NONSTOP MIA-EIS FLIGHTS COULD FACILITATE MONEY LAUNDERING AND FINANCIAL CRIME

American Airlines' new nonstop passenger service between Miami international Airport (MIA) and the British Virgin Islands' Terrence B. Lettsome International Airport in Beef Island, Tortola starts on June 1st, with one daily flight. While it will be a convenience for BVI tourists, who no longer will have to change planes at another destination in the Caribbean, the new air service will also assist money launderers and white collar criminals who wish to obtain BVI shell companies, which are generally the corporation of preference of individuals who are on the dark side of the law, meaning financial crime.

I can tell you from personal experience that, given that the island's principal source of income is offering financial services, arriving dodgy individuals will not be subject to scrutiny at Customs & Immigration, as they will have return tickets, hotel reservations, and obvious affluence. In the BVI, the only people who are summarily deported post haste are investigative journalists. I never had a problem back in the day.

While bulk cash smuggling abroad in an amount of over USD$10,000 violates American law, one must assume that some brave souls will definitely attempt it, by sending people to test security. More importantly, since only financial instruments payable to the individual who is transporting it, expect checks and other documents payable to third parties to be regularly carried into the BVI on the AA flights, after of course corporations have been duly formed and/or bank accounts opened in advance. it is worth noting that former BVI premier Andrew Fahie, now under house arrest in Miami, while awaiting trial for money laundering, narcotics trafficking and racketeering, attempted without success to get nonstop service. His motives are unknown, but I have my suspicions.

American Airlines which has made the East Caribbean more accessible to tourists, by offering this and other nonstop service to such known offshore financial centers as Dominica, is unwittingly making the business of money laundering easier, as it is in transferring to continuing flights abroad that a discovery of bulk cash smuggling, or some other financial crime, might occur, and nonstop flights reduce this and other risks. Take it from one who faced that risk each week for a very long time. We can only hope that AA keeps a sharp eye on its Caribbean-bound passengers, for some will definitely not be whom they appear to be.