CHINA'S ROLE BEHIND THE SCENES IN THE USE OF CBI TO EXPAND SAINT KITTS' AIRPORT IS CAUSE FOR CONCERN

Bizjets line the runway in Saint Kitts; 24/12/2024

If you have been following the marketing, to Nigerian investors,of the expansion of Saint Kitts' ROBERT BRADSHAW INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (f/k/a Golden Rock), under the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) program, you should know that our investigation has revealed that the project is, in truth and in fact, being quietly orchestrated by China, which means that there may be a hidden agenda for the airport upgrade, now being supervised by CARIBBEAN INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT CORP (CIDC). 

When we first noticed that the project was being actively hawked inside Nigeria, our initial concerns were that it could result in the acquisition of SKN CBI passports by Nigerian fraudsters and white collar criminals, and other unsuitable candidates for citizenship, acquiring passports with visa-free access to Europe, as well as funding from illicit sources not thoroughly vetted by Saint Kitts' notoriously inept due diligence program, which has verged on intentionally approving bad actors.

Now however, given our information regarding the fact that China is pulling the strings on the airport upgrade project, we have substantial concerns that the results may not be the publicly stated goal of supporting increased tourism, but in creating a facility with a potential military application for China. 

It is not a coincidence that BENJAMIN EXETER, the CCO of CIDC, is an important Opposition member in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, making him an adversary of that country's Prime Minister RALPH GONSALVES, who has long opposed the corrupting influence of CBI in the region, and who originally broke the news that China is behind the Saint Kitts airport upgrade project. It appears that China is attempting to portray Exeter and CIDC as a major CBI  influence in the Caribbean. Additionally, there are reliable reports that the SVG Opposition efforts to introduce CBI in that country are fully funded by China.

If you know your Caribbean history, remember that it was the ongoing rapid construction, by a large Cuban contractor contingent, of the runway in Grenada, which had come under a radical political regime, that was one of the principal factors in the international invasion in 1983. The potential future use of the Grenada airport as an airbase for Soviet heavy bombers, was correctly seen as a National Security threat by the United States. Whether history is now repeating itself, with China the emerging threat, potentially having access for its military aviation assets in the Eastern Caribbean, is an issue which cannot be ignored.

We will be closely monitoring this project, and watching for the United States' response to its progress. as part of our coverage of China's efforts to expand its political, economic, social and martial influence in the states of the Eastern Caribbean.

A NEW RICO CASE AGAINST GRENADA CBI DEFENDANTS AND ITS PRINCIPAL CHINESE SALES CONSULTANCY TO BE FILED THIS SUMMER

MSR MEDIA, whose American RICO lawsuit filed last year, charging fraud and money laundering in SAINT KITTS & NEVIS and SAINT LUCIA exposed a dark underworld of crime and corruption in the Caribbean Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) industry, announced yesterday in a Press Release that it intends to file, this Summer, a new RICO action, against additional CBI defendants, and yet another Chinese-owned sales consultancy.

Given that the §1782 Discovery Application subpoena served on BANK OF AMERICA, resulted back in January 2025 in the production of what is reportedly incriminating evidence against  GRENADA parties, and HENG SHENG GROUP, it is likely that these are two of the parties MSR intends to being RICO charges against, as well as others not yet named. It is believed that a number of consultancies in the Middle East will be among the defendants.

 GRENADA suspended Heng Sheng, and opened an investigation, after information regarding the fact that a major HS sales and marketing campaign of Grenada Economic Citizenships had occurred, and was an ongoing problem. After more than two months after the announcement, there is no additional word from the Government of Grenada. about the results of the investigation.

WILL THE HENG SHENG CITIZENSHIP BY INVESTMENT SCANDAL COST GRENADA ITS PRIZED E-2 VISA STATUS?

