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.

YET ANOTHER CHINESE CAREER CRIMINAL, USING A ST. KITTS CBI PASSPORT TO LAUNDER $73m, PLEADS GUILTY IN AN AMERICAN COURTROOM

The news from United States District Court in Los Angeles this week is the guilty plea, to money laundering charges involving millions of dollars in a cryptocurrency scam, of Chinese national DAREN LI, a/k/a DEVON, who is the latest in a very long list of Chinese career criminals who were sold illegally-issued Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) passports from Saint Kitts & Nevis, by a Chinese-controlled company, and went on to use that SKN passport to commit transnational crime against American citizens, as part of a global network of investment fraudsters. He faces a maximum twenty year sentence in Federal Prison for money laundering.

Li, who employed shell companies in the United States to launder victim proceeds, in furtherance of his crew's criminal operation, and who was arrested when he entered the United States, conducted most of his fraud from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where he purchased his Saint Kitts passport from one of a number of dodgy companies engaged in the illicit sale of illegally-discounted CBI passports to Chinese nationals, without any due diligence being conducted upon his suitability as an applicant. The sale of such passports to him by the Dubai company constitutes a crime under Saint Kitts laws, meaning that the owners and operators of such entities could face prison sentences themselves.

Compliance officers kindly note that it is reported that USD$58m in the case was seized by the Secret Service from Bahamas-based DELTEC BANK,as part of Li's criminal proceeds.

DONALD TRUMP WILL REIN IN CHINA'S TERRITORIAL AMBITIONS, AS WELL AS CORRUPTION, IN THE CARIBBEAN IN 2025

If you have been following the news this week, regarding President-Elect Trump's appointments in the foreign policy sphere, you have seen his choices for Border Czar and Ambassador to the United Nations, both of whom signal a welcome sea change in American national security policy across the board. Nowhere will such a change be more evident than in the Caribbean and Latin America, where the current administration has pointedly ignored the increasing political, economic and social influence of the Peoples' Republic of China in literally America's vulnerable backdoor. Count on Donald Trump to be the new sheriff in town, in a region of great geopolitical importance to the United States, and to get things done.

For the past four years, the United States has more or less stood idly by, while China has invested billions in the region, with emphasis on the small states of the Caribbean, whose dysfunctional national economies have sorely needed foreign investment, especially in infrastructure. When America's focus has been on trouble spots such as the Middle East, and in Eastern Europe, the Caribbean economies have been languishing, and in need of capital infusion. Enter China, with its Belt & Road Initiative, the construction of massive embassies in countries where there is zero trade with Beijing, and the construction of facilities sorely needed to expand trade and commerce.

 America's absence in providing financial assistance where sorely needed has provided an expanding China, hell bent on becoming a global power, with an opening, which it has exploited, with Caribbean leaders as willing partners, often receiving "financial incentives" ( read: bribes and kickbacks) to come on board and approve China's ambitious plans, which end up placing Chinese companies in the driver's seat, in the local political arena. Local, underpaid and underfed politicians who are bought and paid for will not object, as long as the money keeps coming in, and China is willing to supply it, making them willing accomplices to its plan of domination.

Now, with the advent of the Second Trump Administration, we fully expect to see the Department of State directly exert its powerful influence in the government houses of East Caribbean leaders, and a resurgence  of American law enforcement investigations into the spider web of Chinese Government-controlled private companies that China uses to advance its hidden agenda. China's usurpation of the five agencies that operate Citizenship by Investment economic passport programs in the EC states that offer UK & EU visa-free access will be the first place to start on what will be a massive campaign to rid the region, once and for all, of China's dark and autocratic influence. The corruption and associated money laundering and fraud that has infected and poisoned those programs, with active Chinese supervision, must be rooted out and quashed through indictments, arrests, trials and convictions in US courts, as much of the proceeds of those economic crimes enters the American financial structure, as US dollars, damaging our major banks; This must stop forthwith.

The complete removal of China's influence will require interagency governmental effort on the part of the United States, and the cooperation of a new breed of Caribbean leaders who are immune from bribery, and only seek to benefit the people that they wish to serve. Given that the alternative, allowing the Caribbean to become essentially a Chinese lake, bordering America's soft underbelly, which will only be far more costly to remove in the future, we believe that the new United States Government will act with vigor and resolve, and clean up this threat to our national security. 

HAPPY VETERANS DAY 2024 TO ALL VETERANS WHO SERVED IN AMERICA'S DIFFICULT WARS

ASSASSIN OF LEBANON'S PM RAFIK HARIRI KILLED IN SYRIA IN ISRAELI ATTACK

 

According to Middle East media, SALIM, JAMIL AYYASH, the Hezbollah leader convicted in the assassination of the Prime Minister of Lebanon, Rafik Hariri, was killed in an Israeli attack on Hezbollah facilities in Syria. Ayyash had a $10m reward on his head from the United States. He was convicted by a tribunal in Lebanon almost twenty years ago but protected by the terrorist organization. 

IS CHINA CLEANING HOUSE IN THE CARIBBEAN, REMOVING PRIOR THREATS TO ITS VALUED CBI/CIP ACTIVITIES?

