A United States Magistrate Judge in Florida has granted a §1782 Discovery Application, filed by MSR MEDIA, which allows subpoenas to issue for bank records at three major American banks which maintain correspondent accounts where Citizenship by Investment passport applicants' payments from St. Kitts CIP program are deposited.
The Court, in a twelve page Opinion containing an extensive discussion of the issues and the applicable law, granted the Application over the objection of Chinese-owned passport vendor CARIBBEAN GALAXY REAL ESTATE LIMITED, Chinese national YING JIN, and former St.Kitts Prime Minister TIMOTHY HARRIS, rejecting their legal arguments, and ordering the issuance of subpoenas against BANK OF AMERICA, WELLS FARGO and JP MORGAN CHASE, which MSR requested as evidence needed to defend itself in two Defamation cases currently pending against it in St. Kitts. MSR had publicly exposed rampant fraud and corruption in the St. Kitts CBI program, and named the parties allegedly responsible, which was followed by the Defamation actions filed there, by those same parties.
MSR, together with plaintiff PHILIPPE MARTINEZ, have filed a $150m civil RICO action in Federal Court for the Middle District of Florida, against the same individuals and corporate entity; The Order recited that, under Federal law, those plaintiffs were not precluded from using the evidence obtained by the subpoenas in other civil litigation in the United States.
The impact of this Order, which will compel American banks whose correspondent accounts that accept and transmit CBI payments alleged to be illegal under applicable law, and are reportedly part of an ongoing billion dollar fraud and money laundering enterprise, could drive US banks to close correspondent accounts for the five East Caribbean states that sell CBI citizenships, due to American laws on money laundering. Whether there is any civil liability on the part of the banks listed in the subpoena is not known.
This decision, which occurred today, represents a major setback for Timothy Harris and Caribbean Galaxy. Inasmuch as all three proceedings, the SKN defamation, MSR MEDIA vs. LES KHAN, which is the RICO case, and this §1782 Discovery Application, are all related to the CBI scandal, we shall be reporting on all developments in all of them, as they occur.
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