International meat
brokers and traders came into the spotlight recently when the story of the ‘Horsemeat
Scandal’ broke and filled the newspapers for several weeks.
Spanghero, which has
since been renamed La Lauragaise, was identified by the French government as
the main player in the horsemeat scandal that saw mislabelled products sold in
several European countries. The French government believes that the sale of
horsemeat labelled as beef went on for six months and involved about 750 tonnes
of meat. Spanghero imported meat from
Romania and sold it on to another company, Comigel, which made frozen ready
meals at its factory in Luxembourg.
The widening scandal
has raised questions about the complexity of the food industry's supply chains
across Europe, which can often include shadowy companies and sole traders based
in virtually unregulated territories and using tax havens and offshore
companies as vehicles for their trade.
One could ask oneself
why certain structures exist.
Take for instance the
case of a Polish national fronting an
offshore company incorporated as say, Intermeet Commodities Ltd (Trading). Intermeet
has Russian sales manager reachable by mobile phone only in St. Peterburg. In
addition, Intermeet has a ‘care of’
address in Monaco - say care of Monaco Poaching & Strategies, a company that for one reason or another might not be able to offer a banking services via its own banking connections.
Transat Maritime SAM
would be an ideal company for Intermeet’s frontman to approach.
Transat could use its
sway with its existing bankers, who already provide banking facilities with
barely a hint of due diligence, to help ‘Intermeet’ set up its much needed bank
account(s).
All that has to
happen now is that Frontman and Sales Manager embark on their meat brokering
activities in and around Europe with the Offshore/care-of/Monaco
vehicle becoming part of the entangled European and International Meat Supply
Circles.
And no one pays to
much attention – Until another scandal breaks
