LET'S NOT FORGET THE ILLEGAL CARIBBEAN INDUSTRY OF SELLING DIPLOMATIC PASSPORTS TO MONEY LAUNDERERS AND OTHER FINANCIAL CRIMINALS

I have long covered the dark Caribbean practice of the region's corrupt leaders selling, for cash (in US Dollars, of course) diplomatic passports, which bad actors use to evade customs inspectors at international airports of entry, but new readers of my financial crime blog may be unfamiliar with this fraud. Perhaps the most egregious example of this method through which senior Caribbean officials, at the highest level was the personal hand delivery, in the UK, by Dominica Prime Minister ROOSEVELT SKERRIT, a diplomatic passport to the corrupt fugitive former Minister of OIL of Nigeria, DIEZANI ALISON- MADUEKE, who then attempted to use the bogus document to evade arrest and detention in the UK for millions she had stolen from the people of Nigeria while in office. And what about the Saint Kitts "Diplomat" who attempted to get a meeting with the Prime Minister of Canada, after buying his diplomatic status for cash, and was summarily rebuffed.

It is an open secret in the East Caribbean among bankers and attorneys that criminals buying Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) passports in the five EC states that sell CBI can easily become "diplomats" if they have enough greenbacks to pass under the table to corrupt officials. Of course, none of these diplomatic passports automatically qualify the holder to be a bona fide diplomat, and none of them fulfill the requirements of the United Nations-approved VIENNA CONVENTION ON DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS, but in the developing world, customs officers are often intimidated into accepting them at face value, and pass the holder through, without checking their bags & baggage, thereby unwittingly facilitating Bulk Cash Smuggling, and the smuggling of financial instruments in aid of money laundering operations, as well as organized international fraud. They may actually pose as working diplomats, but rest assured their true activities are on the wrong side of the law, not in service to their adopted countries.

Readers are invited to search my blog(https://rijock.blogspot.com) where they will find that the corrupt East Caribbean government officials whom we have exposed in the illegal sale of discounted CBI passports to Chinese purchasers intent upon committing crimes and engaging in espionage, have also a long and dirty history of selling their criminal clientele diplomatic identity documents, to further facilitate their activities. Those two countries are "full-service" facilitators of transnational crime, in all its dark variations. You may never look at a diplomat looking to open a bank account again.

THE FINCEN ADVISORY WARNING ABOUT THE USE OF ST. KITTS PASSPORTS TO COMMIT FINANCIAL CRIME REMAINS IN EFFECT

A check of the records of the Financial Crime Enforcement Network (FinCEN) indicates that the agency never revoked or cancelled its 2014 Advisory entitled Passports Obtained through St. Kitts and Nevis Citizenship-by-Investment Program Used to Facilitate Financial Crime,  which we have shown here for those who were engaged in the AML/CFT compliance field in 2014, or who never were aware of its existence. Therefore, it must be considered to still be binding on covered financial entities for AML purposes. 

The Advisory should be read in the context of the current situation, where evidence indicates that thousands of SKN CBI passports have been issued with zero due diligence, to mainly Chinese nationals, who are prohibited by the laws of the Peoples' Republic to hold dual citizenship, under contracts determined to be illegal under Kittitian law, many of whom are now being charged with financial crime, industrial espionage,  FARA violations and other offenses.  

 

THE CONTINUED PRESENCE OF AMERICAN CAREER CRIMINAL PAUL BILZARIAN SHOW US THAT, IN SAINT KITTS, CBI DUE DILIGENCE IS PURE FICTION

 

This is the dodgy American white collar criminal, PAUL BILZARIAN, who moved to Saint Kitts & Nevis after he was approved to purchase a Citizenship by Investment (CBI) passport. At the time he applied, Bilzarian had just served a four year Federal Prison sentence for Securities Fraud, and had an outstanding final judgment entered against him, which now exceeds one hundred and eighty million dollars, with interest. This confirms that the vaunted pre-approval due diligence process conducted by the country's CIU is a total fiction as a simple internet search would have turned up  not only his felony conviction and judgment, but shown his long history as a career criminal in the United States. This is positive proof that the country does not conduct an investigation into the suitability of its CBI applicants. By the way, the US Government has still been unable to collect on its judgment, as Bilzarian is hiding his significant liquid assets through multiple shell companies. 

The more recent announcement, by its Prime Minister TERRANCE DREW, that Saint Kitts now has an agency that is conducting continuing investigation of SKN passport holders, in order to insure that any who engage in criminal activity lose their passport privileges, is also completely bogus and without a basis in fact. In September, Bilzarian was charged in Los Angeles, in a multi-count Federal indictment, on securities fraud, wire fraud, and defrauding the United States, which carry potential sentences that would commit him to prison for the rest of his life. Still, Saint Kitts allow him to keep his prized passport, and remain in the country, thus evading arrest by US law enforcement, and the administration of justice.

This is a clear demonstration that not only is there zero due diligence on CBI applicants, the purported "continuing due diligence' capability that PM Drew promised simply does not exist. How many Paul Bilzarians are hiding in Saint Kitt & Nevis from the long arm of law enforcement in their home countries? We suspect that the number will surprise you. The bottom line for compliance officers is, when presented with a Saint Kitts CBI passport as identification at account opening, to initiate an enhanced due diligence investigation, before approving any movement of funds. To do otherwise might allow yet another career criminal, like Bilzarian, into your bank, with an unacceptable level of risk. watch yourself with SKN passports, please; they are not to be trusted.

DWYER ASTAPHAN OF SAINT KITTS CALLS FOR THE IMMEDIATE RESIGNATION OF THE COUNTRY'S ATTORNEY GENERAL, GARTH WILKIN

Attorney General Garth Wilkin

Dwyer Astaphan, a former senior minister in the Government of Saint Kitts & Nevis, and one of his country's most respected and influential leaders, has called publicly for the immediate resignation of Saint Kitts' Attorney General, GARTH WILKIN, for his gross negligence in allowing two successive governments, and their respective prime ministers, to process thousands of illegally-discounted citizenships for the Chinese company CARIBBEAN GALAXY. Mr. Astaphan warned Saint Kitts that the country was in grave danger of falling under the undue influence of China, and that unless immediate remedial action was taken, the damage to St. Kitts & Nevis could become irreversible.

Mr. Astaphan made these statements during a podcast today, in response to the recent program of Philippe Martinez, which detailed the sordid history of AG Wilkin's complete and total dereliction of duty as his country's chief law enforcement officer, and he called upon the people of Saint Kitts to clean house, regarding the public officials who have been responsible for the current situation, with Mr. Wilkin being the individual who must tender his resignation forthwith.

OUR MOST NOTORIOUS FUGITIVE INTERNET FRAUDSTER, KRISTI ROSS, HIDES FROM THE LONG ARM OF AMERICAN JUSTICE IN NEVIS

KRISTY MARIE ROSS a/k/a KRISTI ROSS, called the Queen of Scareware, who controlled a rogue Belize-based Internet software company that defrauded a million American consumers out of  $163 million, who paid her to fix nonexistent and fabricated problems on their computers, has been evading the long arm of American justice, and  failing to make restitution by paying an outstanding Federal judgment in that amount, by hiding from the authorities in the Caribbean island of Nevis, part of the Federation of Saint Kitts & Nevis, for more than a decade. We are unable to confirm that she holds  CBI citizenship with a SKN passport, but believe that she does. 

The FTC Act monetary judgment against her, which was affirmed in appeal by the 4th Circuit, has never been paid, even in part, because Ross, who has been reviled in the Internet software industry for more than a decade, evaded justice by skipping out to Nevis, where she keeps close company with a cast of dodgy offshore characters who use the island's abusive tax haven laws to operate a bank which has reportedly been closely linked to the Chinese-owned CARIBBEAN GALAXY GROUP.

Ross's associates in Nevis include China-born bank investor BENJAMIN WEY,  and a local banker,  HOWARD A. LEWIS. Both are affiliated with HAMILTON RESERVE BANK, headquartered in Nevis, which should not  be confused with other similarly named financial institutions in the United States. The Nevis-based Hamilton Bank has no offices in America; its only other offices are in Kuala Lumpur and Dubai.

The five CBI-issuing states of the East Caribbean, which includes Saint Kitts & Nevis, rarely if ever permit extradition of those individuals who have purchased CBI/CIP passports, so we must assume that ant efforts to return Kristi Ross to the United States, to face any pending criminal charges, have been unsuccessful, but justice demands that she make restitution to American consumers for her fraudulent acts. Unfortunately, we cannot rely upon government officials in Nevis, who have allowed and permitted her to remain there on an indefinite basis,  to obtain justice for the victims.  Ask Nevis Premier MARK BRANTLEY why she is allowed to live there, given the circumstances of her massive consumer fraud.

