When you write about rampant corruption, you get a bull's eye painted on your back. It's worse in the Caribbean, where a total lack of significant American or British influence results in regimes that openly sell diplomatic passports, fly in cooperative expat voters to fix national elections, and offer Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) passports to all international white collar criminals who pay in cash with Greenbacks, US Dollars means that journalists who cover financial crime there are instant targets.
Five years ago, I began focusing upon CBI corruption in the five East Caribbean states (St. Kitts, Antigua, Dominica, St. Lucia & Grenada) that engage in the sale of passport giving the holder visa-free EU & UK entry, after seeing that a large number of fraudsters and money launderers were receiving these identity documents, compliance be damned in these countries.
I was particularly interested in Dominica, where the offenses senior government officials engaged in seemed to be on a much higher level, which is saying a lot. I am no stranger to the region. Back in the day when I was a career money launderer, I was successfully operating in the Caribbean every week, for a decade. Actually, I was in Dominica, seeking passports long before St Kitts became the first CBI state, in the early 1980s, including being in the audience in court in Roseau when there was an inquiry over the deaths of protesters objecting to the sale of passports by the corrupt government in 1979. I was one of those people engaged in acquisition of those passports for Iranians who had fled the Islamic Revolution, in the aftermath of a major hurricane's transit across the island.
My focus on Dominica's systemic corruption resulted in a major civil lawsuit against me, brought by all the senior national leaders, including the PM and Director of National Security. Fortunately, the court declined to take jurisdiction unless I was physically present in-country. Not that it mattered, for no American court would give Full Faith and Credit to a Dominica judgment, given the known corruption that exists there.
However, with the arrival of substantial Chinese influence in Dominica (their 900-man embassy, an obvious listening port on the United States) the situation has deteriorated even further, regarding human and civil rights. If I was to enter Dominica, I would certainly be arrested, and I fear that some sort of accident would befall me. Remember, there's no real US diplomatic presence to speak of in the region, outside of in Barbados. I would be just another tourist who unfortunately met his end on holiday. I will, however, be back in Dominica to visit the current Opposition the moment the situation changes, for there will be a need to obtain justice for two decades of corruption, and I'd certainly like to testify at the money laundering trials of the present leadership.