MP Asot Michael

Financial analysts who are following China's expanding activities in the Caribbean, especially its dominant role in the Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) industry, are examining a recent event, and asking privately whether the People's Republic is behind it, and why. The cold-blooded murder of Antigua Member of Parliament ASOT MICHAEL, who as the former Minister of Investment, was deeply involved in managing the country's CIP program, and having two prior corruption scandals connected to exposure of the sale of blank Antigua passports in his past, was closely associated with the darker aspects of the program, raises far more questions than there are answers about why he was killed. 

The nature of the crime, which has lent itself to questions about whether it was an assassination conducted by a professional, reportedly leaving no clues, and causing Antigua to call in Scotland Yard to solve the puzzle, has raised questions about China's possible role. China maintains an extremely large embassy in Antigua, labeled by locals "The Fortress," due to its size and extensive security apparatus, and has come to dominate all phases of Antiguan life in recent years. A suspect appears to have been conveniently named; whether he is actually guilty, or is being used to satisfy public unrest over the violence we cannot say.

Whether this dark event was caused by a China, concerned about removing all the evidence of prior corruption in the economic citizenship industry in the East Caribbean, in which it has emerged as the principal player, remains an open question, deserving of further inquiry. We trust that the promised Scotland Yard inquiry will shed some light on the subject. In the meanwhile, we intended to keep our antenna focused on any further indications that there are efforts to control the more serious threats to the future of the citizenship by investment industry in the Caribbean.   

 

DOMINICA'S UK VISA-FREE ENTRY PRIVILEGES, REVOKED IN 2023, APPEAR FAR FROM BEING RESTORED IN 2025

The loss of visa-free entry privileges of the Commonwealth of Dominica, which continues, does not appear to be close to being reversed anytime soon. The UK Home Secretary took that action in 2023, stating “Careful consideration of Dominica’s and Vanuatu’s operation of a citizenship by investment scheme has shown clear and evident abuse of the scheme, including the granting of citizenship to individuals known to pose a risk to the UK.”

While Dominica's Prime Minister has publicly inferred that his government is close to achieving the restoration of visa-free entry to his country's passport holders, it seems that there has been no progress on satisfying the requirements of the UK Government, before it can be granted. You will recall that Skerrit stated back in July that the change in British government was the reason for the delay in obtaining approval. Then, in October, at a press conference he failed to supply any details regarding whether any progress had been made, and complained that the 2023 UK decision was "premature," and should not have been made. His promises of eventual restoration of visa-free privileges, to reassure potential investors, have no basis in fact.

If you remember details from his 2023 public statements, Skerrit admitted that there was one major specific requirement Dominica was bound to fulfill, but that it had not been completed. Given the importance the UK attached in 2023 to the national security risk posed by Dominic's Citizenship by Investment program, it is believed that the stumbling block is the large number of Russian CBI passport holders from Dominica, many of who would not otherwise have qualified for UK visas, due to their background. Did the UK insist that those passports be cancelled? We cannot say, but if that is the case, Dominica's historical reluctance to cancel CBI passports for any reason, including criminal activity, may be standing in the way of visa-free entry restoration.

A HEZBOLLAH COCAINE TRAFFICKING OPERATION IN THE BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS WAS EXPOSED IN THE ANDREW FAHIE CASE, BUT NO CHARGES EVER BROUGHT; WHY?

While the jury verdict, entered in Federal Court in Florida for cocaine trafficking and money laundering, against the former premier of the British Virgin Islands (BVI), ANDREW FAHIE, received extensive media coverage, both in the United States and in the Caribbean, the origins of the DEA sting case were pointedly ignored, when it came to charging all the co-conspirators identified in the court file. The introduction was made by individuals identified in the court file as Lebanese Hezbollah operatives. Those agents, apparently engaged in drug trafficking for terrorist financing in Tortola, and who stated that they had connections in South Florida and the Middle East, set up the initial meeting with an individual who later pled guilty to being Andrew Fahie's co-defendant, KADEEM MAYNARD, who then brought the BVI Premier in. It is curious indeed to see how quickly the Hezbollah connection was ignored in the case. I don't buy the gratuitous remark questioning the fact that the Lebanese were Hezbollah. How did they have established connections to the BVI cocaine trafficking crew in Tortola?

Court watchers monitoring the Fahie case have long wondered why the Premier never chose to cooperate with American law enforcement, since the evidence against him was extremely strong, including video and audio recordings, and first-hand testimony, especially when he first dropped hints that he had incriminating information involving a number of senior East Caribbean government officials. Did he decline to become a cooperating individual because of his concerns for his safety, due to the fact that he might eventually be called upon to testify against Hezbollah, as part of a Plea Agreement? 

Why weren't those Hezbollah traffickers named as co-defendants for making the initial introductions to corrupt BVI officials? And if Hezbollah was utilizing the BVI to store and transport cocaine destined for the United States, why wasn't this network taken down, all drugs located seized, and arrests made? In fact, when Fahie's attorney objected to the mere reference to Hezbollah in the Pre-Sentence Investigation Report, the Government allowed it to be removed. 

