LAWSUIT AGAINST ATTORNEY GENERAL ASSERTS MONTREAL MANAGEMENT HAS A DE FACTO MONOPOLY ON CBI CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS, DUE TO ILLEGAL CONDUCT OF PRIME MINISTER ROOSEVELT SKERRIT

A civil suit filed on September 24, 2024 in the High Court of Justice of the Commonwealth of Dominica, alleges that the country's Prime Minister, ROOSEVELT SKERRIT, has corruptly and illegally placed MONTREAL MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS in a favorable position where it is the only approved contractor and developer of Citizenship by Investment (CBI) projects in Dominica, that it has illegally diverted funds that should have been placed into the Government's Consolidated Fund, into its private accounts, and that Montreal Management committed a number of other acts which are illegal under the laws, regulations and procedures of Dominica.

Entitled Burney Ryan, Claimant v. The Attorney General of Dominica, Respondent,* and entered as a Constitutional Claim, the prayer for Relief requests what amounts to a request for a Declaratory Judgment, where the Court makes a judicial determination and finding that what Prime Minister Skerrit did, in awarding Montreal Management, owned by ANTHONY HAIDEN, which amounts to sole exclusive rights as the only authorized developer of CBI projects in Dominica, is a violation of the statutory and Constitutional law of Dominica.

Ryan's allegations regarding the conduct and actions of  Roosevelt Skerrit are scathing; he accused the PM of blatant Conflict of Interest, in his dealing with MMC and Haiden, specifically:

"a. The Prime Minister has overseen the payment of over EC$32,000 per month as

rent for a palatial mansion allegedly owned by Anthony Haiden and widely believed

to be funded with CBI money as the official residence of the Prime Minister.

b. The Prime Minister is building a palatial mansion for himself, his second multi-

million-dollar home, with funds that have not and cannot be explained while

calls for public accountability and transparency regarding same have been largely

ignored and gone unanswered.

c. The Prime Minister claimed he received a gift of land while serving as Prime

Minister. This transfer of land was the subject of allegations of undervaluing for the

purpose of underpayment of land transfer taxes. The land was later sold for over

EC$700,000.00 to Anthony Haiden and/or his affiliate company Mercury 

Properties." (Claim at P.5)

The action is replete with multiple quotations, from public statements made by Skerrit, which are reported to be either deceptive, untrue, or promise transparency and financial disclosures that never materialized. Skerrit has, according to the filong, never satisfactorily advised his constituents exactly where Haiden and MMC are keeping the funds it collected, and allegedly illegally retained for their own use. Many of the allegations are supported by quotations taken from media interviews, newspaper articles and other sources that appear for the purposes of confirmation.

The Claim concludes:

                                                                (Claim at P.33)

Opposition Leader Linton, in a recent interview on DBSTV in Saint Lucia, charged that of the approximately ten billion EC dollars that the CBI program generated in recent years, at least seven billion never was deposited into the Consolidated Fund, as required by law, and is missing. Linton also stated that he has consulted with Philippe Martinez, of MSR Media, on the prospect of Dominicans bringing a Class Action lawsuit against the financial institutions that allowed and permitted MMC to divert funds that should have gone to Dominica, to recover damages equal to that which has been lost.

Whether this is only the first effort to use the courts in Domnica to rein in what us clearly official corruption of the highest order we cannot say, but it is definitely a step in the right direction. Dominica's CBI program has been plagued with corrupt activity for two decades, ever since the current Skerrit administration came into power. There were multiple reasons for the United Kingdom's Foreign Office removing visa-free access for Dominica CBI passport holders, and for the Bank of America blocking further deposits of CBI application payments through its correspondent accounts, but corruption was a major one. The program cannot survive without massive reform; we shall see if this litigation encourages it to proceed.

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*Case No.: DOMHCV2024-0192.