DOMINICA OPENS AN EMBASSY IN THE EMIRATES, INCREASING RISK LEVELS FOR ITS CBI PROGRAM

Opening ceremonies, Abu Dhabi UAE

The Commonwealth of Dominica has announced the opening of its Embassy, in Abu Dhabi, United Emirates. While diplomatic news usually does not generate much interest, this action could have far-reaching consequences, due to the fact that Dominica's Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Program has accepted more career white-collar criminals, international sanctions evaders, and organized crime figures, than any of the other East Caribbean states offering CBI passports, and this new embassy, in a country which has zero international commerce with Dominica, will surely facilitate the issuance of Commonwealth of Nations member passports to dangerous and unsuitable applicants.

Let's survey the possible ways a Dominica embassy in the Emirates could facilitate money laundering, sanctions evasion, and terrorist financing:

(1) Iranian nationals, including government procurement agents, military and intelligence officers, and hackers performing industrial espionage, many of who already reside in the UAE, will find it infinitely easier to obtain Dominica CBI and diplomatic passports, which can be issued at the embassy, and records of these actions not transmitted to the capital in Roseau.

(2) CBI deposits, which are in US Dollars, can be delivered right into the embassy, and avoid being wired to banks in Dominica, whose transit through the New York banking structure, automatically confers jurisdiction upon US Federal Courts for money laundering charges. Now, the greenbacks, whether cash or in electronic form, will evade the Western Hemisphere altogether, and remain in the Middle East. Influential CBI consultancies will find a way to exploit the embassy's secrecy and immunity, resulting in an increase in the issuance of CBI passports to individuals who pose a clear and present danger to the West, and especially the US.

(3) The actual signup of dodgy CBI clients, by the international consultancies which have the ability to attract such traffic, could take place inside the embassy, in a protected diplomatic location, away from thye prying eyes of both law enforcement and regulatory agencies.

(4) Corrupt senior Dominica officials could stockpile the bribes and kickbacks paid to them outside Dominica, inside embassy grounds, where it would remain hidden. That capital might end up in the hands of global terrorist organizations, a cash-poor Iranian Government, or who knows what other  criminal entity Dominica's anti-American and pro-Socialist officials choose to finance or fund. All this would  enjoy diplomatic protection from law enforcement investigation.

Will the new embassy become a hotbed of criminal activity ? We cannot say, but given the sordid history of Dominica's sales of CBI and diplomatic passports, it would be prudent to assume that the new facility in Abu Dhabi will be engaged in conduct that results in the criminal elite acquiring identity documents in the privacy of the embassy, and using them to perpetrate white-collar crime, sanctions evasion, and terrorist financing.