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Masters of Paradise: Organized Crime and the Internal Revenue Service in the Bahamas
This is the story of organized crime’s penetration of the islands and the corruption of its high officials during the time The Bahamas become politically independent of Great Britain. It describes secret U.S. Internal Revenue Service operations aimed at American criminals involved in Bahamian-based tax scams and similar crimes. Block paints a devastating picture of a symbiotic relationship among off-shore tax havens in The Bahamas, sophisticated American criminals, and complacent public officials in the United States. During the 1960s and 1970s, the I.R.S. launched major investigations into American organized crime and the subterranean economy of The Bahamas. Block’s access to the private papers of many of the key players in these affairs has given him a unique perspective. He has uncovered details of crime, corruption, and bureaucratic infighting within and among the U.S. Treasury and Justice Departments that have been largely unrecognized by previous researchers. Block shows how important links in the international traffic in cocaine were forged in the Bahamas, in full view of American officials. Masters of Paradise raises major questions about American law enforcement officials’ commitment to fighting complex international crime during the 1960s and the 1970s. While there have been other studies of tax havens, money laundering, and offshore investigations, Block’s access to information and his grasp of its meaning is unique. Professionals interested in the history and sociology of organized crime and the underground economy will find this book eye-opening. General readers interested in organized crime and political corruption will find it absorbing.
319 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1991
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December 21, 2013
The author taught in the Administration of Justice program at Pennsylvania State; he’s not the Alan A. Block who writes on education.
MASTERS OF PARADISE describes the corruption of the Bahamas by American racketeers and its use as a multiservice crime depot for the scum of all nations from the 1960s through the 1980s. It centers on the only serious American effort to strike at illegal tax shelters and money-laundering there, a ten-year IRS undercover operation called Operation Tradewinds. And it shows how political interference, much of it within the IRS, destroyed Tradewinds.
The book is merely a preliminary survey of an important topic. Readers who already understand money laundering and tax fraud can compile a list of incidents for further research. Others may have difficulty following the story. Block wants to show that events in the Bahamas originated from broader criminal designs. The events themselves usually aren’t described or connected with any precision.
Furthermore, Block’s determination to fill in the context of events makes it hard on readers. He chooses to go through developments in the Bahamas chronologically but interrupts himself to give the background of every new player who appears. There are a lot of interruptions.
As an example: Block begins the story of casino development in Freeport with a man named Groves, who formed a company called the Port Authority with partners including a consortium run by a man named Allen. We read on Page 32 that in 1961 some owners of the Port Authority formed a company called DEVCO to build a resort.
But having gotten this far, Block takes time away from DEVCO to describe a Canadian realtor named Chesler, who was one of the company’s organizers.
We find out how Chesler met Allen while Allen was organizing a film distribution company in the 1950s. We learn that Chesler ran stock frauds with Meyer Lansky. The Lansky tie is then explained by Chesler’s earlier criminal career in the 1940s, when Chesler knew a man named Pullman, who knew a man named Bloom who introduced Pullman to Lansky; it was Pullman who later introduced Chesler to Lansky. The account of this line of introductions is interrupted by the remark that Lansky also knew Dave Berman and Trigger Mike Coppola in the 1930s. Block then says that in 1958 Lansky and Chesler participated in a Miami hotel deal with a man named Cooper who knew Lyndon Johnson’s notorious aide Bobby Baker...
After five pages of this background, the account of DEVCO resumes. The company’s activity from 1961 through 1963 is covered in half a page.
The repeated pauses for background are especially frustrating because much of the information is taken from secondary sources. It will be familiar to many of the readers likely to be interested in this book.
The book’s final chapters describe the termination of Tradewinds. They are based on primary research and tell a story worth knowing.
MASTERS OF PARADISE describes the corruption of the Bahamas by American racketeers and its use as a multiservice crime depot for the scum of all nations from the 1960s through the 1980s. It centers on the only serious American effort to strike at illegal tax shelters and money-laundering there, a ten-year IRS undercover operation called Operation Tradewinds. And it shows how political interference, much of it within the IRS, destroyed Tradewinds.
The book is merely a preliminary survey of an important topic. Readers who already understand money laundering and tax fraud can compile a list of incidents for further research. Others may have difficulty following the story. Block wants to show that events in the Bahamas originated from broader criminal designs. The events themselves usually aren’t described or connected with any precision.
Furthermore, Block’s determination to fill in the context of events makes it hard on readers. He chooses to go through developments in the Bahamas chronologically but interrupts himself to give the background of every new player who appears. There are a lot of interruptions.
As an example: Block begins the story of casino development in Freeport with a man named Groves, who formed a company called the Port Authority with partners including a consortium run by a man named Allen. We read on Page 32 that in 1961 some owners of the Port Authority formed a company called DEVCO to build a resort.
But having gotten this far, Block takes time away from DEVCO to describe a Canadian realtor named Chesler, who was one of the company’s organizers.
We find out how Chesler met Allen while Allen was organizing a film distribution company in the 1950s. We learn that Chesler ran stock frauds with Meyer Lansky. The Lansky tie is then explained by Chesler’s earlier criminal career in the 1940s, when Chesler knew a man named Pullman, who knew a man named Bloom who introduced Pullman to Lansky; it was Pullman who later introduced Chesler to Lansky. The account of this line of introductions is interrupted by the remark that Lansky also knew Dave Berman and Trigger Mike Coppola in the 1930s. Block then says that in 1958 Lansky and Chesler participated in a Miami hotel deal with a man named Cooper who knew Lyndon Johnson’s notorious aide Bobby Baker...
After five pages of this background, the account of DEVCO resumes. The company’s activity from 1961 through 1963 is covered in half a page.
The repeated pauses for background are especially frustrating because much of the information is taken from secondary sources. It will be familiar to many of the readers likely to be interested in this book.
The book’s final chapters describe the termination of Tradewinds. They are based on primary research and tell a story worth knowing.
January 5, 2019
This is an important book that somehow got passed over or blackballed. It focuses on the Castle Bank which involved the Pritzker family.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews