CONVICTED FORMER BVI PREMIER ANDREW FAHIE'S APPELLATE ATTORNEY RESIGNS, COURT APPOINTS NEW COUNSEL

Appellate attorney Richard Della Fera, who assisted convicted former British Virgin Islands Premier ANDREW FAHIE, with sentencing, including travel to Tortola, BVI to obtain character references, and who later appeared in support of his client at his sentencing, has withdrawn from Fahie's appeal to the Eleventh Circuit. The stated reason was Fahie's inability to pay his fee, which might indicate that the former leader's broad BVI community support quickly evaporated after a jury found him guilty on multiple accounts. The BOP website has estimated his release date as July 24, 2033, just sort of a decade that he will be spending in Federal Prison, on money laundering and cocaine trafficking charges. More than two years ago, Fahie pledged to clean up the Caribbean archipelago’s reputation as a tax haven, by making its opaque corporate records public. He was sentenced to 135 months of incarceration for his crimes.

The Court has appointed an attorney to represent him, meaning that the United States will now be paying for his future legal representation. Fahie's arrest and conviction is known to have had a major impact upon senior government leaders in the Caribbean, who had previously thought that they were immune from being charged with corruption in the United States, due to international political considerations. The sting conducted upon Fahie has made many Caribbean leaders uneasy, and some are afraid to conduct their usual "Quid pro Quo" borderline business dealings, for fear that they will be next in the dock in a Miami courtroom. Only time will tell if they have reason to fear new threats from their Northern neighbor.