SAINT LUCIA MINISTER OF INVESTMENT ERNEST HILAIRE ACCEPTED A USD$3.5m BRIBE FROM A FOREIGN COMPANY

One of our most reliable sources inside the Eastern Caribbean state of SAINT LUCIA has evidence that MINISTER OF INVESTMENT ERNEST HILAIRE accepted a bribe of three million five hundred dollars (USD$3.5m) from a foreign corporate entity interested in doing business with his country. We stress that this illegal payment, which violates St. Lucia's INTEGRITY IN PUBLIC LIFE ACT, is not part of the billion dollar Citizenship by Investment (CIP) scandal; Hilaire is alleged to have repeatedly accepted illicit gratuities from a Chinese-owned and controlled CIP vendor, CARIBBEAN GALAXY, but this is separate and distinct from that case.

While we have chosen, at this point, not to disclose the name of the foreign company that made the payment, which occurred through its most senior  executive, most Saint Lucians are painfully aware of this particular government corruption scandal, and know the entity's identity. The maximum penalty for violation of the Integrity in Public Life Act is XCD$500,000 and ten (10) years' imprisonment.

We will be most interested in seeing whether local Saint Lucia media chooses to report on this extremely newsworthy event, as it is common knowledge that the government controls, and effectively censors, all print, radio and Internet media, through a variety of illegal tools, essentially eliminating Freedom of the Press. Hilaire also holds the portfolio of Minister for Information.