The big hitters of the offshore world will be heading to Miami for one of the most keenly anticipated events on the calender next month.

The 8th Annual OffshoreAlert Financial Due Diligence Conference, run by former Royal Gazette business reporter David Marchant in association with Grant Thornton at the Ritz-Carlton in South Beach from May 2 to 4, will attract a range of speakers and delegates from law enforcement, regulators and financial fraud experts to bankers, lawyers and whistleblowers.

Of most interest to the Bermuda audience will be Michael Foot, chairman of the Promontory Financial Group (UK) and author of the UK Government-commissioned report on British offshore financial centres (OFC), who will be discussing his findings and what he believes the future holds for jurisdictions such as Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands.

Former Julius Baer (Cayman) senior officer Rudolf Elmer will also talk about why he became a whistleblower for the world's tax authorities, and Charlie Rawl will give an insight into the Allen Stanford Group, where he used to work and whose downfall he was partly responsible for when he went to the US authorities with tales of wrongdoing long before its collapse.

Mr. Marchant said the conference would focus on fraud and asset recovery, money laundering and compliance, and investigations and intelligence, with an emphasis on OFCs.

He said the aim of the event was to provide attendees with credible information about key aspects of offshore finance so they could make better-informed decisions.

"Offshore finance is a constant game of cat-and-mouse between governments of onshore and offshore jurisdictions," he said.

"The goal-posts are forever being shifted and what's legal one year might well be illegal the next. If you want to stay in the game for the long-term, you need to stay on top of the latest developments. Our conference allows attendees to do that."

Mr. Marchant said that what set his conference apart from the rest was seeking to get the truth and to the heart of the matter of what was really going on.

"Offshore conferences are usually organised by industry associations and are often little more than pep rallies designed to make attendees feel good about themselves by exposing them only to pro-offshore speakers who are, essentially, preaching to the choir," he said.

"They are 'head-in-the-sand' affairs where everyone pretends that everything is rosy, although they know deep down that it isn't. There tends to be little or no balance, few people in attendance who do not live in the host jurisdiction and little or no press coverage."

He said the OffshoreAlert conference was neither pro nor anti-OFCs and did not favour one jurisdiction over another, as reflected in its sessions on how US jurisdictions and banks facilitate crime.

"Our independence and impartiality allows us to attract senior speakers and attendees from both sides of the fence," he said.

"Tax collectors mingle with tax minimisers, asset tracers with asset protectors, whistleblowers with their former employers, crooks with prosecutors, and regulators with the regulated."

For more information about The OffshoreAlert Conference visit www.OffshoreAlertConference.com