A conservative American publication has accused Bermuda of helping to funnel millions in illegal foreign investment into American universities.

However, last night, the Government rebuffed any claims of wrongdoing, noting the longstanding work of Bermuda officials globally to build the island’s reputation for integrity.

A government spokesman for the finance ministry responded to the claims: “The island has worked hard to build a global reputation for transparency, compliance and co-operation, consistently faring well internationally.

“Significant time and resources have been dedicated to developing and operationalising US and other multilateral tax agreements that allow for the efficient sharing of information to ensure compliance with international requirements.”

Alana Goodman made the accusations in The Washington Free Beacon.

“She wrote: ”Since 2021, US universities reported receiving over $600 million from donors in Bermuda, $280 million from Guernsey, $25 million from the British Virgin Islands, $25 million from the Bahamas, $17.5 million from Cayman Islands, and $11 million from the island of Jersey, Department of Education records show.”

The right-leaning publication has the motto: “Covering the enemies of freedom the way the mainstream media won’t.”

Ms Goodman stated that while American universities were required to disclose those foreign donors to the federal government under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act, the Biden administration broke precedent with previous administrations by withholding the names of foreign donors to the public.

The article went on to name various firms suspected of moving funds through islands such as Guernsey and the Cayman Islands but did not actually name any associated with Bermuda.

It followed another article printed earlier this week in Duke University’s online magazine The Chronicle.

This article claimed that Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, has reported financial ties with Bermuda, Mauritius and the Cayman Islands in its 2023 fiscal year.

The university renowned for its medical programme and research, is ranked fourteenth in wealth in the United States, with an endowment totalling $11.9 billion at the end of fiscal year 2024.

The Chronicle said that Duke, like many elite universities, funds most of its operations through the profits generated by investing funds held in an endowment.

Student journalist Ana Despa wrote that for the financial year 2023, Duke reported relationships to two corporations in the Cayman Islands and one in Bermuda – Durham Casualty Company Ltd.

Durham Casualty has a class 3 licence in Bermuda and is believed to be a Duke captive.

Duke’s orthopaedic surgery website states that its malpractice insurance is provided to trainees at Duke through Durham Casualty Company, “a wholly owned subsidiary of Duke University’s health system”.

The company, registered in Bermuda in 2001, has offices at Point House in Hamilton, Bridgetown, Barbados and Durham, North Carolina, where Duke University is located.

In the article, Ms Despa mistakenly referred to Bermuda as a “Caribbean nation”, and likened it in size to 790-mile long Mauritius.

She also quoted from the Corporate Tax Haven Index, a website published by the Tax Justice Network, which ranks Cayman as the second-biggest jurisdiction complicit in helping multinational corporations underpay corporate income tax, and Bermuda as the third.