THE CARIBBEAN'S DARK SECRET AND THE LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES RUNNING HEADLONG INTO FCPA VIOLATIONS

Last night's outstanding Caribbean Corruption podcast by MSR Media's PHILIPPE MARTINEZ* touched on one of the topics that is only spoken of in hushed tones in East Caribbean government circles; the fact that many corrupt individuals, and those engaged in white collar crime, both in and out of public office, want that elusive right to later reside in the United States, so that they can safely invest & spend the proceeds of their crimes in America, long after they bid goodbye to their Caribbean life. Many corrupt Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) hold US citizenships; several sitting Prime Ministers have arranged for their children and immediate relatives to be born in the US, which confers automatic American citizenship, and immediate family of US citizens have an easier time themselves becoming citizens, through them. It's all part of a long-term plan to spend their golden years in luxury in a country where they can best enjoy their illicit wealth.

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which proscribes the payment of any type to a foreign official, to obtain, retain or secure any official act involving a government-private business relationship, applies to United States citizens, and has a maximum penalty of 5 years in a Federal Prison, plus a hefty six figure fine. All these fine Caribbean criminals and corrupt former government officers, who had the foresight to obtain US citizenship for what they anticipate will be their affluent, remote future, could end up with FCPA indictments, when it is disclosed that they paid bribes, kickbacks or some other form of direct or indirect compensation, to foreign government officials. What an unpleasant surprise! The Law of Unintended Consequences is alive and well in the corrupt Caribbean, and it can bite individuals who never considered that the prized American citizenship that they obtained might just be the thing that brings them down. 

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*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jB2Z9NW9aA

    

WATCH PIERRE MARTINEZ PODCAST EXPOSE CHINA'S ROLE IN CARIBBEAN CBI CORRUPTION (60 Minutes)

If you have been following our articles about the fraud, money laundering and corruption orchestrated in the Caribbean by China, using Saint Kitts and Saint Lucia Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) passport programs, you will want to watch Pierre Martinez detail how China has used corruption to become a national security threat to the United States.

Watch the podcast here (prerecorded):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jB2Z9NW9aA

SAINT KITTS CANCELS CONVICTED CHINESE FRAUDSTER DAREN LI'S CBI PASSPORT, BUT THEY LEAVE HIS CITIZENSHIP INTACT; DID GALAXY ORDER THIS?

Media is reporting that the Saint Kitts Citizenship by Investment (CBI) passport-wielding fraudster, DAREN LI, who recently entered a guilty plea in US District Court for the Central District of California, which is Los Angeles, has had his SKN passport cancelled, due to his new convicted felon status.

While we understand that action by the Government of Saint Kitts, and agree that it was the proper thing to do, we note that Li's citizenship, through which he acquired the rights to a passport, was NOT revoked. In a future Saint Kitts government, he therefore has the right to reapply, and receive a new travel document. Did this happen on the orders of CARIBBEAN GALAXY GROUP, whom we understand was the agent for the citizenship application? I think we have our answer.

This demonstrates that the Government of Saint Kitts is firmly under the control of Galaxy, which means the Peoples' Republic of China now rules St. Kitts & Nevis. This confirms that the Caribbean Sea is now well on its way to becoming a Chinese lake. Will the next American Secretary of State please take note.

HERE'S DEPUTY PM ERNEST HILAIRE'S SIGNATURE ON AN ILLEGAL CARIBBEAN GALAXY CIP CONTRACT; HE CANNOT DENY THE EVIDENCE

The people of Saint Lucia have been demanding full disclosure for months from their Deputy Prime Minister, ERNEST HILAIRE, (who is also the Minister for Investment) regarding the facts in the sale of thousands of illegally-discounted Citizenship by Investment (CIP) passports by the Chinese-owned company  CARIBBEAN GALAXY GROUP, only to be told by him either he didn't have the information, or that he was unable to release it, in a public project, due to Galaxy's lack of consent of privileged business information, neither of which was true. DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER OF ST. LUCIA REFUSES TO ANSWER HOW MANY CBI PASSPORTS WERE GIVEN TO CARIBBEAN GALAXY. Anger at Hilaire, and indeed the Saint Lucia government itself, has reached a critical level, as St. Lucians fear the loss of their essential correspondent accounts in American banks, due to the exposure of fraud, money laundering and corruption, to a degree that it now threatens the economic life of the country.

