TRIAL JUDGE DECLINES TO SET ASIDE MONEY LAUNDERING JURY VERDICT FOR BVI PREMIER ANDREW FAHIE, CITING NO FACTUAL BASIS EXISTS. HE FACES A 10-YEARS-TO-LIFE SENTENCE IN MIAMI FEDERAL COURT

The overblown brouhaha concerning allegations that there was no unanimous jury verdict convicting British Virgin Islands Premier ANDREW FAHIE of several crimes , including money laundering and cocaine trafficking, appears to have been much ado about nothing. The sentencing judge interviewed one of the two jurors who purportedly claimed she did not find him guilty on all counts, and she testified otherwise; the other juror pointedly evaded appearing before the Court, and the District Judge ruled that the conviction, after a jury trial, would stand. Was this simply a last-ditch effort by a corrupt BVI government official who was finally caught in the act? The evidence adduced at trial was, from an objective viewpoint, overwhelming. Not "my first rodeo," he said, but it seems to be now his last foray into the world of facilitating narcotics crime.

Fahie now awaits the Court's final decision; he will receive anywhere from a decade in Federal Prison to a Life Sentence, joining such other senior officials as the leaders of Panama and the Turks & Caicos Islands, who were also convicted and have gone before him to serve Federal time. The case put a dark spotlight upon the British Virgin Islands, home to the opaque corporations that every compliance officer dreads seeing in a due diligence inquiry, as he or she can never be sure if the ultimate beneficial owner is on the OFAC list, a known white collar criminal, or a terrorist financier.

Whether Fahie now will choose to identify some of the other bad actors in BVI government, or elsewhere in the East Caribbean states, we cannot say, but if he doesn't qualify for a Rule 35 Sentence Reduction by doing just that, he may die in custody. Other corrupt Caribbean leaders are certainly not sleeping soundly tonight.