DUBAI-BASED RIF TRUST DEFIES EU ORDER AND CONTINUES TO TOUT VISA-FREE SCHENGEN ENTRY FOR THE CARIBBEAN CBI PASSPORTS IT IS SELLING

If you don't know who that is advertising on Linkedin, it's HOSSAN SALEM, the Sales Manager for RIF TRUST, a Dubai-based passport sales consultancy; he is openly hawking the fact that the Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) passports which his company is selling feature visa-free entry into the EU Schengen Zone, violating specific European Union orders that passport vendors are not to advertise that feature to the public. What action will the EU will take to rein in this type of misconduct?

The government of Dubai, until recently, pointedly ignored its CBI vendors, but our sources have confirmed that it is now taking a hard look at these companies, which are completely unregulated in the Emirates, and whose advertising is, to say the least, ranging from misleading to downright deceptive. Additionally, their open sale of illegally-discounted citizenships may violate UAE laws on fraud. We will be monitoring further legal developments, and update our readers as they unfold.

WHISTLEBLOWER SAYS SAINT LUCIA DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER HILAIRE HAS RECEIVED MASSIVE BRIBES FROM TWO DUE DILIGENCE FIRMS VETTING CIP APPLICANTS

A whistleblower from Saint Lucia, who formerly worked closely with his country's CIU, which manages the Saint Lucia CIP passport sales program, has produced evidence that Deputy Prime Minister ERNEST HILAIRE, who also has the portfolio of Minister for Investment, has received large bribes from some of the companies engaged to perform due diligence on the applicants for economic citizenship. The individual named two corporate entities all having a variation of the name GLOBE DETECTIVE, and all from India, as the entities that gave the illegal payments to Hilaire. 

These companies are not to be confused with prominent legitimate investigatory firms in the UK coincidentally also named Globe; it is believed that the deceptively similar names were used to deceive foreign law enforcement agencies and regulators into thinking that effective, adequate due diligence procedures were in place. In truth and in fact this was not the case. Some of these Globe entities have been banned in other East Caribbean jurisdictions that also sell economic passports. The companies, all formed in India were found to be be ineffective, lacking a physical office, and having no investigators on staff to actually conduct due diligence on applicants. They are also known to have themselves accepted illegal payments to approve individuals who had known criminal connections, and who were then routinely approved for Saint Lucia CIP  citizenship and passports, under Hilaire's orders. Minister Hilaire has ignored repeated calls from the people of Saint Lucia to drop Globe; he directly supervises the CIU in his role as Minister of Investment.

From the Government website:

One of the Globe companies, shown below as (2) also formed in India, has no visible directors,  exists only as a virtual entity, and appears to have been formed solely to create a new identity for a business when the first one became known as unsatisfactory as a due diligence provider serving Saint Lucia. The names cited by the whistleblower are:

(1) GLOBE DETECTIVE AGENCY

(2) GLOBE  COMMUNICATION SOLUTIONS LIMITED

When will Saint Lucia follow the lead of other Caribbean jurisdictions, and block the Globe companies from any further due diligence business?

DID FORBES FAIL TO CONDUCT BASIC DUE DILIGENCE?; ONE OF ITS AFFILIATES PARTNERS UP WITH A DODGY OFFSHORE PASSPORT SALES PROGRAM CURRENTLY UNDER THE MICROSCOPE FOR ILLEGALLY-DISCOUNTED SALES AND INTERNATIONAL SANCTIONS EVASION

Forbes is a highly respected business magazine read by America's leaders for more than a century. We expect it to deliver accurate, informed information, but its division, FORBES GLOBAL TALENT, which associates itself through its Advisory Services with outside programs and entities, seems to have fallen short of that standard. We are distressed to see that Forbes Global Talent has endorsed the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) economic passport sales program offered by Grenada, an East Caribbean state, with apparently little or no due diligence conducted in advance, to check out whether it is suitable for being promoted by such a well-known and well-established brand.

Regular readers of news of the Caribbean know that Grenada's CBI program has been accused of selling passports to Russians, after it CIU had imposed a ban on that nationality, due to international sanctions due to the Ukraine war, by backdating the applications to make them appear to have been submitted in advance of the ban. Furthermore, the vendor of those passports, the Irish national JOHN HANAFIN, was himself sanctioned by OFAC at the time, due to prohibited transactions with Russian nationals .

