AMERICAN residents in Bermuda hosted a fundraiser for leading Republican presidential candidate John McCain last month.

It is believed the event was held at the Paget home of former ACE Ltd. chairman Brian Duperreault. The US Senator for Arizona was not in attendance.

Sen. McCain (pictured) has already declared that Bermuda's interests will be protected if he is elected to the White House in the 2008 election.

While on the island on a three-day jaunt this summer, he said he understood insurance and reinsurance companies are concerned by threats to enact legislation as a clamp down on US businesses operating in so-called tax havens. He promised to support the two sectors and the island's tourist industry.

"The industry, the reinsurance that's had such phenomenal success has been good for both nations," he told The Royal Gazette. "I would oppose any measures that would upset that."

The comments contrasted starkly with those posted on his official web site, taken from a speech made to the Senate regarding the Daschle-Liberman Amendment to the Homeland Security bill in 2002.

"The Homeland Security bill prohibits the Secretary from contracting with any 'inverted domestic corporation', which is an American corporation that has reincorporated overseas," Sen. McCain stated.

"More and more US companies are using this highly profitable accounting scheme that allows a company to move its legal residence to offshore tax havens such as Bermuda, where there is no corporate income tax, to shield its profits from taxes.

"I applaud efforts to discourage this practice. Already, at least 25 major corporations have reincorporated or established themselves in Bermuda or the Cayman Islands in the past decade.

"Although I understand that American tax policy has encouraged them to do so, corporations that have moved their legal headquarters offshore to avoid taxes give the appearance of ingratitude to the country whose sons and daughters are risking their lives today to defend them."