The unfolding scandal surrounding Grenada's principal CBI vendor, CHONGQING HENG SHENG CONSULTING SERVICES CO.,LTD., which is guilty of conducting widespread sales of illegally-discounted citizenships, employing a bogus financing scheme, to disguise its scheme, may have far-reaching consequences for Grenada, which is the only Eastern Caribbean CBI or CIP state among the five preently offering economic citizenships in the region.

The magnitude of the Heng Sheng scandal, which is considered by observers in the financial world to be as serious, if not even more egregious, than a similar case in Saint Kitts & Nevis, and in Saint Lucia, involving CARIBBEAN GALAXY GROUP, also owned and controlled by China. The difference is that the United States has an effective tool, the Grenada citizenship eligibility for the E-2 Investor Visa, with which to express its disapproval of the HS scheme, which was facilitated by INA Grenada, in approving the applications, and allowing the passports to be issued.

The hard-nosed, even adversarial, foreign policy of the new Trump Administration State department may result in the cancellation of E-2 privileges for all Grenadian citizens, not just the CBI passport holders. This act would seriously impact the value of Grenada CBI to investors, in our humble opinion, and level the playing field in the investment migration industry. Whether it occurs most likely will depend upon the level of discipline and sanctions that IMA doles out to HS, if any; We will be watching.

THEIR VISA FREE ACCESS TO THE EU & UK DISAPPEARING, PASSPORT SALES CONSULTANTS SEEK A BACKDOOR WAY TO SNEAK THEIR CLIENTS INTO THE EU UNOBSERVED

Twenty years ago, when I flew into the Isle of Man, to give a lecture on my money laundering experience at the Gaiety Theatre, I took out my US passport, for customs & immigration formalities, only to find that there were none. That's because IOM, a self-governing Crown Dependency, is part of the Common Travel Area, (CTA) and therefore travel to the United Kingdom is treated as an internal domestic journey. Do you understand the implications, given the recent UK Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) requirement, British revocation of visa-free entry for the Commonwealth of Dominica, and the threat that all five Eastern Caribbean CBI & CIP states (Grenada, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Saint Kitts & Antigua & Barbuda) will eventually lose their prized visa-free entry status?

As you can see from the attached image, the IOM passport, while it doesn't say United Kingdom, it does indicate its British status, complete with the Royal Coat of Arms. And here's the beauty of that travel document; Isle of Man passport holders enter most of the members of the European Union (and certain other Scandinavian non-EU European nations) DO NOT need a visa. Given the recent pending legislation in the European Union, which when passed will basically eliminate the visa-free privileges of the Eastern Caribbean states, you can see how an IOM passport will serve as a workaround for all the EU access issues confronting consultancies whose clients still are clamoring to be able to enter the EU, without the screening, cost and delay of obtaining a visa.

Now you know why one of the world's largest Investment Migration consultancies recently traveled to the isle of Man, complete with glossy brochures, and details about the financial benefits IOM government would reap if it created its own CBI program, to be administered by, you guessed it, the same consultancy that made the glib sales presentation, which claimed that the IM industry is on an exponential trajectory, all governments will want this revenue, and that prior CBI issues are past mistakes and won’t be repeated. I worry that the financially strapped IOM government may buy into this slick marketing campaign, which could result in the IM industry's client ability to live in the UK, and defeat all the efforts of the EU to control who enters the Schengen Area.

I hope those of you in the Isle of Man, who sit in Douglas in the Tynwald, the version of Parliament, are paying attention, for something wicked this way comes.

WHAT WAS THE CONNECTION BETWEEN GRENADA'S ILLEGAL DIPLOMATIC PASSPORT SALES PROGRAM AND ITS CBI?

NOTE: Some readers want to know what the background was, regarding Grenada's illegal sale of diplomatic passports, and the connection to CBI, so here is the original article on the subject.

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GRENADA'S DENIALS WERE TOO LITTLE, AND TOO LATE.