Our article, CHINESE-OWNED HENG SHENG, THE CARIBBEAN GALAXY OF GRENADA; SELLING THOUSANDS OF ILLEGALLY -DISCOUNTED PASSPORTS, BUT WHERE'S THE HOTEL THEY PROMISED, FIVE YEARS ON?  exposed Grenada's traffic in illegally-discounted passport sales, which could render passport sold under those terms and conditions void ab initio.   https://rijock.blogspot.com/2024/09/chinese-owned-heng-sheng-caribbean.html

We are therefore wondering, if a simple Google search would have uncovered the many unresolved issues surrounding Grenada's CBI program, how Forbes Global Talent chose to partner up with, and thereby endorse, such a high-risk and controversial program, which is at risk of termination.

DUBAI AUTHORITIES PUT CHINESE COMPANIES SELLING FRAUDULENT CARIBBEAN PASSPORTS UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

The Government of Dubai, the business center of the United Arab Emirates, already focusing upon the unwanted presence of European narcotics kingpins living large in their jurisdiction, is now also extremely concerned about the presence of a number of Chinese-owned companies selling illegally-discounted  Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) passports, in what Caribbean laws considers fraudulent transactions. Dubai law enforcement and regulatory agencies, which have in recent years been focused on the suppression of major money laundering operations that cast the Emirate in a negative light internationally, have taken steps to interdict what it considers to be criminal activities that reflect badly when exposed in the global press, and could deter further foreign investment. Dubai is now cracking down on financial crime.

Chinese-controlled companies doing illicit CBI business in the UAE, such as the CARIBBEAN GALAXY GROUP and HENG SHENG, and working in concert with a number of Dubai-based passport consultancies, which we have named in previous articles, have reportedly caused Dubai authorities to have serious concerns about their business practices, which are illegal under the laws of the East Caribbean states who passports they are vending, at discounted rates which are less than 50% of the minimum legal price.

We share Dubai's concerns about the potential consequences of these illegal sales practices, and expect to see law enforcement action there, removing them, in response to what its officials correctly perceive as a threat.   

  

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I cordially invite you to explore the depths of the hidden world of money laundering on the African continent; my two hour presentation, in two segments, over two successive days in March, with a front-row seat from my unique perspective as a reformed career money launderer-turned compliance officer, and receive what is believed to be the only first-hand account of money laundering from someone who lived it for a decade.

For further information:

https://titc.io/kenneth-rijock-webinar-africa-special

NEW 2025 DOJ POLICY MAY HAVE STEPPED AWAY FROM FCPA ENFORCEMENT TO PROTECT CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTORS, BUT THE FLIP SIDE, THE FOREIGN EXTORTION PREVENTION ACT, REMAINS A VALUABLE ENFORCEMENT TOOL

If you regularly follow major white collar cases in the European Union, then you are aware of the scandal in the Republic of Malta, involving massive allegations of bribery and kickbacks made by American businessmen who literally stole that country's government-owned hospitals, in a sweetheart deal finessed through significant payments made under the table. Officers in the American company involved, are presently under criminal investigation, and now these individuals, who have made significant political contributions, are going to be benefited by the new DOJ policy to ignore FCPA violations.

While legal observers are upset about this, let me remind everyone that the 2023 FOREIGN EXTORTION PREVENTION ACT (FEPA), which charges the foreign nationals who received the bribes to conduct business with Americans, remains in effect as a potent tool of justice. It criminalizes the demand side of bribery. The Americans who looted Malta may escape prosecution, but the recipients of their hidden payments can still be charged in Federal Court in the United States. Muscat and all the other then-government officials in Malta might want to consult a good American criminal defense attorney.

HENG SHENG GOT IT WRONG; YOU RETAIN A LAWYER TO PROTECT YOUR INTERESTS, AND GET THE COMPLETE PICTURE, NOT TO DRESS UP YOUR APPLICATION

If you read the recent article by GALLI KHURELEE, the Sales Manager for the Chinese (Dubai-based) CBI consultancy, HENG SHENG ( a/k/a HS Group), you were given to understand advice to the effect that you hire a lawyer to represent you in an immigration or second passport matter only to present a favorable impression, and that you can dispense with a lawyer entirely, if you know what you are doing. Nothing can be further from the truth. This is bad advice; do not follow it.

Applicants hire a lawyer to protect their interests, not to dress up their application. Most applicants for CBI passport programs do not know how to conduct Due Diligence upon the jurisdiction you are applying to. Why? because you need someone to investigate into any possible issues or problems that holding that new passport might happen. Many of them are former, or even present, offshore tax havens, with a record of facilitating drug money laundering, fraud and even international sanctions evasion. Some of them are havens for official corruption, which might result in your being associated with an unsavory nation. Still others often revoke citizenships and passports without Due Process, meaning that your entire six figure investment could be lost, with no chance of recovering it in the local courts, which are controlled by senior government officials who tell the judges how to decide cases, ignoring the Rule of Law. Finally, some passports are illegally issued, in violation of the laws that created them, making them void ab initio.

