If you know how Rule 35 Sentencing Reduction works in Federal Court, cooperating defendants often receive up to a 50% cut in their sentences. Rarely do we see more; the huge (65%) sentence reduction handed out in Miami to the Swiss banker/money launderer MATTHIAS KRULL was obviously payment for his testimony against a major Venezuelan money laundering operation, but that is the rare exception.
OLEANVINE PICKERING MAYNARD, the BVI port manager who received a nine year sentence in the ANDREW FAHIE drug & money laundering sting, served only a single year of her sentence, before being released. A 90% reduction in her sentence is quite extraordinary, and it most certainly was not as the result of her trial testimony against Fahie. We must assume that she gave evidence implicating other senior Caribbean government officials, and they either not been indicted yet, or more likely, their are sealed indictments being held until the targets are physically within the jurisdiction of the United States, such as a quick trip over to the US Virgin Islands, which is sovereign American territory.
We will be watching for the case that Oleanvine, and her son KADEEM MAYNARD, who also drew a major sentence reduction, spawned. I imagine there are some nervous government officials in the BVI with sleepless nights these days.
Kenneth Rijock's Financial Crime Blog
Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Financial Crime
Wednesday, March 18, 2026
HOW DID BVI PREMIER ANDREW FAHIE'S CO-DEFENDANT, OLEANVINE PICKERING MAYNARD SERVE ONLY ONE YEAR OF A NINE YEAR SENTENCE ON COCAINE CHARGES?
Tuesday, March 17, 2026
GRENADA'S PRIME MINISTER; WE HAVE A GOVERNMENT OFFICE IN NIGERIA FOR CBI PASSPORT APPLICATIONS; PURE INSANITY
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| Mitchell with a Fistful of CBI passports |
This is Grenada's Prime Minister, DICKON MITCHELL, on Facebook, hawking his country's Citizenship by Investment (CBI) economic passports, by advertising the fact that one can process their application in NIGERIA. Compliance officers, who are well aware that victims in the United States have been targeted for years by a host of Nigerian transnational criminals, should be concerned, for the ability to disguise their nationality is a major component of white collar crime, when one comes from a high-risk jurisdiction.
I have lost count of the number of Nigerian career criminals indicted in America, whether for romance fraud, advance fee schemes, or a number of illicit activities, all of which have made U.S. law enforcement agencies concerned about how such individuals can operate within their native country with impunity, attacking Americans.
In a country with a documented high amount of official corruption, what is to prevent criminals from purchasing a government ID under an alias, and using it to successfully process a Grenada CBI passport? Remember, of all the five EC CBI states, only Grenada allows its citizens the ability to obtain an E-2 Treaty Investor visa. Consider the possibilities; clever career Nigerian criminals could end up legally inside the United States.
I cannot understate the seriousness of my concerns; Native-born Grenadians, who prize their unique E-2 eligibility, amongst all the countries of the Eastern Caribbean, for PM Mitchell's zeal to sell more CBI passports could result in the American termination of the visa program. Apparently, national avarice has trumped common sense in Grenada.
WILL CHOKSKI'S UK CIVIL SUIT AGAINST INDIA BE DISMISSED FOR HIS FAILURE TO TIMELY PAY THE £677,000 COST DEPOSIT?
Does Choksi not have the funds available to make the required cost deposit? In that case, the action could be dismissed with prejudice. We will be closely monitoring the civil action, and will report back on all developments as they unfold.
Monday, March 16, 2026
MAJOR PROBLEMS HAVE ALREADY EMERGED WITH THE NEW CBI PROGRAM AT SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE
Compliance officers, if you were wondering why the concerted disinformation that has appeared of late, attempting to discredit the undersigned's warnings about corruption in Citizenship by Investment programs, it was to confuse you about emerging threats I am covering. My sources have confirmed that the new CBI program at West African country, SAO TOME' AND PRINCIPE, is accepting, and processing, applications for economic passports from nationals of RUSSIA and IRAN, two jurisdictions on international sanctions list, and which are blocked from applying at most CBI programs. These passports can then be employed for sanctions evasion and related money laundering by bad actors working for those two outlaw states.
Furthermore, we are advised there is a rush on Sao Tome' applications, the majority of which are originating in the investment migration consultancies located in the United Arab Emirates, principally in Dubai. These companies exist there free of any regulation, control and enforcement, and Dubai has been the site of the majority of the massive prior sales of illegally discounted Caribbean CBI & CIP, passports, through Chinese companies which diverted billions of dollars to Hong Kong, denying needed revenue to the people who were the intended beneficiaries.
Please note that Sao Tome' is of particular interest to the law enforcement agencies of the United States, as it was the aviation registration jurisdiction of choice for Russian organized crime , which used the S9 prefix to hide the beneficial ownership of dozens of turboprop aircraft, whilst ferrying them to COLOMBIA, and other drug-producing countries in South America, where they became the aircraft of choice to transport cocaine and bulk US Dollars. in the region. Considering that it is US law enforcement that is tipping us off to the Sao Tome CBI passport abuse, we must assume that Russians and Iranians now holding those passports have now drawn their close attention.