The actual Agreements (Contracts), by and between Galaxy and Hilaire, have been made available to the public by IMPACT WORLD MEDIA, and we are displaying some of the relevant portions here, to demonstrate that the Deputy Prime Minister was the principal St. Lucia government official involved, he actually signed the Agreements, which provide for a a major, and illegal, discount in the prices charged by Galaxy, as well as Saint Lucia, for citizenship & passport sales. Impact's evidence confirms that Hilaire gave Galaxy 11,000 files; that's 45.000 new citizens from China and the Middle East now in Saint Lucia, resulting in revenue diverted by Galaxy of USD$1.6 Billion. All this money never made it into Saint Lucia government treasury accounts. That is fraud on a massive scale, and the people of Saint Lucia demand that their money be returned to them.

 

 This public showing of the evidence establishes, beyond a reasonable doubt, the existence of a criminal conspiracy orchestrated and led by Saint Lucia Deputy Prime Minister Ernest Hilaire. The contracts confirm Misfeasance and Malfeasance in Office, which are grounds for his immediate removal from all positions and portfolios that he holds in government. If the Prime Minister, PHILIP PIERRE, declines to take such action forthwith, he should also be considered to have failed to discharge his sworn duties to his nations, and also be subject to removal by the courts.    

WILL FINCEN'S WARNING ABOUT MORE ENFORCEMENT AFTER $3bn TD BANK MONEY LAUNDERING FINE CAUSE THE CLOSURE OF U.S. CORRESPONDENT ACCOUNTS OF CARIBBEAN BANKS?

While America's bankers were happily contemplating a reduced regulatory world in the aftermath of the recent presidential election, they have neglected to pay attention to the single voice predicting more enforcement actions, a la TD Bank. One senior FinCEN official stated at a recent NY bankers' conference that we should expect more painful civil penalties, all tied to AML risk failures. The billion dollar fine is just the first of its kind, if we read the tea leaves.

What may result, in the aftermath of the TD scandal, is that those of America's largest banks that continue to facilitate money laundering in their lucrative correspondent accounts of indigenous Caribbean financial institutions may make a command decision to close those that accept funds for Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) applications, because of the new regulatory focus on risk. They will choose to reduce the risk of joining TD in the rogues' gallery of banks incurring megafines, especially since the public release of evidence confirming that millions in application fees are being remitted for illegally-discounted contracts, therefore constituting acts of money laundering.  

We note that, notwithstanding the release of overwhelming evidence indicating the proceeds of CBI crime is flowing into correspondent accounts in New York and Miami banks, none of them have taken the step of closing those accounts, to mitigate any potential fines coming at them in 2025. Perhaps senior bank management is gambling that they will be ignored, in favor of other banks. In any event,  we predict that as soon as one U.S. bank is hammered for allowing repeated CBI payments to be laundered through its accounts, there will be a rush by others to shut down that pipeline into the American financial structure, without delay. What that will do to the local economies will be significant, given that most consumer goods are imported from the United States, but local Caribbean bankers should have considered such an outcome, when they gleefully accepted dodgy payments without conducting effective due diligence on their CBI customers.

HERE'S THE ACTUAL CONTRACT BETWEEN THE EASTERN EUROPEAN CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION, BEMAX, AND THE GOVERNMENT OF SAINT LUCIA, SIGNED BY DEPUTY PM HILAIRE

If you read our recent articles exposing the Eastern European organized crime entity BEMAX, and the Government of Saint Lucia, which entered into multi-million dollar construction project with a known criminal organization, and allowed it to move forward even after its CEO and owner, ALEKSANDER MIJAJLOVIC was arrested in Montenegro for smuggling, you may have been one of the individuals that requested evidence of that illegal contract. If you need more information, you are invited to read:  SLC PRIME MINISTER PIERRE , DEPUTY PM ERNEST HILAIRE, LAWYER THADDEUS ANTOINE, AND THE ENTIRE SAINT LUCIA CITIZENSHIP BY INVESTMENT PROGRAM ARE IN BUSINESS WITH EASTERN EUROPEAN MAFIA.

Now that the Agreement, entered into on 23 November, 2023, between Mijajlovic and Saint Lucia Deputy Prime Minister ERNEST HILAIRE has been released to the public, through IMPACT WORLD MEDIA, we have attached to this article some of the relevant pages, including the page describing the parties involved, as well as the signature page. Readers  learning of this scandal for the first time are urged to first read this article as well: SAINT LUCIA'S DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER HILAIRE CLAIMS IGNORANCE AFTER ORGANIZED CRIME LINKS BECOME PUBLIC; IT LOOK LIKE THE BEGINNING OF THE END FOR HIM.

