COURT OF APPEALS IN BELGIUM ORDERS EXTRADITION OF BILLIONAIRE FRAUDSTER MEHUL CHOKSI TO FACE CRIMINAL CHARGES IN INDIA, REMINDING US OF THE ANTIGUA CBI SCANDAL

La Cour D'appel (Court of Appeals) in Belgium has ordered the extradition of the Indian diamond dealer MEHUL CHOKSI to face the music in his native India, where he is accused of defrauding PUBJAB NATIONAL BANK and other victims of the equivalent of two billion US Dollars (USD$2bn). Choksi does have one more right of appeal, which his attorneys will most certainly attempt, but this decision is seen as the adjudication of the principal issues that he has asserted, and his extradition is generally believed by legal observers to be assured.

The Choksi scandal has forever stained both Antigua as well as the Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) economic passport industry in general, as Choksi's acquisition of an Antiguan CIP passport, whilst publicly under investigation for a massive bank fraud, demonstrated how economic passports are often used to evade the law, and delay justice and the rule of law, by wealthy career criminals.

Choksi, using his illegally-acquired wealth, was able to game the corrupt court system in Antigua for close to a decade, employing his CIP passport as a weapon to delay multiple legal proceedings indefinitely. Risk managers observed the lengthy court actions in Antigua, and raised Country Risk for the two island nation accordingly. It is also good to remember that local courts there dragged out the extradition of the most-wanted Allen Stanford scandal fugitive, LEROY KING, the Director of Antigua's FINANCIAL SERVICES REGULATORY COMMISSION (FSRC), for more than a decade.

Risk levels regarding Antigua are now even more elevated, with the ongoing establishment of a large official Chinese enclave there, and recent refusal of the Browne government to approve an American request to use local facilities for counter-drug operations. Antigua's disturbing tilt towards China has complicated Eastern Caribbean risk levels, which have already increased, due to the dominance of the CBI industry by Chinese-controlled companies that corrupt avaricious local EC leaders, and provide passports to transnational while collar criminals from China.