We are aware that compliance officers at international banks generally check Place of Birth on all passports proffered by new customers, to determine whether they are being presented with a CBI document, but unless the holder of a Sao Tome' passport is a Portuguese expat who grew up there, and has the language skills and general familiarity with what is an obscure jurisdiction, you are urged to discredit any recitation of local birth, and institute enhanced due diligence on the holder, prior to accepting any funds at account opening.
FOR FURTHER READING:
https://rijock.blogspot.com/2025/11/consumers-acquiring-cbi-passports-from.html
https://rijock.blogspot.com/2026/03/acquiring-cbi-passport-from-african.html
Sunday, March 15, 2026
IF YOU CANNOT ACCEPT THE UK FINDING THAT CBI IS "INHERENTLY HIGH RISK," THEN YOU ARE IN DENIAL, AND PART OF THE PROBLEM, NOT PART OF THE SOLUTION
If you read the comments closely, you have seen that my commentary regarding the risk factors that compliance officers at financial institutions face, when it comes to the money laundering and financial crime threat posed by the holders of Citizenship by Investment (CBI) economic passports, is getting a lot of pushback by individuals who deem my articles a threat to their livelihoods. Those people wish to distract potential purchasers of CBI passports from the UK Government's findings of fact, and its pronouncement that economic passports pose an "Inherently High Risk," by stating that my warnings constitute fear mongering, and that all major Western jurisdictions are also infected with financial crime.
This approach, which is a cleverly designed marketing tool, intended to distract consumers from the distinct possibility that their six figure CBI purchase may at some point become useless for visa-free travel into the countries which they purchased it for, by falsely endorsing what are passport sales programs already known to have rampant shortcomings regarding major money laundering, corruption and financial crime issues, should be ignored.
Economic passports, in the hands of career financial criminals, facilitate crime, pure and simple. Whilst the majority of those holding them use them merely to evade the expensive and time-consuming visa application process, those with ill intent are not to be disregarded as serious threats by the compliance community. The UK, and US and the EU are not wrong, when they advise about CBI being a systemic problem, and readers should disregard the slick marketing programs touting them as safely administered, because that is a misstatement of material fact.
Remember, we are required to maintain an effective risk-based compliance program; ignore the propaganda, people.Friday, March 13, 2026
ACQUIRING A CBI PASSPORT FROM AFRICAN STATES NOW OFFERING THEM INSTEAD OF FROM THE CARIBBEAN IS JUST TRADING CORRUPTION AND MONEY LAUNDERING FROM ONE REGION FOR ANOTHER
The explosion of new opportunities to secure a Citizenship by Investment (CBI) economic passport from countries in Africa which have recently begun to offer them to consumers, while it sounds like a solution, is merely moving from one problem area, the Caribbean, to another, with the same issues. The investment migration industry, correctly abandoning the high-risk Eastern Caribbean CBI & CIP states of St. Kitts, Antigua, Dominica, St. Lucia and Grenada, for what it deems to be safer waters, is respectfully only trading one area fatally infected with corruption and money laundering for another.
A quick look at TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL's take on those new African states now offering CBI passports shows that they all exhibit a high level of corruption, and a quick look at their poor levels of anti-money laundering and countering of terrorist financing activity also reveals that these jurisdictions fail to meet banking best practices benchmarks on those subjects. Not only that, but some African jurisdictions have additional problems which some risk managers might judge even more serious than those of the high-risk Eastern Caribbean. See CONSUMERS ACQUIRING CBI PASSPORTS FROM SIERRA LEONE AND SAO TOME & PRINCIPE MAY BE IN FOR A ROUGH RIDE: THOSE JURISDICTIONS HAVE MAJOR CORRUPTION ISSUES; IS IT SAINT KITTS ALL OVER AGAIN? https://lnkd.in/eeuTzMvz
While we understand the industry's move away from the rampant issues facing the Eastern Caribbean CBI states, perhaps it is better move to switch their clients to new jurisdictions without such existing corruption and money laundering baggage, such as the emerging program being constructed by ARGENTINA, with the assistance of well-known investment migration companies. Advising consumers to buy CBI passports from the African states who now have jumped head-first into the economic passport sector does not better serve their needs, and if there are issues with improper termination of citizenship rights by those countries in the future, I seriously doubt that their corrupt court systems with mete out justice fairly to foreign plaintiffs with claims adverse to their governme
Wednesday, March 11, 2026
SAINT LUCIA'S INVESTMENT MINISTER, ERNEST HILAIRE, LIES, DENIES AND OBFUSCATES ABOUT WHY THE UK JUST TERMINATED HIS COUNTRY'S VISA-FREE ADMISSION PROGRAM: IT'S CBI, YOU CONMAN
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| Ernest Hilaire |
To add insult to injury, in Saint Lucia, Hilaire , notwithstanding a clear statement in a letter to his Prime Minister by the UK Government, a statement on its website, and a statement by the Home Secretary, Hilaire has the hubris to stand up in the Saint Lucian Parliament, and try to convince his listeners that they didn't hear what the UK Government told them, and the reason was native-born St. Lucians claiming UK asylum.
