Kenneth Rijock's Financial Crime Blog
Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Financial Crime
Friday, March 21, 2025
GRENADA IMA SUSPENDS HENGSHENG FOR SELLING ILLEGALLY-DISCOUNTED CITIZENSHIPS; EXPECT REVOCATION OF PASSPORTS TO ENSUE
Thursday, March 20, 2025
NERVOUS CARIBBEAN LEADERS AND THE PASSPORT SALES INDUSTRY CONTINUE TO HAWK DISINFORMATION ABOUT OBVIOUS AMERICAN INTENTIONS TO REDUCE THE NATIONAL SECURITY RISKS POSED TO IT BY CBI PASSPORTS
Caribbean leaders and their supporters in the economic citizenship/passport sales sector have taken to the media to confuse a scared West Indian region, and global investors, about the clear intentions of the new American administration to finally clamp down on a passport sales industry that presents a clear and present national security danger to the United States. Disregarding the information appearing in such major media as CNN and the New York Times, they are dispensing disinformation and misinformation about the upcoming travel ban the U.S. is imminently going to impose upon four of the East Caribbean CBI/CIP passport issuing states. The travel ban is coming, ladies and gentlemen, and Caribbean voters should accept that there are consequences for their arrogant acceptance of corrupt government and illegal global sales of CBI passports by an industry that flouts the laws governs the issuance of second passports with impunity.
Anyone reading President Trump's January 20, 2025 Executive Order, issued the day he took office, knows that the real reason the State Department was ordered to present a draft Travel Ban List on March is "inadequate security practices for issuing passports, or the selling of citizenship to people from banned countries," which aptly summarizes the grounds for this action. Patriotic speeches by Caribbean leaders, playing on the emotions of their constituents, articles by the professionally unqualified in the so-called "Migration Investment" media disputing the truth, and claims by both that are patently false do not prepare anyone for what will be happening sooner, rather than later.
According to the language in the draft, the Caribbean CBI nations will have a very short period to get their houses in order; failing true and consistent CBI/CIP reform, expect sanctions to kick in, in sixty days, without fail. The choice is up to the governments of Saint Kitts & Nevis, Antigua & Barbuda, Saint Lucia and Dominica, and don't be surprised if Grenada is belatedly added to that list. Clean it up, people, or face the impending consequences.
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
SAINT KITTS & NEVIS CBI PROGRAM STARTS MOVING OUTSIDE THE REGULATED BANKING SECTOR INTO CRYPTOCURRENCY, DUE TO EXPOSURE OF MONEY LAUNDERING THROUGH U.S. CORRESPONDENT BANK ACCOUNTS
In a press release not covered by either American or European major media, the CIU of Saint Kitts & Nevis has announced that it will now accept holdings of cryptocurrency by applicants for its beleaguered economic citizenships, which have come under multiple attacks due to allegations of fraud, money laundering and corruption, and the illegal diversion of billions of dollars of CBI assets to Chinese-controlled consultancies. This move is being regarded as an SKN effort to short around the traditional international banking sector, with its AML/CFT laws and regulations regarding Source of Wealth and Source of Funds verification, and where American correspondent banks have expressed concerns over money laundering violations by Caribbean CBI/CIP programs.
Any partial effort to accept crypto in connection with CBI purchases is extremely disturbing, as the next logical step for Saint Kitts is to take crypto, which exists outside the regulated financial world, and convert it in-house, which would shield applicants from any meaningful due diligence investigation into the source of their purported wealth, as well as concealing its precise origin in the opaque world of cryptocurrency, in which concealment is an obvious component.
Whether American financial institutions that presently maintain correspondent accounts for the five East Caribbean states that sell economic citizenship we cannot say, but how they respond will most likely be closely watched by US regulatory agencies.
Tuesday, March 18, 2025
THERE'S ANOTHER VERY GOOD REASON WHY THE UNITED STATES SHOULD CRACK DOWN ON THE EAST CARIBBEAN STATES; THEIR REPEATED FAILURE TO EXTRADITE MONEY LAUNDERERS
This is the US BUREAU OF PRISONS information page on Antigua's former lead banking regulator, LEROY KING, who facilitated ALLEN STANFORD's $7bn ponzi scheme. it took the US more than a decade to extradite King, because, in the East Caribbean states, corrupt, and in many cases anti-American, senior government fix their country's court system to delay extradition requests of Caribbean money launderers indefinitely.
Local Caribbean judges, acting under the arrogant orders of their corrupt leaders, find ways to delay extradition proceedings for years, even decades, by changes assigned judges, allowing dilatory filings and appeals ad nauseam, changing prosecutors, and every dirty little trick available to them under local rules of procedure.
