THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY

Henry Browne KC

A number of readers who read my recent article CONFESSIONS OF A MONEY LAUNDERER have requested further details on what happened when I moved millions of dollars of my clients' narco-profits into Saint Kitts. Back in the 1980s, when I was smuggling their criminal proceeds out of the Continental United States, and into the tax havens of the East Caribbean, I was using the services of the Kittitian attorney William (Billy) Herbert, Jr., then the Ambassador Plenipotentiary serving the newly independent state of Saint Kitts & Nevis, but working with me mainly from his chambers in nearby Anguilla; Only rarely did I work out of Saint Kitts.

There came a time when Billy Herbert became compromised by the DEA and SCOTLAND YARD, who threatened him with dire consequences if he failed to cooperate, resulting in law enforcement being given the names of all his American clients with dirty money in a local bank in which Dr. Herbert had an ownership interest. A magistrate judge ordered all those illicit funds frozen forthwith, and Attorney Herbert dashed off to a holiday abroad, while all his files were being opened and examined in his office. The clients had twelve million dollars at risk.

St. Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla flag

A few short weeks later, reportedly after the DEA failed to produce incriminating evidence as promised, the magistrate unfroze the money, and the bank's president called me in my Miami office, asking urgently for instructions. Following existing orders I had once received from Dr. Herbert, I ordered all the accounts there of American drug traffickers, including those whom I no longer represented, but who had substantial wealth there, to a Saint Kitts bank account of attorney HENRY BROWNE, who I knew had a relationship with Billy.

St. Kitts flag until September 1983

When I next visited Basseterre to make arrangement to transfer the funds, Browne demanded one-third from every account that I had transferred there, plus USD$5000 from each. There was, of course, no prior arrangement for that amount of "attorney's fees," but given that my clients could not go into court in Saint Kitts to contest fees over drug profits, I grudgingly allowed him to take what was what lawyers refer to as a clearly excessive fee. Of course, my clients were extremely unhappy, but knew there was nothing they could do about it, without needlessly incriminating themselves; Browne knew that.

William Valentine Herbert, Jr.

I was forced to initially transfer the money to Saint Kitts, due to Dr. Herbert's betrayal of the attorney-client privilege, and Browne took full advantage of my predicament. Billy never lived to spend the twenty five million dollars I believe he earned from working with drug traffickers and terrorist financiers; Henry Browne KC was never charged in any American drug trafficking cases, to the best of my knowledge. Whether he also cooperated with US and UK law enforcement back in the day I cannot say, but I did always wonder why he is the One that Got Away.