Trevor Clarke (lawyer)

Last updated

Sir Trevor Clarke
KBE
Born
Trevor Charles Clarke

1942 (age 82–83)
New Zealand
Occupations
  • Lawyer
  • businessman
  • public servant

Sir Trevor Charles Clarke KBE (born 1942) is a Cook Islands lawyer, businessman, and public servant. He is known as the "father of the Cook Islands tax haven". [1]

Clarke was born in 1942 in New Zealand, and moved to the Cook Islands in 1966. [2] He worked as assistant advocate general and later advocate general from 1966 to 1978. [2] In 1998, he became majority shareholder and chief executive of the Cook Islands Trading Corporation. [2] He is also a director of Island Hotels Limited. He has previously served as president of the Cook Islands Law Society and the Cook Islands Chamber of Commerce. [2]

Clarke was a key figure in the establishment of the Cook Islands as a tax haven in the 1980s, [1] [3] founding the Cook Islands Trust Corporation in 1981, [4] and later becoming a co-founder of the European Pacific Group, [5] the company at the centre of the Winebox Inquiry in New Zealand. During the inquiry he worked as international financial advisor to Cook Islands prime minister Geoffrey Henry, [6] and he was later appointed chair of the Financial Supervisory Commission, responsible for overseeing the offshore finance industry. [7] He stepped down in 2010. [8] He was named as a tax haven client in the Offshore Leaks database. [1] [9]

Clarke was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for services to business and tourism, in the 2025 King's Birthday Honours. [2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Hager, Nicky (7 April 2013). "Money trail leads home to New Zealand". Stuff . Retrieved 19 June 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Lacanivalu, Losirene (18 June 2025). "Clarke receives knighthood for services to business and tourism". Cook Islands News. Retrieved 19 June 2025.
  3. ↑ "Tax shelter attracts corporate big fish". Pacific Islands Monthly. Vol. 57, no. 11. 1 November 1986. pp. 46–47. Retrieved 19 June 2025– via National Library of Australia.
  4. ↑ McCarthy, Angela (1 September 1991). "New blood for a tax haven". Pacific Islands Monthly. Vol. 61, no. 9. p. 60. Retrieved 19 June 2025– via National Library of Australia.
  5. ↑ "Lawyers and accountants help rich manage their money". Mail & Guardian. 5 April 2013. Retrieved 19 June 2025.
  6. ↑ Crocombe, Ron; Crocombe, Marjorie Tuainekore (1997). "Polynesia in Review: Issues and Events, 1 July 1995 to 30 June 1996: The Cook Islands". The Contemporary Pacific: 226.
  7. ↑ "Cook Islands government sets up new offshore finance watchdog". RNZ News . 21 July 2003. Retrieved 19 June 2025.
  8. ↑ "Clarke steps down as FSC Chairman". Cook Islands Herald. 13 August 2010. Retrieved 19 June 2025.
  9. ↑ "Trevor Clarke, tax haven architect and current-day user". Nicky Hager. 30 June 2013. Retrieved 19 June 2025.


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