By Mairi Mallon A former business reporter for The Royal Gazette and publisher of the sometimes maverick newsletter Offshore Alert has been attributed with bringing down a bank in the Caribbean.

In Sunday's edition of The Miami Herald headlined "Miami Journalist's Newsletter Brings Down A Caribbean Bank'', David Marchant is credited with bringing down the First International Bank of Grenada.

The article states: "He didn't set out to cause a scandal in Grenada -- but then again, he had no intention of backing down from it either.

"David Marchant, who publishes a little-known Miami newsletter called Offshore Alert, first started raking the muck of First International Bank of Grenada 18 months ago.'' And Marchant, who is quoted as saying "every stone I turned over was fraud'', said a simple tip from a source set the investigation in motion.

According to the article, at first he had little impact -- something not surprising, perhaps, given that his newsletter has a readership of about 1,000.

The piece went on to say that not everyone appreciated his efforts. The bank sued him in Miami, although the case was dismissed. And Grenadian officials reported there was nothing wrong.

And it said that when the bank came unravelled last month, Marchant felt vindicated. It added: "The Grenadian government -- Marchant makes no effort to mask his disdain for its regulatory prowess -- is in charge of mopping up the mess.'' Marchant is reported as saying: "We really brought down the bank. It would have gone down eventually, but these schemes can go on a long time. The thing is, con men are not very bright.'' The article says that Marchant, British by birth, has spent his journalistic career in the Caribbean.

It said: "After travelling the region extensively, he eventually settled in Bermuda, where he published a newsletter called Inside Bermuda.

"Suffice it to say, the Bermuda power structure wasn't amused. So they revoked his work permit. `They didn't march me to the airport,' Marchant says.

`But basically they threw me out'.'' The article goes on to say, according to observers, that Marchant's pen is particularly pointed.

"He doesn't mince words,'' says Charlie Intriago, publisher of another Miami newsletter, Money Laundering Alert, is quoted as saying. "I look at his stories sometimes and go, Whoa.'' The Miami Herald said Marchant focused on the Caribbean, in part because it was off the radar screen of most mainstream publications and there was a dearth of information about Caribbean banking havens which only naturally meant some abuses occurred.

Marchant is quoted as saying: "There's a lot of money offshore.'' And the article added: "While ink may ultimately overpower scams, however, sometimes it's a close contest. Banking havens don't always appreciate being pricked by journalists' pens. Ditto for the Garbo-like financial institutions that want to be left alone.

"Case in point: the notorious Bank of Credit and Commerce International. The Caribbean branch offices of this Mideast institution reportedly handled banking duties for Colombian cocaine cartels. Its lies to US banking regulators eventually led to the indictment of their attorney, the late Clark Clifford, one of Washington's most storied power brokers. (Charges were later dismissed due to his age and declining health, but BCCI collapsed.) "Somewhat surprisingly, though, Marchant isn't a dyed-in-the-wool critic of the sometimes shadowy world of Caribbean offshore banking. `It's like anywhere else,' he says. `There's good money and bad money'.'' The Miami Herald says customers pay $595-a-year for a subscription to Offshore Alert. A healthy slice of his circulation, he says, is high net-worth individuals, who like the idea of both offshore privacy and lax regulation, provided they're dealing with trustworthy individuals.

And it says that if there's one thing Marchant doesn't lack for it's raw material.

It closes by saying: "First International Bank of Grenada, for instance, is considered likely to cost depositors, mostly Americans who were looking for a tax dodge, tens of millions of dollars.'' NEWSPAPER NJ