In short, you will want to always engage a competent attorney, any time you even consider applying for a second passport, or for any other migration matter, before you sign on the dotted line. Do not trust anyone who will earn a sizable commission for bringing you in as a client, for their interests may therefore conflict with yours Look before you Leap. ladies & gentlemen, and arm yourself first with a competent lawyer to search for any legal minefields that exist first.

YET ANOTHER COURT DECISION SLAMMING AI AS A LEGAL RESEARCH TOOL SHOULD CONVINCE YOU NOT TO USE IT FOR DUE DILIGENCE WITHOUT SERIOUS CONFIRMATION OF ALL ITS RESULTS

Yes, it happened again; a Federal Judge in US District Court in Wyoming entered an order captioned ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE WHY PLAINTIFFS’ ATTORNEYS SHOULD NOT BE SANCTIONED OR OTHER DISCIPLINARY ACTION SHOULD NOT ISSUE, in Case No. 2:23-CV-118-KHR. One more time, lawyers who should know better, after seeing previous instances where ChatGPT fabricated published court decisions, went ahead and used the AI program, then foolishly citing the non-existent law it produced to a judge. After checking the research, and seeing that it was completely fictional material, the District Judge, issued an Order to Show Cause why the lawyers should not face punitive sanctions. Page 2 of the order appears below. Don't those lawyers read the news?

I cannot stress this enough to compliance officers involved in due diligence research. I never rely upon AI platforms to tell me whether there is information upon my target, for the programs are still returning factional results, when they cannot find actual real data. All these nightmare scenarios regarding lawyers should tell you that AI is simply not bulletproof yet, and until it is, do not rely upon it. If you approve a new bank client, and it later turns out the positive information that you relied upon was a hallucination of the AI program you used, and the client was unsuitable, resulting in damage to the bank or its clients, you will be held accountable, which could be costly to both your professional reputation, as well as your pocketbook; Govern yourselves accordingly.

AFTER A DELAY OF TEN MONTHS, CARIBBEAN CBI REGULATORY COMMISSION CHOICE WILL NOT SOLVE THE INDUSTRY'S SYSTEMIC PROBLEMS

The East Caribbean Currency Union, nearly a year after the five CBI passport-issuing states entered into a Memorandum promising the prompt formation of an international regulatory commission to police their programs, has appointed an obscure Saint Lucia attorney to draft the relevant legislation which the commission will employ to rein in its members.

The Memorandum was executed in response to external pressure for systemic reform of CBI & CIP programs throughout the East Caribbean, especially those in Saint Kitts & Nevis, and in Saint Lucia, after allegations of fraud, money laundering and corruption surfaced, without any governmental response from the leaders of those countries.

We first question why the newly-appointed individual has been given a seven month period to draft what should be a routine task. Next, given the lack of experience on the part of the individual appointed in both financial crime and due diligence, we fail to see how any effective, and enforceable, legislation will result from her tenure as drafter of the legislation. Finally, coming from a very small law firm in Saint Lucia, a country with perhaps the worst record of official corruption linked to its CIP program, will she be able to discharge her responsibility free from intimidation and undue influence?

Frankly, the best choice for a candidate to prepare the legislation would have been any major US or UK law firm with relevant experience; which would eliminate any possibility that stakeholders, powerful government officials, and influential individuals in the local private sector would exert any influence upon the finished product. Will the legislation actually have teeth, for enforcement purposes, and will it solve the rampant problems which have infected the CBI industry for a decade? if not, then meaningful reform will not be accomplished, and the problems it presents remain.

CHINESE NATIONAL INVOLVED IN ENEMALTA CORRUPTION SCANDAL HAD A SAINT KITTS CBI PASSPORT

Daphne Galizia and the Scene of the Crime                           

Amidst all the news regarding developments in court in the criminal case involving the assassination of the prominent Maltese investigative journalist, DAPHNE CARUANA GALIZIA, we have confirmed that WANG RUI, a Chinese national, employed a Saint Kitts & Nevis Citizenship by Investment (CBI) passport during her role in the offshore company used to pay bribes and kickbacks to maltese government officials. Wang, whose involvement first surfaced in 2021 when exposed by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), has now been identified as the owner of an SKN CBI passport.

