WE AWAIT A RULING IN CASE THAT PROMISES TO EXPOSE DECADES OF MONEY LAUNDERING, OFFICIAL CORRUPTION AND FRAUD IN ANTIGUA & BARBUDA

We have been closely following the GASTON BROWNE CORRUPTION DISCOVERY APPLICATION in SDNY, a §1782 proceeding which seeks the production of evidence that Antigua's allegedly corrupt Prime Minister, GASTON ALFONSO BROWNE, diverted and stole ten million US Dollars from the illegal government sale of a privately-owned luxury yacht. The District Judge ordered subpoenas issued on March 17, 2025, and subsequently there were Motions to Intervene and to Quash filed. The issue is whether the Motions to Quash will be denied.

The potential global impact of the case cannot be understated. Antigua has been infected with official, systemic, corruption since independence, and the evidence which will most likely be produced will have far-reaching consequences, implicating senior members of both the present, as well as prior, governments, and may even expose illegal actions of the leaders of other Eastern Caribbean states as well, who are known to associate with Antigua's most senior officials.

Antigua PM Gaston Browne

The recent landmark §1782 case, MSR MEDIA SKN vs. HARRIS and CARIBBEAN GALAXY, which exposed massive CBI corruption in both Saint Kitts and Saint Lucia, and whose production of Discovery even reportedly detailed extensive criminal conduct in GRENADA and DOMINICA, exposed a dark world of bribes and kickbacks in the billions of dollars, and poses an existential threat to the corrupt Caribbean Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) programs. It is believed that, should the Gaston Browne subpoenas be allowed to issue, that the consequences for Antigua's senior officials, and other parties abroad, will be significant and damning. Whether it will permanently sour foreign investment in the region is a potential consequence that has now surfaced as a major issue. We will be closely monitoring all developments in this matter as they occur.

ALERT FOR COUNTERFEIT GRENADA PASSPORTS CREATED BY SOFTWARE READILY AVAILABLE ONLINE

Compliance officers tasked with Account Opening responsibilities at international financial institutions are advised that it is now possible for bad actors, using a service available on the Internet for a very reasonable sum, to create a bogus Grenada passport online. The program offers a template to assist the user in building a credible, authentic-appearing result, examples of which have already shown up on the 'Web, with all the attributes and components of a legitimate passport personal identity page. The charge to use this criminal service is a nominal ten dollars.

What is the most disturbing aspect about the situation, which frankly presents a golden opportunity for international money launderers and financial criminals, is that the Government of Grenada has remained totally silent about this development. Given that Grenada's Citizenship by Investment (CBI) program provides, after payment of a six figure fee, for foreign nationals to acquire a Grenadian passport, the possession of one does not rise any red flags with compliance officers, and the counterfeit versions will be easily accepted. Therefore, we ask why Grenada has not raised the alarm among the global financial community.

Most people do not know that there is no international resource available to confirm the authenticity of foreign passports; what you see when someone runs a machine-readable passport through a scanner is merely to read the encoded information, to confirm that it matches the printed information, and creating a passport that will pass such elementary scrutiny is part of the template process, I understand; in many developing countries' immigration desks, passport review doesn't even do that.

Therefore, as technology assisting crime advances past the ability of law enforcement to identify, interdict and deter it, this shall serve as a warning to compliance officers that passport pages appearing to be from Grenada are perhaps not what they appear to be, legitimate means of personal identification; govern yourselves accordingly.

COMPLIANCE OFFICERS DON'T RELY UPON "FACTS" IN CARIBBEAN MEDIA, BECAUSE IT'S MOST LIKELY GENERATED IN GOVERNMENT-CONTROLLED PRESS, AND IS PURE PROPAGANDA

If you read my recent article "WHILE SAINT KITTS PRIME MINISTER, TERRANCE DREW, IS BEING WINED AND DINED IN CUBA, HIS NATIONAL SECURITY APPARATUS THREATENS FREEDOM OF SPEECH AT HOME,  https://rijock.blogspot.com/2025/05/while-prime-minister-is-wined-and-dined.html

you know that Freedom of the Press is virtually non-existent in local Eastern Caribbean print media, due to the financial ability of governments in power to dole out revenue-producing official advertising to cash-strapped newspapers, as well as threats of yes, criminal prosecution for Defamation of local elected or appointed leaders. the leaders follow Chinese, Cuban and Venezuelan methods of controlling dissent through telling media what to publish, or face serious legal issues.

If you are a compliance officer performing due diligence on a target with a Caribbean nexus, ignore what amount to planced content, which is often misleading or distorted, and definitely untrue, or you may be taken in by a rosy picture which is pure fiction, to your bank's subsequent detriment.

On the other hand, there is a lot of Opposition media, all online and generally safe from oppressive autocratic regimes, which is often extremely valuable, so long as you know which is trustworthy, and which is pure government propaganda.