One of the more interesting elements of the Agreement is the fact that the amount of money the Bemax is slated to earn from the Saint Lucia project it agrees to build for the Government is many times greater that the amount the company states it has borrowed for construction costs ($25,250,000). A simple calculation reveals that the amount that Bemax will receive between USD$62,800,000 and $94,200,000, through sales of 628 citizenship & passport files.

 

Where is all this excess money going? The project was designed to benefit the people of Saint Lucia, and it appears to be going directly into the pockets of organized crime, in a scam orchestrated by, and approved by, DPM Hilaire, who should now be turned out of office forthwith, for malfeasance, and arrested on multiple charges, including but not limited to Misuse of Public Office, and Illegal Diversion of Public Funds. We will be uncovering additional governmental misconduct in the Bemax scandal in a subsequent article.  

A WORD OF CAUTION ON THE NEW NAURU CBI PASSPORTS

Here's the new REPUBLIC OF NAURU CBI passport; In the midst of a whirlwind advertising campaign, conducted by a number of the migration investment industry's larger companies, be advised that things are not quite what they seem with this new arrival on the Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) stage from Micronesia; Tread carefully.

Before even considering purchasing this new CBI entry, advertised as "incredibly affordable," and spending USD $130,000-145,000, understand this:

(1) It does NOT afford the holder of a Nauru CBI passport visa-free entry into the Member countries of the European Union. Seamless EU entry is generally the primary reason most purchasers of CBI products decide to acquire an economic citizenship in the first place. A Nauru citizen must go through the normal application and qualification process to obtain an EU visa. Also, if you were thinking of evading entry requirements by first going to a non-EU Member state like Switzerland, Monaco or Liechtenstein with open frontiers, and then traveling into the EU, those jurisdictions also have visa application requirements.

(2) We note that a some EU Member countries have instituted policies specifically blocking Nauru "investment passport" holders from even being considered for visas. That is a serious step, blocking all Nauru CBI passport holders from being able to enter under any circumstances. Therefore, without the primary benefit that buyers have come to expect in a CBI passport, it hardly seems like value for your money, gentlemen.

More importantly, the new move by some states to deny ANY visa application from a CBI passport holder might indicate that things are about to get real ugly in Europe when it comes to buying easy access to the EU. We wonder whether such actions might be in store for all those individuals who purchased "expensive" CBI passports from one of the five East Caribbean states, and whether unhappy CBI passport holders so affected would have standing to file a class action lawsuit, seeking a refund. Food for thought for all those ambitious Caribbean attorneys, when clients come a calling, wanting redress for their damages.

EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT CBI/CIP CORRUPTION, BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK

If you have been following my recent articles on the CBI/CIP corruption scandal in SAINT KITTS & NEVIS and SAINT LUCIA, you need to watch his program.

WHEN WILL AMERICA SHUT DOWN THE RED WAVE?

An explosive new documentary, coming January 2025, THE MEN WHO SOLD THE CARIBBEAN TO CHINA, dives deep into the untold story of influence, deals and secrets that have reshaped the Caribbean. If you have been following my articles on the subject, you will not want to miss this program     

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15SV8WoBpn/?mibextid=WC7FNe

CHINESE MONEY LAUNDERERS THREATEN U.S. BANKS FROM CANADA, HAVING BECOME RESIDENTS DUE TO THEIR SAINT KITTS CBI PASSPORTS, WHICH CONFER VISA-FREE ENTRY AS A MEMBER STATE OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS

While we are on the subject of the threats American financial institutions face from Chinese career criminals, compliance officers must be alert as well, regarding those who having purchased Saint Kitts and Nevis economic citizenships in China, use them to relocate to Canada, first posing as students, and then becoming property owners who will then obtain residency. They use their SKN passports, being from a Commonwealth of Nations Member State, to gain easy access, and given Canada's national policy of encouraging immigration, and its weak record on AML/CFT, are then free to engage in money laundering, with little fear of detection or arrest. Their activities, which frequently target American victims, and often impact US financial institutions, directly or indirectly, are rarely detected in real-time in American banks.

Therefore, frontline compliance officers at U.S. banks, that are engaged in transaction monitoring, may want to take more than a low-risk attitude towards substantial incoming or outgoing wires involving Canada, especially originating in British Columbia or Ontario; you may end up uncovering more than a casual, legitimate transfer. Stay alert; there are a lot of dodgy Caribbean CBI passport holders in Canada, who, purchased their passports in China, and who have never been to the country of which their passport shows them to be citizens.