WHO MURDERED ST.KITTS' MOST PROLIFIC MONEY LAUNDERER?

 

Ambassador Billy Herbert at the United Nations

Some people insist that money laundering is a victimless crime. Tell that to the heirs of Dr. William V. Herbert, more commonly known as Billy Herbert, a Kittitian attorney and prominent government figure, who one fine Sunday went to sea in his yacht with a number of passengers, including some of his children, and was never seen again. His murder, and that of the entire compliment on board, which has never been solved, is believed to have occurred as the direct result of his money laundering activities. Inasmuch as his name came up yesterday, perhaps how he met his end is instructive to those who would now engage in such crimes.

Dr. Herbert, as he was known in the East Caribbean, was the powerful Foreign Minister in newly-independent St. Kitts & Nevis, and also the Constitutional Adviser to her Majesty's Government on the British Overseas territory of Anguilla. Having law offices in both jurisdictions, Herbert formed companies, and facilitated the movement and laundering of the proceeds of crime for many a client, yours truly included, during what I call the Golden Age of money laundering, the period between the late 1970s, and 1990. He was a dominant figure in the region, in that dark craft.

There came a time when detectives from Scotland Yard, seconded to a special FBI office in South Florida. descended upon the offices of a certain Irish accountant that many of us in the business used for BVI shell companies, located in Roadtown, Tortola. in exchange for immunity, and a new life elsewhere under an alias. The case is known in the US as Operation Man, after the Isle of Man, where some of the laundering activities were based. The accountant, Shaun Patrick Murphy, gave up Billy Herbert's operation, to save his own skin. 

Thereafter, law enforcement confronted Dr. Herbert about his laundering activities, wherein he allowed them to review all his client files whilst he took an abrupt holiday in the United States. he was never charged, due to the political fallout that the US would have suffered in the Caribbean had he faced an American court.

Karma, however, has a way of catching up with those who cheat justice. Herbert laundered money for the IRA, collected in the United States from supporters, and used to purchase weapons for the Cause. Some money went missing, and Dr. Herbert paid the price for its loss. I will spare our readers the gruesome details, but not is believed that the funds were actually confiscated by MI-6, and Herbert was innocent of the theft. He left an estate valued at over USD$5m, not a paltry sum in the East Caribbean, including homes in both countries.   

It is believed that his assassin was a Kittitian deeply involved in narcotics trafficking, and who is now serving a life sentence in the United States for multiple other crimes, though we will probably never know the full story, and most likely a contract murder. As you can see, money laundering is never a victimless crime, and sometimes the participants themselves end up paying the ultimate price for their sins.