ORGANIZATIONS THAT ARE FRONTS OR PROXIES FOR HAMAS AND A WANTED FUNDRAISER

MAJED AL-ZEER is a US-sanctioned fundraiser for HAMAS, working in Europe; an arrest warrant has been issued by Germany for this terrorist financier. These are the known front organizations he has been involved with.

Type:Individual

List:SDNLast

 Name:AL-ZEER

Program:SDGT

First Name:Majed

Nationality:United Kingdom;Jordan

Title:Citizenship:

Date of Birth:12 Aug 1962; 1961 to 1962

Remarks:(Linked To: HAMAS)

Place of Birth:Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestinian Territories

Identifications:
TypeID#CountryIssue DateExpire DatePassport133670754United Kingdom09 Nov 2022 PassportQ721863Jordan28 Sep 2021 GenderMale   Secondary sanctions risk:section 1(b) of Executive Order 13224, as amended by Executive Order 13886

SUSPENDED IN GRENADA FOR THE SALE OF ILLEGALLY-DISCOUNTED CITIZENSHIPS, HENG SHENG GROUP VICE PRESIDENT ADVISES YOU TO CHOOSE ANYWHERE BUT THE CARIBBEAN

QUOTE: "With Caribbean passports facing more and more heat, is it time to get EU access direct from the EU?" (GALLI KHURELEE)

This is possibly the most arrogant sales pitch I have seen in a long time. The author is GALLI KHURELEE, the Dubai-based Vice President of the Chinese-owned company, HENG SHENG GROUP, more commonly known in the investment migration industry as HS, who posed this quote up front on his marketing pitch for investors to purchase Maltese residency (not Malta citizenship, because that was declared illegal by the European Court of Justice) on Linkedin.

So, no sooner does HS be exposed by Grenada as a company that has been breaking its CBI laws and regulations, and received sanctions as the direct result, is now telling you it can provide you with a residency within the EU! Please, will anyone considering the purchase of an economic citizenship or residency kindly retain the services of a competent attorney to protect your interest, for the increasing risk levels involved in ANY acquisition of these items requires an enhanced due diligence inquiry, lest you buy that proverbial Pig in a Poke, and regret that you ever considered such a purchase.

WHILE SAINT KITTS PRIME MINISTER, TERRANCE DREW, IS BEING WINED AND DINED IN CUBA, HIS NATIONAL SECURITY APPARATUS THREATENS FREEDOM OF SPEECH AT HOME

 

Saint Kitts & Nevis Prime Minister TERRANCE DREW, and his wife, are enjoying the hospitality of the Marxist regime in Cuba, on a two-day visit; meanwhile St. Kitts' Draconian National Security Ministry is is threatening all Kittitians who are exercising their right of Freedom of Speech to oppose the rampant fraud, money laundering and corruption which has infected the two island nation. In Saint Kitts, Defamation is a felony, and the Ministry is directly threatening all those who speak out, in the style of Cuba and China.

CHOKSI TO REMAIN IN A BELGIAN PRISON UNTIL HIS JUNE 13 HEARING, AS HIS LAWYERS ATTEMPT MERITLESS PROCEDURAL TACTICS SEEKING TO EVADE HIS EXTRADITION TO INDIA

MEHUL CHOKSI, the diamond merchant from India who defrauded its banks out of more than the equivalent of two billion dollars, before fleeing to Antigua, where he evaded extradition with a Citizenship by Investment (CIP) passport that never should have been issued had real due diligence been conducted, sits in a prison in Belgium, as Indian authorities seek his removal to face justice at home. He is considered one of the highest priorities of the Indian criminal justice system.

His attorneys have attempted to throw legally defective procedural roadblocks in the way of extradition, none of which resulted in his release on bond' his next hearing is June 13. The case is a textbook example of how the world's most dangerous transnational white collar criminal fugitives game the system, by securing Caribbean CBI passports, and subsequent delaying justice for years through cooperation with corrupt Caribbean leaders and their subservient courts. Choksi bought and bribed his way into a seven year delay in his extradition to India, by paying Antiguan officials at the highest level.

The case is playing out at the same time as a §1782 proceeding, styled GASTON BROWNE ANTIGUA CORRUPTION APPLICATION, alleging that the country's Prime Minister, GASTON BROWNE, stole $10m from a bogus luxury yacht seizure and sale, which has exposed Antigua's government as a corrupt racketeering organization, dedicated to fraud and corruption.

