Why Does Betsy DeVos's Family Yacht Fly a Foreign Flag? Donald Trump's 'America First' Administratio

[demmiblue]

When someone untied a yacht owned by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’s family, the episode was portrayed as an example of anti-Trump harassment. But the yacht’s foreign flag illustrated how an allegedly “America First” administration is full of moguls who have stashed their wealth offshore in ways that helps them avoid taxes, regulations, transparency requirements and domestic employment laws.

We already know that Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao’s family shipping consortium routes its business through the Marshall Islands—a notoriously secretive tax haven. Federal records detail how Trump’s Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton and Federal Reserve board appointee Randal Quarles held parts of their personal fortunes in investments based in the Cayman Islands, which are not necessarily required to adhere to America’s domestic financial regulations.

Now there’s DeVos, one of the heirs of Amway’s multi-level marketing empire. When the family’s 164-foot yacht was untethered from a Huron, Ohio, dock, it was flying a flag of the Cayman Islands, where the yacht is registered, according to VesselTracker. According to federal records, the yacht is owned by RDV International Marine, which is an affiliate of the company that controls the DeVos family’s fortune.

Like those of other Trump officials, DeVos’s investment portfolio includes Cayman holdings. But as a physical vessel, the yacht is something separate and more tangible, raising a question: why would an American billionaire’s floating palace moored at a northern Ohio dock be registered in an exotic Caribbean archipelago?

https://www.newsweek.com/betsy-devos-cayman-islands-taxes-yacht-flag-foreign-donald-trump-america-1061960?utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=NewsweekTwitter&utm_medium=Social

Link to tweet

[safeinOhio]

1. Taxes are

for the little people

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

2. Or to transport cash in bulk.

Stranger things have happened.

[JDC]

3. Over half of the world's yachts are flagged out of the Caymans

If you have ever been to Newport, RI in the summer and seen all of the multi-multi millions dollar yachts there, you would notice that they all are registered outside of this country. I once asked a captain why that was, he told me that it was because US flagged ships must be staffed by American citizens. If a yacht owner is in the Mediterranean and a chef or captain or crew member gets sick or quits, the yacht owner is stuck there until an American Citizen can be found to replace that member-assuming that the crew member is essential.

I am sure that taxes, lending, ship conversion/remodel laws are all far less "complicated" in the Caymans.

I am not defending the DeVos'. I am sure they are doing it to shelter cash and to avoid taxes.

[Mc Mike]

4. Home is where her bank accounts are.