CHINESE-OWNED HENG SHENG, THE CARIBBEAN GALAXY OF GRENADA; SELLING THOUSANDS OF ILLEGALLY -DISCOUNTED PASSPORTS, BUT WHERE'S THE HOTEL THEY PROMISED, FIVE YEARS ON?

 

If you thought that CARIBBEAN GALAXY REAL ESTATE LIMITED, the Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) stakeholder that sold thousands of Saint Kitts passports, collecting USD$1bn, while failing to construct the Prison Project in a massive fraud, you haven't met HENG SHENG, another Chinese company, engaged in Grenada's National Hotel project. All the slick and glossy pre-construction photos, form 2019, depict a futuristic hotel structure, anchoring a five-star resort. Heng Sheng promised a two billion dollar modern marvel. It's a bloody pipedream; Read why.

It's a damn shame that the reality is light years from the sad truth. Take a close look at the"resort" here in real-time September 2024; Heng Sheng (HS) has barely completed the first floor, and if you look closely, construction appears to have completely halted some time ago. Sure, the website update from July promises a completed and operational hotel complex, opening in 2027, but the reality is all we see a neglected worksite that's going nowhere. 

This what fraud looks like, Chinese-style. Like many other corrupt and crooked CBI developers before it, the company has sought to excuse the obscene delays by blaming government red tape and plans approval delays. This old trope has been employed time and again, all over Grenada, resulting in rusting carcasses of unfinished CBI construction that the government never calls the developers on, because they always get their portion, and certain government officials, and their supporters, grow fat on undisclosed, illicit payments and "contracts." The losers are the people of Grenada, the same sad story as one sees all over the East Caribbean CBI/CIP industry; Chinese fraudsters, with the help and assistance of local (but corrupt) leaders who are feathering their own nests through repeated bribes and kickbacks, fleecing the programs they are supposed to serve. 

The fictional pipedream; never built

In the meanwhile, as we have previously (and painfully) detailed, illegally-discounted applications are pushed through by HS consultancies, vendors and sub-agents in the Middle East and elsewhere, just like we have seen in Saint Kitts, and in Saint Lucia with Galaxy. HS has sold thousands of Grenada citizenships, complete with passports, at bargain basement prices that are illegal under the Grenada laws that authorize economic citizenship sales. You may want to read our prior article. Heng Sheng Does not Deny that it Sold Illegally-discounted economic Citizenships of Grenada. Can you say license to steal?

Where is all this fraud, money laundering and corruption going to end, we ask. When there are more Chinese CBi passports holders than native-born Grenadian citizens? When HS abruptly pulls out of Grenada, with billions of dollars illegally acquired, flicking its finger at all those greedy Grenada politicians, left holding the bag, and facing criminal prosecution abroad? We cannot say, but unless there is systemic reform in Grenada's CBI program, expect the worst.