HOW FAR WILL THE UNITED STATES GO IN CLEANING UP CARIBBEAN MONEY LAUNDERING THROUGH CBI?

PM Philip J. Pierre

The five East Caribbean states that sell Citizenship by Investment (CBI) passports continue to oppose efforts by the current American administration to truly reform their programs, fatally infected with corruption, fraud and money laundering. The lure of easy money from CBI, without effective safeguards to prevent corruption, has resulted in the same opportunistic moral bankruptcy in the Eastern Caribbean that plagued the region during the previous period when these newly-independent states openly laundered billions of dollars in narcotics profits earned in North America.

It is easy to see that reform of these CBI programs will not come from within. You have only to see the comments posted by voters in Saint Lucia, when details of massive CBI corruption, led by the country's Prime Minister, PHILIP J. PIERRE, are exposed; they choose to vilify the state's Opposition, rather than pay proper attention to solving what has now become an international nightmare for the island nation. They also pointedly ignore the billions of dollars in CBI revenue the country's Investment Minister, DPM ERNEST HILAIRE, has allowed to be transferred to Hong Kong by the Chinese-controlled CARIBBEAN GALAXY GROUP, while Hilaire has become the personification of abject corruption in the region. All five countries have similar problems.

DPM Hilaire

West Indians in the CBI states have all drunk the cash cow cool aid offered by their corrupt leaders; we cannot expect to see any significant reform during our lifetimes. Given that what amounts to government-sponsored racketeering is adversely affecting the United States, posing not only money laundering but even national security threats, we are staring to see American pushback, which will not only be economically painful for these countries, who are utterly dependent upon CBI funding for their bloated government budgets, but will have real-life consequences for their native-born citizens.

Twenty five years ago, in the aftermath of 9/11, when the United States last paid serious attention to Caribbean money laundering, I proposed what amount to radical measures to suppress the problem. While the concern then was drug money laundering and potential terrorist financing, and today it's money laundering and corruption due to CBI, the same radical steps are both necessary and appropriate. Shut down the correspondent accounts with U.S. banks, until the CBI programs are either effectively reformed, with outside supervision and control, or are terminated. Nothing short of that will suffice.