THE OTHER DEFENDANTS HAVE PLED, AND WILL TESTIFY AGAINST FORMER BVI ANDREW FAHIE IN U.S. CRIMINAL TRIAL NEXT MONTH

The OLEANVINE PICKERING-MAYNARD and KADEEM MAYNARD, the former BVI Ports Director and her son ,have both entered guilty pleas in US District Court in Florida, after entering into plea agreements that saw their money laundering charges, and in the case of Ms. Pickering-Maynard, her Racketeering charge. This leaves the former BVI Premier, ANDREW FAHIE, to face a July 17 trial on his won.

Reportedly, these two defendants are now obligated by their plea agreements to render full cooperation in the case, which generally means that they will be testifying against Fahie at trial, making his defense problematic at best. There is a confidential informant connected to American law enforcement who is also expected to testify, and audio and video recordings that directly implicate Fahie in money laundering and drug trafficking also exist and are expected to be admitted into evidence. 

Why Fahie has not seen fit to mitigate his exposure by cooperating with the US Attorney's Office is perplexing, given the initial rumours that he has first-hand information that incriminates other Caribbean leaders, and intended to employ it in the case to obtain a reduced sentence. These rumours have reportedly caused sleepless nights in a number of East Caribbean capitals, in addition to Road Town.

Additionally, we wonder whether Fahie has considered the potential impact upon the jury of evidence that he has previously been involved in criminal conduct, regarding his facilitation of drug smuggling into the Continental United States, which now-cooperating co-defendant, Kadeem Maynard, may testify to at trial. He has some serious exposure here;  is he too arrogant to appreciate it? There have been more than a dozen sealed court filings in the case in recent months. Most likely, that is powerful evidence against him for trial. 

He has an extremely competent attorney, a former Assistant United States Attorney. We assume he has been advised of the possibility that he will receive a long sentence, should he put the Government to the cost of a trial, which will of course be on all counts. He could very likely spend the rest of his life in Federal Prison, in what may be an abject lesson to corrupt Caribbean leaders from Antigua to Grenada. This will not end well for Andrew Fahie.