used-clothes recycling enterprises.
Argyll Smith & Company (Jersey, 1989)
FC&L subsidiary that owns the DRH colleges. AS Properties in Delaware (1997) is an FCL subsidiary company that owns the US colleges
Atlantic Farming Ltd and Bahia Farming Brazil Ltd (Jersey, 1990-91)
Agribusiness
Isle of Man
McCorry and Co (Isle of Man, 1995)
Timber trade.
Trayton Holdings Ltd (Isle of Man, 1995)
Holding company for furniture manufacture in China
Switzerland
(all registered between 1999 and 2013)
The Humana Federation (Association)
Humana People-to-People (Foundation)
Humana and Planet Aid Finance (Societe Anonyme)
Gaia Movement Trust (Association)
Liechtenstein
Humana People-to-People Asia Establishment (2009)
Humana People-to-People Europe Establishment (2009)
Humana People-to-People Asia Eastern trust (2006)
Cayman Islands
Likely company names include Caribbean Farming, Tropical Farming, Tropical Produce Trading and Agricorp. No information available.
United Kingdom
Mount Lezard Estate Limited (UK, 1990)
Agribusiness in the Caribbean, but a company with many important names on the board
Friends Forever (International) Ltd (UK, 2004)
Importing African sculpture from Zimbabwe
World Art Promotion (UK, 2008)
Unknown
Delaware
Garson & Shaw Inc (Delaware, USA, 1999)
Used clothes trade (international broker)
The Gaia Movement Trust
Gaia clothes collections
TS Recycling
Holding company for used clothes trade
USAgain (four companies)
Commercial used clothes collections
AS Properties
School properties in the USA
McCorry (three companies)
Timber and furniture
Offshore shell companies 1983-1995, now dissolved
Between 1983 and the 1990s the Teachers Group additionally registered more than 50 offshore companies in Guernsey, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar and Hong Kong.
According to Danish police and other sources, these companies were to transfer money for property purchases in Brazil and the United States, and for hidden transactions in the charitable and commercial used clothing trade. Many of these companies have since closed.
In addition to the most famous tax havens, the following countries where the Teachers Group has a commercial or charitable presence have all been designated as ‘offshore financial centres’ by the International Monetary Fund, the Tax Justice Network or the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development:
Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Botswana, India, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Guatemala, India, Italy, Latvia, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain and Sweden.