Our article about the million dollar payment a European businessman made, to obtain a diplomatic passport, through a Caribbean country who would play-for-pay, appears to have resulted in scores of official-sounding Internet postings, all swearing that Grenada has no diplomatic passport program, and that the allegations of the victim are therefore not true. All the spin masters retained to discredit our story, whether paid by Grenada, or the massive Citizenship by Investment industry, are not going to stop the sordid truth about an illegal diplomatic passport sales scheme, neither approved by the statutes of Grenada, nor authorized under international law.

The articles, which do not credit any specific spokesman , allege that the victim was told that Grenada did not have a diplomatic passport program. The trouble is, the emails, to and from the victim, and Grenada's then-Minister for Citizenship by Investment Promotions,  Alexandra Otway-Noel, who was the victim's only contact in Grenadian government, do not corroborate the spin doctors' version of the truth. When Ms. Otway responded to the victim's disclosure of no-passport, and no return of his million, she did NOT deny the existence of a diplomatic passport program. In truth and in fact, she referred the victim to the CIP program that she supervised. Does that sound like denial to you ?

Why did the Honorable Ms. Otway-Noel respond to the victim's plea for assistance from the Grenada Government ? Perhaps it was her relationship to the country's CIP program, and therefore to Henley and Partners. Ms. Otway-Noel was a prominent speaker at a Henley and Partners event attended by several attendees who confirmed her appearance, and she is still a listed speaker on the H & P website, complete with her biography. Until her abrupt resignation in 2017, under a cloud, for alleged international travel, Ms. Otway, who also held the portfolios of Minister of Tourism, and Minister of Implementation, was an integral part of Grenada's CIP program. We will be publishing those emails in full, with only the victim's name redacted, for his protection.

We shall continue to detail all the players in Grenada's under-the-table diplomatic passport program,  what their roles are, and how it remains well hidden from public view. 

GRENADAS PRIME MINISTER TRIED TO HAVE OUR ARTICLE EXPOSING MILLION DOLLAR DIPLOMATIC PASSPORT FEE TAKEN DOWN

Prime Minister Keith Mitchell

   NOTE: We are aware that there have been comments, originating in Grenada and elsewhere, to the effect that this blog has only tackled corruption in the country's CBI program since the MSR MEDIA case was filed, and we respond with this, and other, article demonstrating that a decade ago, we were exposing the individuals in that program, in in senior government. There will be other previous articles published, to demonstrate our continuing coverage of Grenada details a long and sordid history of corruption and misconduct.    KENNETH RIJOCK

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GRENADA'S PRIME MINISTER TRIED TO HAVE OUR ARTICLE EXPOSING MILLION DOLLAR PASSPORT FEE TAKEN DOWN(originally published in 2017)

Regular readers of this blog will recall our August 18, 2017 article, Applicant for Grenada Diplomatic Passport sent Million Dollars to Wells Fargo Account of Agent, which recounted the tale of a Ukrainian businessmen who was ordered to send $1m to a Singapore bank account, in order to obtain a diplomatic passport from Grenada. Newly-discovered information, obtained through an official source in Dominica, confirms that the scandal caused a panic in Grenada's government.  

Keith Mitchell, the Prime Minister of Grenada, openly fearful of probable fallout in his next election, asked his CBI Head, and personal advisor, Kaisha Ince, if she could have the article deleted from the Internet, by having a CBI consultancy handle it.

CBI head Kaisha Ince

What follows is a verbatim transcript of text messages, between these two parties. it occurred on August 19, 2017. Mitchell first texted Ince the article.

Mitchell: Kaisha, what is this article ?

Ince: PM, let me speak to them.

Mitchell: Where did he get this information ? Talk to Chris*, to take action on this. 
                 I cannot afford this kind of information to come out before the election.

Ince:  Yes, I spoke to them. They are already aware of it, and will put pressure on this
          blog writer to take the article down.

The article remains online today, and will continue to be published on this blog. Please note well that nowhere in the conversation was there a denial of the accuracy of the information appearing in the article, only a demand to know where the information came from. Further, the Ukrainian applicant later not only confirmed his story, he disclosed that another businessman from his country had also applied for a Grenada diplomatic passport. 