What do you think the UK Government will do, when it learns that there have been an additional 36,000 SLC passports sold over the last two years, and that this information has been withheld from public disclosure?
When the pendulum of justice swings back on the side of the Rule of Law, and Hilaire is held to account for his Crimes Against the State, it is suggested that he be sentenced to be placed upon the uninhabited Antiguan island of REDONDA, where he can contemplate the damage he has wrought to Saint Lucia, and his dark legacy.
AGENT WORKING FOR NEW RULER OF IRAN USED NEVIS SHELL COMPANY, SAINT KITTS CBI PASSPORT TO EVADE INTERNATIONAL SANCTIONS, ACQUIRE BRITISH REAL ESTATE WORTH OVER THREE BILLION POUNDS
It has come to the point now, that the use of ANY Saint Kitts & Nevis corporation or business entity should set off alarms inside the head of any compliance officer, monitoring account opening, real estate transactions, business acquisition, purchase of aircraft or vessels, that the risks involved of dealing with sanctioned or criminal parties exceed the risk appetite of any legitimate enterprise. In short, if you don't redline the use of SKN companies for any and all purposes, you are probably guilty of compliance malpractice, if not Willful Blindness. Do not accept Saint Kitts entities under any circumstances, if you want to protect your employer, and yourself.
Tuesday, March 10, 2026
HOW SPONSOR BANKS CAN REDUCE THEIR LIABILITY FOR MONEY LAUNDERING AT THEIR FINTECH PARTNERS
When a friend sought to retain the services of an effective divorce lawyer, whilst contemplating the filing of a petition for dissolution of marriage here in Florida, I directed her to one of Miami's premier attorneys who specialize in that type of litigation, because that lawyer's initial consultation with clients always included the client taking away form that meeting a summary of both rights and responsibilities in contested divorce cases. The object of that briefing package, which the client was required to sign at the subsequent consultation, was to insure that he or she fully understood what was expected of them.
As regulators regularly assign liability for fintech deficiencies in anti-money laundering compliance to the sponsor bank partner, It is humbly suggested that this technique be applied for AML/CFT risk reduction in this manner: that newly onboarded fintechs must execute an extensive briefing package, which includes the minimum compliance requirements for operating with the sponsor bank partner. Furthermore, not only is the fintech required to employ banking best practices in its compliance program, but that the typical methods and
techniques that money launderers employ at fintechs be specifically listed, and that fintech management, as well as compliance, agrees that it understands them and will make a major effort to find and interdict them. If Sponsor banks are unaware of what methods should be included in the briefing, this old reformed money launderer will be happy to assist them.
Since regulators love to point the finger at sponsor banks, for the compliance mistakes of their fintechs, look that the signed briefing book as an appropriate response to them, demonstrating that the sponsor bank has defined that obligations of fintech compliance, and that this responsibility has been acknowledged and assumed.
DOES MALTA'S CURRENT PRIME MINISTER HAVE TOO MANY SKELETONS IN HIS OWN CLOSET TO SEIZE HIS CORRUPT PREDECESSOR'S MILLIONS, SITTING IN FOREIGN BANK ACCOUNTS
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| Robert Abela, by COSIMO |
Our recent article, WILL MALTA'S MOST CORRUPT PRIME MINISTER NOW BE UNABLE TO GET HIS MILLIONS IN BRIBES & KICKBACKS OUT OF DUBAI? https://lnkd.in/d-QJRY4 exposed allegations that JOSEPH MUSCAT, the former Prime Minister of the Republic of Malta (2013-2020), has reportedly cached many millions of Euros and Dollars in a prominent UAE financial institution. These funds, alleged to be bribes and kickbacks paid to Muscat, by American businessmen and others, should be properly seized and forfeited to the people of Malta.
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| Joseph Muscat and Robert Abela |
Unfortunately, Joseph Muscat's successor, ROBERT ABELA (2020-present), has refrained from seeking justice for his constituents. In truth and in fact, before replacing the disgraced Muscat, Abela was his most trusted advisor when in private legal practice. In addition, although he presented himself as an employment attorney, he represented a number of Maltese allegedly known to be connected to organized crime, individuals who appear to have repeatedly evaded accountability in the country's arcane criminal justice system, which allows cases to be delayed indefinitely, where prominent lawyers are involved.
In truth and in fact, PM Abela appears to have a Conflict of Interest in taking Muscat's alleged criminal profits away from him, as well as sufficient skeletons in his own closet that to preclude any move against Muscat, who could expose his successor's dark background if charged with corruption. Will Muscat escape justice due to Abela's sins?













