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| Cash being delivered to be smuggled into the UK |
If you are wonder what the still shots from a video are, they appear to show SAINT LUCIA MINISTER RICHARD FREDERICK, unclothed, literally throwing cash at one of his paramours. She apparently filmed the encounter without his knowledge, and the tape is now out in the public domain. Frederick, now under criminal investigation for diverting Saint Lucia government funds to silence individuals who have now accused him of sexual offenses, was allegedly using these victims to illegally smuggle cash into the United Kingdom. The funds, some of which came from foreign countries as donors, were intended to benefit Saint Lucia's most needy citizens, and the nation is in an uproar over the theft. The United States, the UK, and Europe should all push for the prompt filing of criminal charges, as it was their funding which Frederick allegedly used to pay for the support of intimate partners.
Although the country's embattled Prime Minister, PHILIP J. PIERRE, has indicated that an investigation is underway, his direct involvement in the corruption means that any case filed will never go to trial, as Pierre and the Saint Lucia Labour Party are implicated in the theft of funds specifically intended to assist the country's poorest people. Too many government officials, especially Pierre and Minister ERNEST HILAIRE, will be exposed to their constituents, who recently reelected them.
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| Minister Richard Frederick |
The scandal demonstrates how deeply official corruption infects all levels of government in the Eastern Caribbean states, and is a primary reason why foreign investment in the region has seriously declined, as investors fear that they will be at the mercy of amoral senior government officials, forced to pay bribes and kickbacks, and lose any properties they purchase to fraud, the corrupt local judicial systems that ignore the Rule of Law, and are in danger of trumped-up criminal charges, should they contest their fate.
The shame of the situation is further increased by the utter failure of the ORGANIZATION OF EASTERN CARIBBEAN STATES (OECS) silence in the case, which is deafening. The OECS allows rampant official corruption at the highest level; in the absence of meaningful reform throughout the Eastern Caribbean region, its Members will continue to carry the stain of greed and avarice, and their dysfunctional economies will wallow in disrepair and neglect. If the OECS cannot condemn Richard Frederick, and others like him, the future of the region is dark indeed.


