Wang is alleged to have set up an offshore company, DOW'S MEDIA CO. LTD. in Hong Kong, on behalf of CHEN CHENG, reportedly involved in the opaque disbursement of bribes. It was the discovery of massive corruption in Malta, involving the energy sector, by Daphne Galizia, that resulted in a conspiracy which planned, and executed her cold-blooded murder by placing a bomb in her automobile, and detonating it when she entered. A court in Malta recently found that there is sufficient evidence against Maltese millionaire YORGEN FENECH, in the Daphne case, to bind it over for trial.

SOLDIER IN VIETNAM TO URBAN LAWYER TO CAREER MONEY LAUNDERER

                

This is how THE ILLICIT EDGE, where I recently was interviewed about my career, interpreted my life story. You can watch the video version of my podcast here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiXmVhZzjvk&t=2021s

U.S. RELEASES $4bn MONEY LAUNDERER IN EXCHANGE FOR AMERICAN TEACHER HELD IN RUSSIA; AGAIN SENDING THE WRONG MESSAGE TO THE WORLD'S LAUNDRYMEN

Once again, the United States trades a major convicted criminal for some hapless American dumb enough to be caught inside Russia with anything that passes for contraband. Why our government, which says it has a policy of never negotiating with terrorists, allows itself to get roped into giving up career criminals for someone arrested abroad by a dictatorship for the express purpose of swapping him for someone they want back, I'll never know.

The next time someone considers travel to Iran, Russia, Venezuela or China, perhaps they might consider that they might very well become a hostage to a tyrant's whims or needs. Let's stop losing our convicted and imprisoned bad actors, going free because of a mistake of one of our own, who travels to a high-risk jurisdiction, and thinks it's O.K. to do so.

CHINA'S BILLION DOLLAR RIPOFF OF SAINT KITTS & NEVIS HAS BILLY HERBERT TURNING OVER IN HIS GRAVE

If you are old enough to have personally known Saint Kitts Ambassador Plenipotentiary William (Billy) V. Herbert, Jr., you know that he was a champion of elevating the standard of living of the average Kittitian; that was an integral part of his political philosophy. To do that, he created his newly-independent nation's Citizenship by Investment (CBI) sales program. His scheme was to sell second passports to narcotics traffickers, drug money launderers like yours truly during that period, and any other of the Usual Suspects who needed a new identity to evade the long arm of American law enforcement. He knew that America was in the midst of a cocaine consumption frenzy, and believed that he would use that hunger to uplift a depressed island economy, and benefit all its citizens, which was the goal of his People's Action Movement (PAM).

Now, however, had he lived to see his beloved country in 2025, he would he distressed to see that a Chinese company, CARIBBEAN GALAXY, with the aid and assistance of corrupt officials more interested in feathering their own nests, rather than helping the people who elected them, has literally stolen billions of their patrimony, through his beloved CBI. Billy is most likely looking on from his cement grave, with strong disapproval and even disgust, as the current SKN Labour leadership, cowing to Chinese demands and undue influence, has facilitated the theft of not only billions of US Dollars, but the country as well, to the PRC. They have ignored "Country Above Self" in favor of selling out for bribes & kickbacks.

In Saint Kitts what we call Karma often rears its ugly head, dispensing accountability when it is least expected. Billy's untimely end is itself testimony to that. You can expect to see blind justice play out in the Caribbean, gentlemen, so don't expect your final days to be spent living in the lap of luxury in Miami; Watch for it.

SOUTH AFRICA IS MISSING FROM 2025 LIST OF TOP TEN AFRICAN COUNTRIES WITH HIGHEST MONEY LAUNDERING RISK; IS THAT A MISTAKE ?

The much-cited BASEL AML INDEX has South Africa at 52 out of 100, in its calculation of money laundering risk levels, which are based upon a number of basic issues, such as weak regulatory frameworks, political instability, and cash-driven economies have made the continent a hotspot for illicit financial activities. However, although much has been made of the country's strengthened AML legislation, its failure to zealously pursue money laundering networks, rampant money laundering due to corruption, and a number of other factors, which we shall discuss at the upcoming Africa Financial Crime seminar, which place it squarely in the category of highest risk for money laundering on the Continent

Basel should have considered all the relevant issues, some of which are unique to South Africa among all the countries surveyed, before making the call that it was not to be placed at the forefront of those nations in its region. Learn what additional factors place it there.

Please join us: 

https://titc.io/kenneth-rijock-webinar-africa-special

WATCH KEN RIJOCK ON THE ILLICIT EDGE PODCAST. DESIGNATED: THE LAUNDRY MAN

My recent podcast on THE ILLICIT EDGE was also filmed; you can see it here on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiXmVhZzjvk&t=2021s

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-laundry-man-ken-rijock-designated/id1770788854?i=1000691073841