NASSAU, Bahamas – A top official of Clonaid said Monday that although the cloning company was founded in the Bahamas, its presence there was limited to a post office box for receiving correspondence.
The company has revealed little information about its operations since announcing last week that it had produced the world’s first cloned baby. Scientific tests have yet to confirm the claim.
Speaking by telephone from Las Vegas, Clonaid Vice President Thomas Kaenzig said that although the company was founded in the Bahamas in 1997, nobody associated with it lives there.
“We set up a P.O. box in the Bahamas, but there was no research activity or lab or anything,” said Kaenzig, a 30-year-old Swiss citizen. “It was just a P.O. box. There was nothing going on in terms of operations.”
Clonaid was founded in the Caribbean country by Claude Vorilhon, a former French journalist and leader of a sect called the Raelians. Vorilhon, who calls himself Rael, claims a space alien visiting him in 1973 revealed that extraterrestrials had created all life on Earth through genetic engineering.
In an interview shown Friday on Fox News Channel, Vorilhon said: “At the beginning it was a seed company which was just a P.O. box underneath the Web site, and it was just to study the feasibility of the project.”
He said he was no longer involved when the company led by Brigitte Boisselier ﾗ Clonaid’s chief executive and a member of the Raelians ﾗ moved it into the next phase of laboratory work. But he said he supports the cloning work “spiritually.”
Kaenzig said Clonaid has “different legal entities” and confirmed that it used the name Valiant Venture in the Bahamas.
Corporate records show Valiant Venture Ltd. was established in the Bahamas on Jan. 7, 1997, but was struck from the country’s registry of companies later that year, on May 23.
He cited government regulations in other countries as one reason why the post office box was established. But Clonaid encountered opposition in the Bahamas, especially from Christian leaders.
“The minute you interfere with a natural process you make it unnatural,” said the Rev. Myles Munroe, president of the Bahamas Faith Ministries and one of those who spoke out against Clonaid.
Kaenzig said opponents had falsely accused the company of starting laboratory work in the Bahamas and that the government had canceled the company’s license. Government officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Kaenzig’s criticized U.S. government policies against human cloning and said, “we don’t see any future for ourselves in the United States.” But he refused to comment when asked where the company has facilities.
“Our main concern is obviously the safety of our patients, the safety of our staff,” he said. “We don’t want to risk anybody’s life.”
As for the Bahamas, he said, “it served a function for a time… For us, it’s the past.”
Nicole Bertrand, a spokeswoman for the Raelians, said by telephone from Montreal that while there are believers in the French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, there is no Raelian group in the Bahamas.
By Chris Saunders, Associated Press Writer