We will be publishing two additional articles on official misconduct in Grenada, again supplying complete transcripts of text conversations, and as they are extremely disturbing, we shall post a warning regarding their content.
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* It is believed that this is a reference to a senior officer at Henley & Partners, Christian Kalin.

 
 

MONEY LAUNDERING THROUGH CITIZENSHIP BY INVESTMENT (CBI) PASSPORTS

In the early 1980s, I was contacted by the late William (Billy) Herbert, then the Ambassador Plenipotentiary in St. Kitts, which afforded him multiple diplomatic positions. Dr. Herbert, who later disappeared, due to allegedly incorrect assumptions made by a client about missing funds in a money laundering project he was handling,* formed shell offshore companies and registered narcotics smuggling vessels in the UK for some of my narcotrafficking clients for a number of years.

He brought news of a newly-created passport program that we now call Citizenship by Investment, or more commonly CBI, which allowed my criminal clients to assume St. Kitts & Nevis nationality, and obtain an SKN passport in the process. Since then, four other East Caribbean states have embarked upon such a program, of which Grenada, whose citizens have the potential to apply for American E-2 Investor visa status, to allow CBI passport holders to eventually be able to access the United States, has a distinct advantage.

Speaking solely from the viewpoint of money laundering tradecraft, CBI passports are a godsend. They allow the holders to assume an anonymous alias, complete with a bogus Place of Birth that matches the country of their passport. Altering one's Date of Birth is also possible, given the rampant corruption associated with the CBI programs being operated at this time. In short, a completely new identity is created for the benefit of the holder. Add to this the availability of a local driver's license, and an included residence purchased in conjunction with the program, giving one the usual required proof of payment of a utility bill, and the identification required in most countries to open a bank account is satisfied. Since affluent new clients are much to be desired in the developing world, if they have the identity documents, they are generally accepted. 

Armed with a CBI passport, a money launderer is free to visit a financial institution in a country in the developing world, conceal his real passport, and present his new, clean identity, thereby artfully deceiving the local compliance officer, who is totally in the dark about his new identity, especially since effective facial recognition software is most likely not in use there. Since typical checks of commercially-available  databases of high-risk and sanctioned individuals will not result in a positive finding, the laundryman after waiting a short period, to appear to be a legitimate routine bank customer, is free to employ advanced and complex money laundering schemes at will. he then closes the account and disappears from that jurisdiction, his goals accomplished, and anyone later attempting to follow his trail will find that it has gone cold. Terrorist financing and sanctions evasion is also facilitated.

Many financial criminals hold multiple CBI passports, with variations on the name, and in several countries, to throw off any routine checks. Some only use a specific CBI passport briefly, and then use it on the other side of the world, knowing that in the developing world, access to information about "clean" passports from obscure island nations is nearly impossible to find, even for local law enforcement agencies in Latin America, Africa and the Far East.

Until and unless the CBI passport become a thing of the past, laundrymen will be free to abuse them at will, and since they represent significant revenue for third world jurisdictions who need cash flow to cover their budgetary needs, due to an excess of government employees and departments, it is in their best interests to continue to operate CBI passport sales programs. These passports will continue to be sold, hence the problem will continue.

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* A Caribbean Money Launderer casts a Shadow Long After his Death (October 9, 2014).

  

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?

If you thought that CARIBBEAN GALAXY REAL ESTATE LIMITED, the Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) stakeholder that sold thousands of Saint Kitts passports, collecting USD$1bn, while failing to construct the Prison Project in a massive fraud, you haven't met HENG SHENG, another Chinese company, engaged in Grenada's National Hotel project. All the slick and glossy pre-construction photos, form 2019, depict a futuristic hotel structure, anchoring a five-star resort. Heng Sheng promised a two billion dollar modern marvel. It's a bloody pipedream; Read why.

It's a damn shame that the reality is light years from the sad truth. Take a close look at the"resort" here in real-time September 2024; Heng Sheng (HS) has barely completed the first floor, and if you look closely, construction appears to have completely halted some time ago. Sure, the website update from July promises a completed and operational hotel complex, opening in 2027, but the reality is all we see a neglected worksite that's going nowhere. 

