Government officials have admitted there is nothing they can do to prevent negligent business people from opening new companies after walking away from bankrupt operations.

Some jurisdictions enforce strict laws whereby directors of bankrupt companies -- who are judged to be directly linked to failed companies -- are first disqualified then suspended for up to 15 years, lawyer Robin Mayor told The Royal Gazette .

But Bermuda has no such laws in place: "What you are asking is can the principals behind a company that has gone into liquidation start a new company? There is nothing to prevent them from doing so in Bermuda. In other jurisdictions there are restrictions, I believe.'' In the UK, disqualified directors of bankrupt companies are restricted from serving as the directors of other companies from two to 15 years.

Shadow Minister of Finance, Dr. Grant Gibbon told The Royal Gazette : "There is a piece of UK legislation that allows the UK regulator to prevent someone who has been the director of a business that has gone bankrupt from serving on the boards of other companies if it is clear that they contributed to the bankruptcy of the original company through negligence.

"The legislation allows some discretion by the regulator as to whether the person will be prohibited from being the director for other companies.'' Ms Mayor noted one preventative measure in place on the Island is Ministerial intervention.

She said: "One of the formalities in Bermuda is ministerial permission and in theory, the minister could refuse to consent to the incorporation of a new company. He's not required to give reasons.'' She said: "The only other impediment is if the directors are using a similar name and are going to be doing similar business, the liquidator of the first company may be able to take some action to prevent the commencement of that business. That action would be based on the ownership or an economic interest in the name of the new company.'' But, not all companies on the Island are incorporated. And Stephen Lowe, Assistant Official Receiver for the Registrar of Companies, noted there is nothing that can be done to prevent people in Bermuda from going into business whether the businesses are incorporated or not.

John Barritt, Shadow Minister for Legislative Affairs, noted that corporate bankruptcy has nothing directly to do with the directors of the companies involved.

"We can't go after shareholders personally. You don't want to stop people from going into business again.'' He also noted: "People must realise that they will always be limited in what you can claim if a company goes belly up because that's the nature of limited liability companies.'' And he said it is the Minister's responsibility to make sure the company did the best to meet its responsibilities.

Mr. Barritt admitted that he had never considered stricter legislation about the winding up of companies until he read the article about German visitors Gunter and Regina Einmal in Monday's Royal Gazette .

And they are now distressed that the company's former owners have gone on to open further pottery companies.

Mr. Gibbons, noted legislation such as that in place in the UK could have prevented the upset caused to the Einmals.

Mr. Gibbons noted that a similar piece of legislation was looked at when he was the Minister of Finance and suggested that it should be revisited now.

But Eugene Cox, Minister of Finance said: "These are the things we've been doing since we have been in Government -- reviewing and changing laws.