HOW TO LIE WITH STATISTICS, CARIBBEAN STYLE

The so-called "investment migration" industry, which sells Caribbean passports to investors who basically want visa-free entry, no questions asked, into Europe, rather than undergo a visa application and qualification process, is pushing back against the only Prime Minister in the Eastern Caribbean with any ethics, RALPH GONSALVES of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Gonsalves has wisely long opposed his country from joining the five EC states that sell their passports, explaining that CBI / CIP money corrupts the soul of the governments that offer it, fosters rampant corruption, discourages normal economic development, and allows Bad Actors, such as China and Russia, from making serious inroads into fostering undue political economic and social influence, all to the detriment of the people it was designed to assist. A tip of the hat to PM Gonsalves; he knows pure evil when he sees it.

The SVG Opposition, with the financial assistance of the Peoples' Republic of China, is attempting to seize power, and to immediately implement CBI. They have created a totally bogus "survey" or poll, claiming that the majority of Vincentians support CBI. Don't you believe it, my friends. The so-called poll only shows it surveyed 1000 individuals, which is less than one per cent (1%) of the population of the country. How on earth is that a representative sample? Additionally, the poll twisted the arms of those interviewed by slanting CBI as a job creation event. Nothing could be further from the truth; only sleazy local lawyers and businessmen, with connections to the Opposition, will benefit from CBI; the rest will be cheated out of their patrimony, when Chinese-owned companies, like CARIBBEAN GALAXY GROUP or HENG SHENG GROUP, exploit the program, and divert billions of dollars back to Hong Kong, a la Saint Kitts and Saint Lucia.

Please, Vincentians, don't believe the propaganda. Something Wicked this Way Comes.

CARIBBEAN CBI & CIP JURISDICTIONS, WANT TO GET AMERICA OFF YOUR BACK? SWITCH YOUR APPROVED CURRENCY FOR APPLICATIONS FROM GREENBACKS TO THE EC DOLLAR AND THE CHINESE YUAN, OR CONTINUE TO FACE THE THREAT OF AMERICAN MONEY LAUNDERING INDICTMENTS

I have been getting a lot of pushback this week, responding with scathing comments to my articles discussing money laundering, fraud and corruption in GRENADA, SAINT KITTS & NEVIS, ANTIGUA & BArBUDA, DOMINICA AND SAINT LUCIA. For all those individuals in the investment migration sector, for so long as the Eastern Caribbean CIUs push the Proceeds of crime through New York banks, exposing them to serious violations of the Money Laundering Control Act, I will be reporting on unfolding events, so matter how damaging they be to your sales of economic citizenships. I write for compliance officers, who need to know, with specificity, the who, what, where, when and why of CBI transactions that threaten their banks.

I leave it to historians to eventually determine if Kittitian Ambassador Billy Herbert's decision, back in 1983, to require applicants to the world's first CBI program to remit payment in US Dollars, placed the Eastern Caribbean on a dark path which will not end well, but it is humbly suggested that all CBI jurisdictions immediately switch the type of currency required for payment to the Eastern Caribbean Dollar (XCD), and the Chinese Yuan Renminbi (CNY), so that your clients' funds, and the Proceeds of Crime, steer completely clear of the American financial structure. I say this in all seriousness; find another financial system so that American banks can reduce their risk levels accordingly.

RUSSIANS WIELDING CBI PASSPORTS TO CONCEAL THEIR NATIONALITY POSE A CHALLENGE FOR COMPLIANCE OFFICERS DUE TO POTENTIAL SANCTIONS VIOLATIONS

Visa-free access to the United Kingdom and to the Members of the European Union, by Russian nationals is not new; Russians have employed Maltese IIM (CBI) passports to enter Europe without scrutiny for many years, whether to engage in money laundering or fraud, or to place illicit wealth out of the reach of their own government, Russians have long used CBI passports to access European financial institutions.

However, since the invasion of the Ukraine, and the resulting widespread imposition of Western sanctions, we have seen Russian nationals gravitate towards securing Caribbean Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) passports to ease their entry into Europe. Some Russians have even become stakeholders or developers, as well as passport holders such as we have seen in Grenada, but others have chosen to change their nationalities through CBI passports obtained in Dominica, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia and Antigua & Barbuda.

Compliance officers in jurisdictions that have major sanctions regimes in place are faced with a difficult task; making certain that each Caribbean passport holders, for a CBI-issuing country is not, in truth and in fact, a Russian, and therefore potentially subject to being a threat as a sanctions violation for the bank which chooses to onboard him or her. Given that one can often acquire a CBI passport under an alias, with a bogus date and place of birth, the task of identifying the client becomes extremely difficult, given the usual pressures from New Accounts to approve a possibly affluent new client bringing business to the bank.

I hate to be the one to suggest profiling new customers, but any obviously not native-born West Indian who is presenting a passport from one of the five Eastern Caribbean CBI or CIp states must be subject to strict enhanced due diligence, to rule out Russian or Belarusian nationality. To do anything less means that you are possibly onboarding a sanctions violation in progress, Compliance officers: Be careful out there.