During June of 2019, I wrote a six-part series of articles on Silverpoint, at the time it was exclusive news as the title “Exclusive Breaking News: The Truth Behind Silverpoint Exposed (Part One)” suggests. Through information received it slowly became clear the setup of all the companies was a complex one, manufactured to be just that.
Today we start a rewritten version, it is a story which is still unfolding with all the investigations taking place, it is also important to see how complex the situation is, and the difficulties of the various law enforcement agencies in Spain and elsewhere are facing.
What we all know as Silverpoint is just another company in a complex web of deceit and gathering of wealth. The man behind what was one of the largest timeshare empires in Europe was the late Robert “Bob” Trotta. He was not alone in organising the “group” finances, taking control was his “Financial Wizard” who with the connivance of cronies further down the pecking order they began their elaborate financial game.
Resort Properties founded by Bob Trotta in the early 1980s was based in Tenerife and was the first stage in the establishment of what was to become one of the major timeshare companies in Europe. It would eventually have a voice and influence on the industry “Trade Body” and other “influential” organisations in the industry.
Being seen as one of the “founding fathers” of the Industry in Europe he built four resorts in Tenerife. Selling these resorts as timeshare, it is believed over two hundred million pounds worth was sold. And that was just the beginning.
Bob Trotta married for a second time to Ragni a Norwegian lady who was formerly in Timeshare Marketing & living in Tenerife. On leaving Tenerife they relocated to London where they enjoyed “Non-Domicile Tax Status.”
Always looking to impress he set up the Global HQ for his myriad companies (Limora Group), the offices were based in the exclusive Mayfair area of London. Both lived the high life with a multi-million-pound home in Chelsea and only the best Aston Martin Sports cars would do.
Enter The “Financial Wizard,” or “Guru,” Kwang Boon Sim, who would become the most important and influential person in the whole Trotta Empire.
Hired with only one purpose, “not to pay any tax,” Kwang was the mastermind behind the huge web of offshore companies, many of which are still in existence today. Using a very clever “Offshore Trust” Bob Trotta and Ragni were the sole beneficiaries and controllers of the trust until his death in 2017.
Kwang Boon Sim was well known in the timeshare industry, he was affectionately known by his nickname “The Chinaman” or “El Chino” and the impression he cultivated was of a deeply religious man. He had ties with the Mormon Church working as a Mormon Bishop, this is looking like a script for the James Bond Movie Licence to Kill, a clever “American Tycoon” teams up with an equally clever man masquerading as a religious leader who very quietly and stealthily creates an overly complex web of offshore havens. The sole intent was quite simple, deprive many local economies and countries of their rightful and lawful tax and get rich doing it.
It was extraordinarily successful, over the years Kwang managed to avoid paying taxes and moved Tens of Millions of Pounds from one set of companies through a web of others using tax havens disguising the money as “intercompany loans.”
The local managers of these companies had no control over the money or what happened to it. It was Kwang who controlled and ran the financial department from his Mayfair HQ with what can only be described as an “Iron Fist.”
Trotta also had another problem to contend with, the US Tax Authorities, or IRS, (they got Al Capone), who have a policy and reputation for worldwide taxation of their citizens, so Robert “Bob” Trotta relinquished his US citizenship.
He took up Italian citizenship (again this could be the setting for another movie) living like a true Italian mobster in a huge mansion set in the estate of his hotel the Luxurious Castello Del Nero.
Bob and Ragni racked it in and were living like a king and queen on their estate. The estate was set in seven hundred acres of rolling Tuscan countryside, all within the grounds of their hotel worth fifty million Euros. All the while Kwang kept the funds flowing into Panama and the British Virgin Islands
Bob along with his two daughters Jennifer Campbell and Erin Trotta spent the long summers in Italy with their respective families. One of the husbands (Jennifer’s) Douglas Campbell was for a while the group’s CEO making sure the family fortunes were protected, all under the watchful eye of his mentor “El Chino”.
Our opening chapter has now set the scene and yes, it is straight out of a “Hollywood Blockbuster,” but unlike Hollywood, this is real people and real people being harmed, in our next episode it was not all as cosy within the family as it appeared. As in true Hollywood style, GREED was to play its part.