This what fraud looks like, Chinese-style. Like many other corrupt and crooked CBI developers before it, the company has sought to excuse the obscene delays by blaming government red tape and plans approval delays. This old trope has been employed time and again, all over Grenada, resulting in rusting carcasses of unfinished CBI construction that the government never calls the developers on, because they always get their portion, and certain government officials, and their supporters, grow fat on undisclosed, illicit payments and "contracts." The losers are the people of Grenada, the same sad story as one sees all over the East Caribbean CBI/CIP industry; Chinese fraudsters, with the help and assistance of local (but corrupt) leaders who are feathering their own nests through repeated bribes and kickbacks, fleecing the programs they are supposed to serve. 

The fictional pipedream; never built

In the meanwhile, as we have previously (and painfully) detailed, illegally-discounted applications are pushed through by HS consultancies, vendors and sub-agents in the Middle East and elsewhere, just like we have seen in Saint Kitts, and in Saint Lucia with Galaxy. HS has sold thousands of Grenada citizenships, complete with passports, at bargain basement prices that are illegal under the Grenada laws that authorize economic citizenship sales. You may want to read our prior article. Heng Sheng Does not Deny that it Sold Illegally-discounted economic Citizenships of Grenada. Can you say license to steal?

Where is all this fraud, money laundering and corruption going to end, we ask. When there are more Chinese CBi passports holders than native-born Grenadian citizens? When HS abruptly pulls out of Grenada, with billions of dollars illegally acquired, flicking its finger at all those greedy Grenada politicians, left holding the bag, and facing criminal prosecution abroad? We cannot say, but unless there is systemic reform in Grenada's CBI program, expect the worst.

AS EXTRADITION FROM BELGIUM LOOMS, MEHUL CHOKSI'S LAWYERS ATTEMPT TO GET HIS NON-BAILABLE STATUS CHANGED IN INDIA

The real life Star Wars villain

Attorneys for India's real life version of JABBA THE HUTT, MEHUL CHOKSI, is seeking advantages before he even gets to his native country to face justice for the equivalent of a two billion dollar fraud. His lawyers have a hearing coming up on June 16, at which time they will argue that his non-bailable arrest warrant be cancelled. If the court grants their motion, he could, in theory be released on bond, notwithstanding that he cheated justice for several years with his handy Antigua Citizenship by Investment (CIP) passport, issued to him when he was already on law enforcement's radar as a career fraudster who swindled Punjab National Bank (PNB). having eaten his way across Antigua, Choksi now want to do the same thing in his native India, whilst his lawyers attempt to delay his trial for several years, using the victims' money.

For the benefit of those who still extol the benefits of economic citizenships, and preach that due diligence is "among the best" in the CBI states of the Eastern Caribbean, Mehul Choksi is the Poster Boy for the proposition that their claims that effective and adequate screening occurs in the region are self-serving nonsense, spread by those whose livelihood depends on selling passports to criminals, whose filthy lucre blinds them to the truth. When the worst white collar thieves can find a Caribbean country to sell them a passport for cash ( in US Dollars, naturally) the system is broken. The question is: can it be fixed?

FIVE YEARS AFTER CYPRUS CANCELS ITS DODGY CBI PROGRAM, BAD ACTORS WITH CYPRIOT PASSPORTS CONTINUE TO COME OUT OF THE WOODWORK

A new scandal in Singapore reminds us that, years after a mismanaged Citizenship by Investment (CBI) economic passport sales program has been terminated by the sponsoring country. the problems created by such dodgy programs come back to haunt those who created them. Media in Singapore is ablaze with the emerging story about how three senior Singaporean ministers, Ng Chee Meng, Ong Ye Kung and Chee Hong Tat, have been found to have been to dinners also attended by SU HAIJIN, the convicted, sentenced, imprisoned (14 months) and now deported, Chinese money launderer involved in cleaning S$3bn.