The reason for these delays is often the fact that, if the offenders enter a guilty plea in the United States, cooperating to mitigate their twenty years to life sentences, they would implicate their sitting government leaders and members of the ruling political party in serious felonies cognizable under American criminal law. There is also the political aspect; many EC government leaders are more aligned with the dictatorial regimes in Cuba and Venezuela than Western democracies, and they never miss a chance to tweak the "Collosses of the North" when they have the opportunity to do so.
Therefore, we welcome the current efforts of the new American administration, which may have its faults, but holding the dysfunctional states of the East Caribbean accountable for their sins and transgressions is definitely not one of them.Until we see actual reform in the region, there's no reason why corrupt government leaders should be able to party in Miami, invest in American real estate, and make plans for future luxurious retirement in New York City with the proceeds of corruption, as well as those who have continuously voted them into office.
Monday, March 17, 2025
LEADERS OF CARIBBEAN STATES WITH CBI PROBLEMS RUSH TO REASSURE THEIR PANICKED CITIZENRY AFTER NEWS OF BLOCKING OF ENTRY TO U.S. LEAK IN THE PRESS
If you are reading the Caribbean press, you may have seen today that the leaders of SAINT KITTS & NEVIS, SAINT LUCIA and the COMMONWEALTH OF DOMINICA are hastening to tell their anxious citizens that they haven't received any official notice from the United States, about their country's upcoming ban on their citizens receiving visas to enter the United States, after new leakee that their countries are on the draft list. the three East Caribbean states, whose Citizenship by Investment economic passport programs are all accused of fraud, money laundering and corruption, all are quite busy declaring that their programs have effective due diligence, and that their citizens should not be affected for those reasons. In truth and in fact, their due diligence programs are abysmal, dysfunctional, corrupt, and intentionally flawed, resulting in the distribution of passports to criminals, sanctions evaders, terrorist financiers, and intelligence agents from countries hostile to the United States.
Anyone following the systemic problems the Caribbean CBI jurisdictions knew that this day would come; the people of the East Caribbean are about to pay the price for allowing rampant corruption by their greedy government officials, and it will be painful for them to lose the ability to obtain a visa to visit friends and family in the US, shop here, and conduct business. There have been more than enough warnings given during the past five years, which they have chosen to disregard. They are about to see what the consequences are of their inaction.
The US has deemed the problem a National Security threat, after seeing arrests of Chinese nationals with CBI passports in the United States, for white collar crimes, economic espionage, and spying for the PRC. The new American administration has decided to put a stop to it. The official Banned Countries List is expected to be released soon, as early as Thursday, and it may contain additional countries; both Grenada and Malta could be included.
MONEY LAUNDERERS; EXPERTS AT APPEARING TO BE SOMETHING WHICH THEY ARE NOT
I am enjoying the new Apple TV Plus dramatic series, "Dope Thief," in which two criminals who pose as DEA agents to rip off drug dealers in their place of business make the mistake of attempting to steal from an organized crime operation, and are fleeing for their lives as the result. It may sound contrived, but when I was a career money launderer in Miami, my narcotics clients had to be very careful to avoid criminals who specialized in armed robberies of their operations. Those individuals engaged in that sordid business knew their victims could not go to law enforcement. Those attacks forced traffickers to follow a Golden Rule: never keep the drugs and the money together in the same location, a drug dealer's necessary risk management policy. One of my clients actually specialized in negotiating with those ripoff specialists, because they often took hostages, and demanded still more drugs from their victims, and/or cash.
The relevance to today's AML compliance issues is that experienced money launderers are very good in creating, and operating, what look like legitimate businesses, but are, in truth and in fact, well-planned laundering operations. This is especially important when it comes to the payment and payments processing sectors, where a clever laundering operation can move millions in the proceeds of crime into legitimate commerce, completely unnoticed and undetected, if compliance is not aware of the methods employed. Unlike the fictional series now streaming, the real-life posers generally succeed, and are long gone by the time someone in compliance in Payments Processing wakes up to the possibility that money laundering is occurring on a massive scale.
Sunday, March 16, 2025
WHY ISN'T GRANADA ON THE NEW U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT BANNED COUNTRIES LIST? OVERSIGHT, NEGLECT, OR SOMETHING MORE SINISTER?
As my friend RICHARD MOIR so aptly suggested, "Why not Grenada, too?" after reviewing the leaked draft of the Department of State Banned Countries List, and not finding it there. All the other four East Caribbean states that sell Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) passports were named & shamed, and are the only Caribbean jurisdictions listed, obviously because of the CBI scandal. read the Executive Order if you doubt me.
