It's been three months since Jacob Zuma took power as South Africa's President, and things are hardly going well.  As the global economy continues to sputter, Mr. Zuma is finding himself in a difficult position…and losing support from his key constituencies.This morning's Wall Street Journal reports that "tens of thousands" of municipal workers are striking in Johannesburg, South Africa's economic epicenter.  As someone who has a great affection for South Africa and can attest to the remarkable success of the nation, particularly when compared to its regional neighbors, this concerns me.The strikes are happening in a hodge-podge fashion so far, but one particularly troubling strike involved a weeklong work stoppage earlier in July by the constructi…

It was back in 1988 when I first sat down to teach Border Patrolofficers stationed at the very porous El Paso/Ciudad Juarez border the difference between legitimate "Micas " – border crossing cards (BCCs) – and those which were fraudulent.  Incredible as it seems, the profitable art of subtle photo replacement and modified signatures was thriving along the U.S./Mexico border long before the advent of the color copier would make places like Manila epicenters of sophisticated document fraud.Back in Juarez, we saw it ALL.  I could write a book about the fraud perpetuated at the border, and I remember lively discussions with my wonderful visa section boss, Mike Hogan, and our incredibly astute Consul General, Louis Goelz, over the problem.  I served as Fraud Officer fo…

As the U.S. cruise industry continues to scramble to meet the various compliance matters placed back on the front burner by the Obama administration, some lawyers are getting a little creative in their efforts to make a buck.  All of this came to light last week when an old friend contacted me with what appeared to be a simple question:"Do cruise ship employees require a TWIC card?" (TWIC is the new biometric ID card designed to provide better port access security.)The answer would appear obvious:  since the entire TWIC purpose is to create secure port access for the commercial maritime sector, it would appear that cruise workers would be a part of those needing registration, along with merchant mariners, port facility employees, long shore workers, truckdrivers, and ot…

As an attorney who spends a substantial part of his time worryingabout how corporate clients run their internal compliance programs, it is easyto forget that employment verification isn’t ONLY about protecting employersfrom fines and sanctions…it is also about insuring the integrity of a processwhich, mishandled, can infringe upon the rights of eligible U.S. workers. As the Obama Administration significantly increases its I-9 auditactivity and I receive more calls from concerned employers and their providers,the subject of E-Verify – or whatever acronym the final version of our nationalelectronic employment verification system – is making the mainstreamheadlines.  Some folks believe that thecurrent E-Verify system is just fine and works well; others, predictably thosein the co…

Today's Miami Herald reports on the case of 37 year old Luis Jimenez, an illegal immigrant whose serious brain injury had cost Martin Memorial Medical Center over $1.5 million…until the hospital decided to solve it's problem by secretly shipping Mr. Jimenez back to Guatemala.My blog today isn't intended to look into the indisputably sleazy actions of Martin Memorial, which unilaterally decided to send a mentally incapacitated man out of the U.S.  The Herald said that Martin Memorial summarily chartered a plane to send him home "without telling his relatives in theU.S. or Guatemala – even as his legal guardian frantically sought tostop the move."  The hospital feebly responds that Mr. Jimenez, despite his incapacitation,  "wanted to go home&quo…

Let's call him Pierre, since I can't tell you his real name.Pierre, a wealthy European businessman in his early 60's, was a picture of health.  A daily tennis player and avid cyclist, he carried the sculpted physique of a man half his age.  With an E-2 Treaty Investor visa and smoothly running U.S. business, Pierre divided his time equally between the U.S. and Switzerland, where he was active in real estate.One day, as he was leaving to meet friends for dinner in South Beach, he felt a little tug on his left arm and chest.  He pulled his car over and observed the sensation, trying to decide whether he should proceed to dinner or instead head to the emergency room.  Being a prudent man, Pierre headed to the hospital.Three days later, after an initial 12 ho…

Despite the long-standing understanding that "if you own it, control it, or benefit from anything anywhere, you must tell the IRS", last week's IRS comments suggest that the plot has thickened substantially for offshore investors…especially those with an eye on U.S. residency.In the world of offshore banking, there are technically a wide number of justifications for nationals of a given country to park their assets in a tax haven.  Despite this, the real reason comes down to asset protection…from income taxes, from estate taxes, from litigation, etc.Last week, the IRS issued an opinion which formalizes the need for hedge-fund and private equity investors to disclose EVERYTHING they have offshore. The new position is consistent with the other stuff unfolding in Obama…

While the headlines have been full of painful stories regarding those who lost millions to Madoff's Ponzi scheme, wealthy clients who did not invest with him are taking a fresh new look at their financial management teams…and deciding they can do better. Last week, as reports of client defections from UBS were sifting through the Internet, Credit Suisse’s CEO, Walter Berchtold, told London's Financial Times that Credit Suisse had actually been attracting more “new wealth clients” so far in 2009 than anyoneelse.  The CEO has his “eyes set on besting UBS”, still considered to be the number one player in the sector. According to another article on the subject of wealthy investors' response to the financial crisis,  42% of high net worth individuals  �…

Delayed again: for the 4th time in 2009, the U.S. governmenthas delayed the start of mandatory E-Verify compliance, extending the deadlinefrom June 30 to at least Sept. 8. The U.S. Dept. of Justice recently asked a federal court inMaryland for a stay, where the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has filed suit againstthe law, saying it needs more time to review the rule and itsimplications.  The stay was granted onTuesday. THE PROBLEM: delaying the inevitable.  As I continue to discuss I-9 compliance withdozens of employers and their attorneys, I am flabbergasted at how theseextensions seem to take the wind out of the sails of those companiesunderstanding the critical need to establish a compliance plan BEFORE E-Verifybecomes mandatory. THE SOLUTION: it remains my admittedly self-serving o…