You may recall that Su infamously jumped off a balcony, seeking to evade arrest and seriously injuring himself, but still finding himself being taken into in custody. Desperate money launderers, do desperate things, i can tell you from personal experience.

What I found of interest is that Su operated through a Cypriot Citizenship by Investment (CBI) passport, which he acquired before media exposure caused the program to be cancelled in 2020. Perhaps government officials in the Caribbean countries that still sell CBI or CIP, such as Grenada, might want to keep this in mind, in the event that the country's IMA deems it advisable to terminate its program; the money launderers, sanctions evaders, and transnational criminals that you have given passports to will continue to cause problems abroad, and be exposed, together with their valuable CBI passports, which they never should have been issued.

WHERE ARE THE RESULTS OF THE GRENADA INVESTIGATION OF HENG SHENG?

We are coming up on two months since the IMA of Grenada advised that it had initiated an investigation into "Owner Financing, Under-Selling or Discounting" by the Chinese-owned consultancy, HENG SHENG GROUP, as promised in the March 18, 2025 Notice captioned 'Further actions related to Owner Financing and Illegal Discounting," but there hasn't been any information released to the public, nor have any government officials made any statements, or submitted to a press conference, so that prospective applicants, as well as investors, can be updated on the status.

Given that the issues are of great public importance, not only to Grenada, but to all the other Eastern Caribbean CBI & CIP states, we believe that IMA Grenada has an affirmative duty to keep all interested parties informed of its progress, or lack thereof. There was a great deal of publicity surrounding the March 18th letter, but since that date, we are seeing an information blackout on the results, if any, to date of the ongoing investigation. How is the investigation progressing? Who have been identified as the principal bad actors at Heng Sheng? Has the Director of Public Prosecutions been notified? We need answers.

MONEY LAUNDERING, THE 800 POUND ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM, AT THIS WEEK'S OECS MEETING WITH THE STATE DEPARTMENT IN WASHINGTON

We expect to see sparks fly this week, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with six of the leaders of the Caribbean countries from the organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). while not listed on the agenda, the knotty American problem of money laundering connected to correspondent accounts in the United States receiving Citizenship by investment (CBI/CIP) will most certainly be on the minds of the senior State Department officials conducting the talks. American banks which are servicing the Caribbean have major exposure to prosecution for violation of the Money Laundering Control Act by processing illegal CBI application funds, although they have thus far resisted calls to close accounts which are an economic lifeline for the Caribbean, as 90% of the region's international trade flows through the United States.

What are the specific money laundering issues? Let's quickly survey them.

(1) SAINT KITTS & NEVIS and SAINT LUCIA: the CBI & CIP programs of those countries have processed thousands of illegally-discounted applications, acting in cooperation with Chinese-based CARIBBEAN GALAXY GROUP. Those payments are by definition money laundering.

(2) GRENADA: Another CBI state allowing deeply and illegally, discounted applications, this one in conjunction with yet another dodgy Chinese-controlled consultancy, HENG SHENG GROUP, has also resulted in the Proceeds of Crime to infect the American monetary system.

(3) DOMINICA: A monopoly by a single stakeholder, and of course more illegally-discounted applications has tainted this state's program. Murders connected to a survivalist-oriented CBI stakeholder project have raised serious questions about a total lack of government control over its CBI.

(4) ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA: A groundbreaking §1782 proceeding in the US is about to expose decades of money laundering orchestrated by the country's Prime Minister, GASTON BROWNE, all processed through American financial institutions; Antigua has become ground central for a Chinese-controlled "Hong Kong-style" enclave completely autonomous, including its financial sector.

While there have not been any instances of De-Risking resulting in any East Caribbean state losing all its US correspondent banks, such an event could occur, with disastrous economic, social and political consequences for the region. Will these EC states continue to allow their CBI programs to endanger their correspondent banking, and risk catastrophic De-Risking, and what will Secretary Rubio do about it?