So what happened? Was it a new State staffer, hired solely because of his politics, and not his academic and vocational qualifications, who never took a geography course at university? Did the author of the list forget about the US invasion of Grenada? Was the person somebody's nephew, with no background in political geography, and not culturally literate? Remember HENG SHENG GROUP, the Chinese-controlled company that infected Grenada's CBI, sent its PM to see China's leader, and sold thousands of illegal passports to Chinese criminals and intelligence agents? Can you say due diligence, mate?
Or was it something more sinister; well-heeled foreign investors pairing their Grenada CBI with an American visa, who might just be manipulated into making a large (albeit illegal) campaign contribution? Whatever the reason, kindly add Grenada to the list, please. it is thoroughly deserved.
Saturday, March 15, 2025
THERE ARE U.S.TRAVEL BANS FOR THE EAST CARIBBEAN CBI STATES ON THE STATE DEPARTMENT DRAFT LIST
The New York Times and several other major American news media are reporting that the draft list of countries, prepared by the Department of State, in response to President Trump's Executive Order entitled:
PROTECTING THE UNITED STATES FROM FOREIGN TERRORISTS AND OTHER
NATIONAL SECURITY AND PUBLIC SAFETY THREATS
contains these East Caribbean States that have Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) passport sales (Economic Citizenship) programs:
1. SAINT KITTS & NEVIS.
2. SAINT LUCIA.
3. THE COMMONWEALTH OF DOMINICA.
4. ANTIGUA & BARBUDA.
Complete mismanagement of the CBI programs of these countries appears to constitute the grounds for their inclusion by blocking the issuance of visas. We have been reporting on the fraud, money laundering and corruption that has infected them for a long time, and which was highlighted by MSR MEDIA in its public announcement, and subsequent litigation against present and former senior government figures, Chinese- controlled sales consultancies and their sub-agents, and affiliates.
The deadline for State to report its list of jurisdictions which it has included in the Travel Ban is this coming week, and the Draft List has been widely circulating, hence its availability. Readers who question whether the grounds for blocking all the nationals from these four EC States is CBI, look closely at the specific terms of the Executive Order; it is precisely the failure of the United States to properly vett CBI/CIP passport holders, whose true legal names and other identifiers may have been altered or changed which makes them a threat . You will notice that the non-CBI caribbean jurisdictions are NOT included on the Travel Ban list.
the bottom line is that the abject failure of the EC States with CBI to properly and legally operate their programs is the reason that all individuals who hold those passports because of their birthright citizenship, and about to pay the price for the misconduct of their corrupt national leaders, and their continued support of the illegal CBI programs.
Here is the relevant text of Trump's Executive Order dated 1/20/2025:
PROTECTING THE UNITED STATES FROM FOREIGN TERRORISTS AND OTHER NATIONAL SECURITY AND PUBLIC SAFETY THREATS
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq., and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Policy and Purpose. (a) It is the policy of the United States to protect its citizens from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes.
(b) To protect Americans, the United States must be vigilant during the visa-issuance process to ensure that those aliens approved for admission into the United States do not intend to harm Americans or our national interests. More importantly, the United States must identify them before their admission or entry into the United States. And the United States must ensure that admitted aliens and aliens otherwise already present in the United States do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles, and do not advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to our national security.
Sec. 2. Enhanced Vetting and Screening Across Agencies.
(a) The Secretary of State, in coordination with the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence, shall promptly:
(i) identify all resources that may be used to ensure that all aliens seeking admission to the United States, or who are already in the United States, are vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible;
(ii) determine the information needed from any country to adjudicate any visa, admission, or other benefit under the INA for one of its nationals, and to ascertain whether the individual seeking the benefit is who the individual claims to be and that the individual is not a security or public-safety threat;
(iii) re-establish a uniform baseline for screening and vetting standards and procedures, consistent with the uniform baseline that existed on January 19, 2021, that will be used for any alien seeking a visa or immigration benefit of any kind; and
(iv) vet and screen to the maximum degree possible all aliens who intend to be admitted, enter, or are already inside the United States, particularly those aliens coming from regions or nations with identified security risks.
(b) Within 60 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence shall jointly submit to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security, a report:
(i) identifying countries throughout the world for which vetting and screening information is so deficient as to warrant a partial or full suspension on the admission of nationals from those countries pursuant to section 212(f) of the INA (8 U.S.C. 1182(f)); and
(ii) identifying how many nationals from those countries have entered or have been admitted into the United States on or since January 20, 2021, and any other information the Secretaries and Attorney General deem relevant to the actions or activities of such nationals since their admission or entry to the United States.
