Adam Starchild

Adam Aristotle Starchild (born Malcolm Willis McConahy; 20 September 1946 – 22 September 2006) was an American-born financial consultant, author, and a convicted fraudster and sex offender. He was associated with the “perpetual traveler” movement and wrote extensively on "offshore finance," taxation, and international investment strategies.

Starchild was convicted of fraud-related offenses in the United States in the late 1960s and in both the United Kingdom and the United States in subsequent decades. He also had convictions in the United States involving the possession and distribution of sexual material concerning minors. He was removed from a leadership role in his youth following allegations of inappropriate conduct with minors, and was also linked in reporting to the North Fox Island scandal in the mid-1970s.

Early life Malcolm Willis McConahy was born in Minnesota on 20 September 1946. Little is known of his youth, but he later changed his name to Adam Aristotle Starchild, explaining on his website that Starchild was "a common Plains Cree name, found in usage across western Canada", indicating that he might have been of Native American descent. He claimed to be a former chairman of the Confederation of American Indians. In January 1969, he was sentenced to one year and one day in jail on three counts of mail fraud but failed to appear to start his sentence in April that year, resulting in the issue of a warrant for his arrest. After being released from prison in the U.K., McConahy was extradited to the United States, where he was arrested by U.S. Marshals in February 1974 after he stepped off the plane in New York. which were said to be tax dodges and fronts for sexual activity involving boys.

In 1976, Shelden fled to the Netherlands to escape impending charges. To protect his assets, he handed two million dollars in securities to Starchild, who had advised the creation of an offshore trust with himself as trustee. However, Starchild neglected to provide proper accounting or hand over the securities to the successor trustee, Edward Brongersma, whom an increasingly worried Shelden appointed. Despite being an international fugitive, in 1983 Shelden managed to successfully take Starchild to court to reclaim the funds.

1980s In 1980, Starchild was linked by the St. Petersburg Times to Richard Kelly's involvement in the Abscam scandal through Starchild's relationship with Kelly's aide, J.P. Maher III. According to Kelly, it was Maher who asked Starchild to handle a campaign mailing list through his firm, Minerva Consulting Group Inc. He was additionally convicted of tax fraud in 1989. He also had an article published in the Journal of Psychohistory in 1990, titled "Rape of youth in prisons and juvenile facilities", in which he compared and contrasted prison rape in the United States, Britain, Latin America, South Africa, and Turkey, finding that the phenomenon often exhibited cultural differences by region and country.

1990s In 1992, after his release from prison, Starchild appealed his parole conditions that he must live and work in the United States for approximately five years on the grounds, among others, that as a citizen of the Dominican Republic, he should have been allowed to return to his own country after the completion of his sentence. The Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled in October 1992 that they did not have jurisdiction in the matter. It is unclear when Starchild became a citizen of the Dominican Republic or whether he ever gave up his American citizenship.

Starchild became active on the internet, posting in Usenet and being described in an academic journal in 1998 as "an offshore finance proselytizer who is prominent on the World Wide Web, [who] encourages investors to dispense with what he views as ancient, irrational, primordial sentiments and attachments, and instead to embrace a late capitalist nomadism he terms 'PT.

In 1999, Starchild was living in Panama and sponsoring a university student in Guatemala. He was a client of Marc Harris's Panama-based Harris Organisation.

Death Starchild died in Spain on 22 September 2006. He had recently moved there from Panama as he felt that he would receive better medical care in Spain. Earlier in 2006, he had traveled to Japan for experimental surgery on a tumor and wrote that his operation there had attracted the attention of the Japanese media. Starchild was survived by his partner Javier.

Memberships Among the organisations of which Starchild claimed to be a member were the Libertarian Futurist Society, the International Society for Individual Liberty, Mensa, the National Space Society, The Lighter-Than-Air Society, the World Future Society, the Center for Entrepreneurial Management, the Extropy Institute, The Heinlein Society, the Academy of International Business, The Authors Guild (United States), and The Society of Authors (Great Britain). He was a member of the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce.

Selected publications Books 1970s Tax havens: what they are and how they work. North Arlington, N.J.: Financial Technology, 1975. It's your money: a consumer's guide to credit. New York: Books for Business, 1978. Starchild & Holahan's seafood cookbook. Seattle: Pacific Search Press, 1978. (With James Holahan) How to develop and manage a successful condominium. Washington: Books for Business, 1979. Investing in the US: resolving the legal, financing, regulatory and tax issues. London: Euromoney Publications, c. 1979. Tax havens: what they are and what they can do for the shrewd investor. New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1979. Tax havens for corporations. Houston: Gulf Publishing Company, 1979.

