Fact? Fiction? Or somewhere in between? You decide.

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Luxembourg is like a sleeping beauty in the heart of the European Union. Her state of sleeping is deceptive. Her beauty is real--in the eye of the beholder who is invisible to the uninitiated. The beholder has to be invisible. Otherwise, s/he will be exposed as a money-launderer. No Prince(ss) Charming is supposed to be laundering money. After all, a fairy tale should have no use for dirty laundry. Meanwhile, in a real-life story, don't expect a money launderer to come clean about anything, and I mean anything, until and unless being forced to do so.

For Luxembourg, size doesn't matter. The tiny "Grand Duchy" is easily the third-wealthiest nation in today's world. I am not kidding when I say Luxembourg can single-handedly bail out China's second-largest property developer, the now infamous Evergrande Group. 

Don't hold your breath. Luxembourg won't touch Evergrande with the world's longest pole. The reality is that Luxembourgers themselves do not own much of the money passing through their duchy. No way. No how. Still, Luxembourg is an affluent low-key country. Affluent because it reaps huge profits from rendering offshore corporations its banking and registration services. Low-key because it has no reason to keep a high profile worldwide. Having survived a repeatedly war-torn Europe, it just wants to stay small, serene, secure, and self-sufficient. Move over, Switzerland.

How do the offshore corporations go about their businesses in Luxembourg? Stay tuned.

To be continued...

--- Lingyang Jiang