uo; according to a story reported by ABC News.

However, dismissing this as a story that has no substance, Leader of the Opposition Alden McLaughlin noted that if the money was legitimately here, there was no problem.

“I have never heard that but if it so, but as long as its legitimate money and legitimately here, I don’t see an issue.

Mr McLaughlin told Cayman Net News that there was very little the Cayman Islands could do when the issue has been used as a political football.

Mr McLaughlin said that the issue is unfair to the Cayman Islands, however “might makes right,” he said.

Mr Romney drew attention to the issue last Tuesday when he said his tax rate is close to 15 per cent because of his investments.

According to ABC News, Mr Romney "has as much as $8 million invested in at least 12 funds listed on a Cayman Islands registry."

The story continued: “Although it is not apparent on his financial disclosure form, Mitt Romney has millions of dollars of his personal wealth in investment funds set up in the Cayman Islands, a notorious Caribbean tax haven.”

The story says another investment that Romney lists in his personal financial disclosure report as being worth between $5 million and $25 million "shows up on securities records as having been domiciled in the Caymans."

ABC News also noted that "official documents" show Bain Capital, the private equity company Romney founded in 1984, "has set up some 138 secretive offshore funds in the Cayman Islands.”

A Romney campaign official, who was not named, told the American broadcaster  that "the tax consequences to the Romneys are the very same whether the fund is domiciled here or another country."

This campaign official also said Mr Romney and his wife, Ann, "have money invested in funds that the trustee has determined to be attractive investment opportunities, and those funds are domiciled wherever the fund sponsors happen to organise the funds."

Romney himself has said, "We follow the tax laws. And if there's an opportunity to save taxes we, like anybody else in this country, will follow that opportunity."

The GOP front-runner is under fire from his rivals, as well as some allies, to immediately release his tax returns.

Recently, the Cayman Islands were in the news following allegations by Wikileaks founder Julian Assange that there was money laundering in the country. Another report noted that most of the money stolen from third world countries found its way into Britain, the United States and the Cayman Islands.

OECD reports allege that about $250 billion in tax revenue is lost annually by governments around the world because of tax havens, according to the Tax Justice Network. The group ranks the Cayman Islands second on its list of the world's best tax havens in terms of its secrecy and the bank accounts that are managed in the country. Switzerland ranks first.

Romney becomes the latest politician to be linked to the Cayman Islands.  Stories appearing on the Internet noted that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair had some funds in the Cayman Islands.