1980s Everyman's guide to tax havens. Boulder, Colorado: Paladin Press, 1980. Building wealth: a layman's guide to trust planning. New York: AMACOM, 1981. Start your own construction and land development business. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1983. Tax planning for foreign investors in the United States. Deventer, Netherlands: Kluwer, 1983. The seafood heritage cookbook. Centreville, Md.: Tidewater Publishers, 1984.

1990s Business in 1990: A Look to the Future. United States: Books on Demand, c. 1990. Marketing computer hardware and software in Latin America and the Caribbean. New York: Books for Business, 1992. How to legally hide your money in Switzerland. Eden Press, 1993. Second passports and dual nationality. Baltimore: Agora Inc., 1993. Swiss money strategies. Baltimore: Oxford Club, 1993. The tax haven report: how to internationalize your capital for protection and profit. Waterlooville: Scope International, 1993. Wealth angles. Baltimore: Caer Laer, 1993. Fortress Switzerland: the global gateway to your offshore nestegg. Zurich: CityDruck Offset, 1994. How to immigrate to the US. Waterlooville: Scope International, 1994. Reviving the American dream: stop "just getting by" and build real wealth. Boulder: Paladin Press, 1994. Tax havens for international business. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1994. The complete guide to global inve$ting. Washington, D.C.: Oxford Club, 1994. The offshore money manual: how to send your money overseas swiftly, privately, and profitably. Baltimore, MD: Oxford Club, 1994. Using offshore havens for privacy and profits. Boulder, Colo.: Paladin Press, 1994. Using Switzerland for asset protection. Rowlands Castle: Scope International, 1994. How to legally obtain a second citizenship and passport and why you would want to. Port Townsend, Washington: Loompanics Unlimited, 1995. Keep what you own: protect your money, property, and family from courts, creditors, and the IRS. Boulder: Paladin Press, 1995. The offshore solution. Manchester, NH: Center for Business Information, 1995. Tax havens for Canadians: ingenious ways to preserve your wealth (and have fun doing it). Toronto: Productive Publications, 1995. The offshore entrepreneur: profit & opportunity have no borders. Dalton, Georgia: First Street Press, 1995. Protect your assets: how to avoid falling victim to the government's forfeiture laws. Boulder: Paladin Press, 1996. Swiss money secrets: how you can legally hide your money in Switzerland. Boulder: Paladin Press, 1996. The wealth report: capital preservation through global investing. Rowlands Castle, Hants.: Scope International, 1996. The business havens report. Rowlands Castle: Scope International, 1997. The New Zealand immigration guide. Port Townsend, Washington: Loompanics Unlimited, 1997. Portable wealth: the complete guide to precious metals investment. Boulder: Paladin Press, 1998.

2000s Cayman Islands business laws. London: International Law & Taxation Publishers, 2000. History of the income tax. London: International Law & Taxation Pub., 2000. Start your own travel agency. New York: Books for Business, 2000. The complete guide to tax havens: how to internationalize your capital for protection and profits. London: International Law and Taxation Publishers, 2000. The conservative wealthbuilder: capital preservation through global investing. New York, N.Y.: Books for Business, 2000. The marketing dictionary. London: International Law & Taxation Publishers, 2000. How to save on your taxes without cheating. New York: Books for Business, 2001. Think like an entrepreneur: winning the money game. New York: Books for Business, 2001. Understanding global capitalism: the entrepreneur's guide to wealth creation. New York: Books for Business, 2001. Worldwide opportunities in travel and tourism. New York: Books for Business, 2001. The ocean frontier. Honolulu: University Press of the Pacific, 2002. The charitable remainder trust: reduce estate and income taxes through charitable giving. New York: Books for Business, 2005. . The complete tax haven guide: financial freedom through global investing. New York: Books for Business, 2005. The family emergency manual. Amsterdam: Fredonia Books, 2006.

Articles "Holland and the Tax Haven Company". International Business Lawyer, Vol. 10 (xi), 1982 "How the post office was nationalised". Economic Affairs, v. 12, n. 2 (February 1992): 23. "Rape of youth in prisons and juvenile facilities". Journal of Psychohistory, Vol 18. (2), 1990, 145–150.

Edited works The Science Fiction of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. Forest Grove, Oregon: University Press of the Pacific, 2000.