FORMER BARBADOS ATTORNEY GENERAL DAVID SIMMONS, WHO HAS MADE STATEMENTS ABOUT INTEGRITY LEGISLATION, IS HIMSELF A DEFENDANT IN MASSIVE CORRUPTION CASE

There has been extensive press coverage of comments made by DAVID SIMMONS, the present chair of the Turks & Caicos Integrity Commission, regarding the Barbados Integrity in Public Life Bill, but Simmons is himself a defendant in the pending American civil lawsuit brought against 98 current and former Bajan attorneys, alleging organised corruption going back decades. Simmons, who is a former Barbados Attorney General and Chief Justice, has been linked, in the case, to what has been described as a racketeering enterprise among local attorneys, designed to deprive the country's citizens of real estate that they have inherited, through probate and real estate fraud. The style of the case is Mitchell vs. Mottley; it was filed in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court in Florida.

Simmons, who is reportedly a cousin of Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, (also a named defendant) allegedly caused false criminal charges to be filed against a political opponent, resulting in his imprisonment with known murderers, and endangering his life. He also, it is claimed, assigned civil cases to known corrupt members of the judiciary, thus insuring that the true owners of real estate would ultimately be deprived of possession, in coordination with other attorneys also engaged in this widespread illegal operation to place title of valuable Barbados real estate in the hands of avaricious lawyers, who then sold or conveyed that realty to others, including foreign resort operators.

Through the alleged actions of Simmons, and other attorneys, some of whom are now senior Barbados government officials and judges, dozens of Bajans have lost their family inheritance, made penniless, and been unlawfully deprived of assets held for centuries by their kin. Neither the local judiciary, nor the bar association in Barbados, has acted to insure that justice is served, because most of their leaders are also guilty of such sins and transgressions. Only through total reform, initiated from courts outside the country, can meaningful change be implemented. Otherwise, any purchaser of real estate cannot obtain good and marketable title to property, as all deeds are subject to being set aside for fraud, and existing titles are all in danger of being held void ab initio.