million investment fraud which has seen 11 people criminally indicted in the US.

A story on the indictment and apparent shady business dealings of Hammersmith Trust, Microfund and Luxor Capital Markets featured in this month's edition of the maverick business newsletter InsideBermuda.

The three trading programmes were reportedly promising high returns at a low risk for big investors. But an indictment followed after US investigators held that the millions of dollars taken were partially laundered by an Antigua-based `paper' bank called AMPAC Bank and Trust which maintained accounts with the Bank of Bermuda in Bermuda.

Bank of Bermuda spokesperson Elizabeth Tee, when asked about the Bank's connection, said: "We are aware of it and are looking into it.'' Ms Tee refused to elaborate on the single line statement and would not divulge when the Bank had begun their probe and what if anything had been unearthed.

According to the InsideBermuda article, the US government criminally indicted 11 people including four attorneys, for an alleged $95 million investment fraud.

The case was reportedly so sensitive that the indictment was initially sealed to allow the US government time to carry out the arrests.

The article also notes that the indictment, filed on June 20 in Florida, charges all 11 defendants with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to launder money.

Four of the 11 defendants it is also noted, have been charged with specific acts of money laundering between 1998 and 1999. One of the two men that started the programme, David Gilland, faces a total of 32 counts.

In the article US attorney P. Michael Patterson of the northern District of Florida is quoted as saying that the investment programmes never existed but were a multi-million dollar pyramid scheme where "latter investors' funds were used to pay for former investors to promote the fraud''.

"Investors' monies were laundered through a number of different corporate entities and bank accounts on and offshore until eventually disbursed for the benefit of the defendants. In all the defendants took in approximately $95 million in investor funds,'' Mr. Patterson is reported to have said.

In the article Mr. Patterson also claims that AMPAC Bank and Trust in Antigua "was nothing more than a series of bank accounts in Bermuda used by the defendants to move investor monies offshore''.

David Bishara, the owner and operator of AMPAC Bank and Trust, is reportedly one of the 11 indicted.