(c) Whenever information is identified that would support the exclusion or removal of any alien described in subsection 2(b), the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take immediate steps to exclude or remove that alien unless she determines that doing so would inhibit a significant pending investigation or prosecution of the alien for a serious criminal offense or would be contrary to the national security interests of the United States.
Sec. 3. Additional Measures to Protect the Nation. As soon as possible, but no later than 30 days from the date of this order, the Secretary of State, in coordination with the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence, shall also:
(a) Evaluate and adjust all existing regulations, policies, procedures, and provisions of the Foreign Service Manual, or guidance of any kind pertaining to each of the grounds of inadmissibility listed in sections 212(a)(2)-(3) of the INA (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(2)-(3)), to ensure the continued safety and security of the American people and our constitutional republic;
Friday, March 14, 2025
REMOVAL OF THE BEST LAWYERS AT THE DOJ'S NATIONAL SECURITY DIVISION, AND PLACEMENT OF A POLITICAL APPOINTEE AS PERMANENT DIRECTOR WHO HAS DISTURBING BAGGAGE, MEANS THE US IS ABANDONING PROSECUTION OF THE CHINA THREAT IN THE CARIBBEAN
If you are watching the news from Washington this week, you know that all the senior leadership in the Department's National Security Division, as well as the experienced career prosecutors who are the heart and soul of the Division, have been terminated. The unit has essentially been gutted of its best legal talent, and it gets worse.
The Acting Director, Devin Debacker, who is a career prosecutor, and who has been serving since the beginning of the Trump Administration, has been abruptly terminated, and JOHN EISENBERG has been nominated to serve as Permanent Director, in what must be regarded as a purely political appointment in a career position. You may remember Eisenberg from his alleged role in the leak of classified information to DEVIN NUNES, and his reported transfer, to a classified server, of an incriminating telephone call between Trump and the leader of the Ukraine, and his alleged efforts to contain the dissemination of the details of that call, by instructing LTC Vindman, who was on that call, not to tell anyone about it.
We are advised that the ongoing Federal investigation into billion-dollar fraud, money laundering and corruption, in the Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) programs of the East Caribbean states, which has serious issues involving the national security of the United States, especially its financial sector, will be transferred to the National Security Division. Given that we must presume that a number of the major American banks that have a known long and sordid history of facilitating the money laundering of Chinese-controlled companies, and would logically be co-defendants together with the Senior Caribbean officials who cooperated with the Chinese companies, all the government actions since since Trump took office would indicate that there will not be any targeting of American entities, especially financial institutions, it is extremely doubtful that we will see any indictments arising out of the CBI investigation, notwithstanding the incriminating evidence which has publicly surfaced.
The illegal sales of discounted economic citizenships & passports, which has reportedly continued unabated through programs in Saint Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia, Grenada, and Dominica, and possibly elsewhere, continue unrestricted, in some locations even on an expedited basis, without a gatekeeper. It now appears that the US Department of Justice cannot be bothered to tackle it, and will ignore what is an increasingly more disturbing national security threat and clear and present danger, due to what can only be considered partisan politics. Hereafter, any banker that accepts a Caribbean CBI passport as proof of identity might want to check into whether he has adequate insurance coverage.
Thursday, March 13, 2025
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
ST. KITTS FOREIGN MINISTER DENZIL DOUGLAS, A CENTRAL FIGURE IN HIS COUNTRY'S CBI FRAUD, MONEY LAUNDERING AND CORRUPTION SCANDAL, REJECTS AMERICAN DEMAND FOR BREAKING TIES WITH CUBA, A DESIGNATED STATE SPONSOR OF TERRORISM
DENZIL DOUGLAS, the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Saint Kitts & Nevis, has publicly declared that his country will not terminate its close relationship with the Government of Cuba, after the United States reportedly notified the SKN Prime Minister, TERRANCE DREW, that it will revoke the American visas of all Kittitian officials if the country does not break off its cooperation with the Republic of Cuba, including the physical presence of Cuban nationals in the medical profession. Douglas, in making that official statement, has demonstrated Saint Kitts' loyalty to Cuba, a State Sponsor of Terrorism under US law.
Minister Douglas, who is also a former prime minister, is one of the major players implicated in the massive billion dollar fraud, money laundering and corruption scheme in Saint Kitts, in which a Chinese-controlled company, CARIBBEAN GALAXY GROUP, sold thousands of illegally-discounted economic passports to dodgy Chinese and other foreign nationals, many of whom have now been arrested in a number of countries for financial crime, espionage, and other illicit activities. He is no stranger to controversy; he holds a diplomatic passport issued by the Commonwealth of Dominica, which states that he is a native-born Dominican citizen which he has admittedly used to conceal his Saint Kitts nationality in international travel. He is reportedly at the top of a target list for indictment for money laundering in the United States.