We must conclude that US and possibly also UK law enforcement were engaged in a major joint investigation into the use of the BVI by Hezbollah, and chose at that point not to expose the size and scope of the case, hoping to snare  high-level targets, but if that is the case, Fahie was arrested in April 2022, and two and one-half years later, there have been no news of additional major arrests. During this period of time, how much cocaine have Hezbollah agents moved through the BVI, sending the proceeds of subsequent sales back to the Middle East?  

We have a lot of questions, regarding the mention of a South Florida area of operation for Hezbollah, the logical terminus for the drugs, as well as a convenient venue to launder and transfer the illicit profits for use by a Specially Designated Global Terrorist organization. Did a law enforcement agency drop the ball, or are they playing such a long game that terrorist financing itself has taken a back seat to the passive gathering of intelligence?

IN ORDER TO IDENTIFY MONEY LAUNDERING IN REAL-TIME, YOU MUST UNDERSTAND WHAT'S INSIDE THE LAUNDRYMAN'S TOOLBOX

I have been teaching money laundering tradecraft for a long time; before 9/11, it was exclusively to law enforcement and the intelligence community, who were the only ones with serious interest in the subject. Since the USA PATRIOT Act, it has been the private sector, principally compliance officers. What I have observed is that without I call Money Laundering Literacy, a thorough knowledge of not only advanced techniques, but the exotic, esoteric and unusual methods in current use, compliance officers are at a distinct disadvantage with their adversaries, and often miss transactions that they should have caught; Allow me to explain why.

What must first be understood is that money laundering, as a craft, is all about Pure Imagination, the ability to create new technologies out of the framework of existing techniques. Laundrymen often actively brainstorm, building new methods never seen before, by taking an effective technique they are familiar with, and tweaking or modifying it, adapting it to new conditions, a new industry, or a new geographic area not known for laundering, ending up with something that compliance officers will only recognize if they are familiar with the original model, that obscure technique used in the past, and but now fading into obscurity, through disuse.

My point is simple; if you aren't sufficiently literate with Money laundering tradecraft, in all its forms, you will never see the new permutation. That is why I have created a three-part program on Advanced Tradecraft, which surveys the obscure and unusual tricks of the trade that laundrymen have used in the past, and continue to employ today. If you don't have Money Laundering Literacy, they will beat you every time. I invite you attend my three-part program, if you are serious about acquiring the ability to catch the laundrymen in the act; The link is:

https://titc.io/kenneth-rijock-the-laundry-man

WAS MURDER OF ANTIGUA MP ASOT MICHAEL CIP-RELATED? GOVERNMENT ASKS FOR SCOTLAND YARD ASSISTANCE IN SOLVING HOMICIDE

The recent murder of ASOT MICHAEL, the Antigua MP considered by many to be the Poster Boy for Caribbean Citizenship by Investment (CIP/CBI) corruption, has caused the Government of Antigua to request that Britain's Scotland Yard conduct the investigation, leading observers to wonder whether his long, dark history of CIP corruption was a factor in his demise, and that local law enforcement therefore cannot be trusted to obtain justice for the victim. As the former Minister with the Investment portfolio, Michael was a key player in the economic citizenship & passport program, which approved citizenships for a number of dodgy individuals involved in fraud, financial crime and money laundering, and who passports remain valid after their arrests and convictions.

As we have previously reported, there were two international incidents involving the discovery of blank Antigua CIP passports, and some experts are saying the homicide has all the hallmarks of a contract hit, and not due to any personal vendetta, or unhappy foreign investor that Michael failed to secure requested "unofficial" government assistance for. Whether CIP corruption is determined to be was a factor we cannot say, but hope that the investigation determines if it was.

TWO CENTURIES LATER, A NEW REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATION WILL BE ENFORCING THE MONROE DOCTRINE AGAINST CHINA

Two hundred years ago, US Secretary of State John Quincy Adams promulgated THE MONROE DOCTRINE for President James Monroe, who announced it during a State of the Union Address. It is an American foreign policy principle which holds that any intervention in the political affairs of the Americans by a foreign power is considered to be a hostile act against the United States. Since that time, the US has taken diplomatic, economic, political and even military, action to enforce that policy, to keep foreign actors out of the Western Hemisphere.

While some American administrations have chosen to rely upon "Soft Power" to enforce the Monroe Doctrine, many others, notably those led by Republican presidents, have taken strong and effective action when they deem it to be in the national interests of the United States, and particularly when national security is at issue. During the first Trump Administration, we note that both US Secretary of State REX TILLERSON and National Security Advisor JOHN BOLTON publicly invoked the Monroe Doctrine, in describing their administration's policy regarding the Americas. We can expect that this new administration's position will be consistent with those previous statements.

The issue has arisen of a potential national security threat from the emerging role of private Chinese companies in the region, regarding whether those entities are outside the policy's scope; the LODGE COROLLARY to the Doctrine prohibits "The occupation of any place in the American Continent by any corporation or association, connected with any other government, which threatens the safety of this government, and which would give such other government practical control of such place for military purposes." It was passed by the United States Senate after a Japanese-controlled company sought to establish sovereignty over Mexico's Baja Peninsula, facts quite similar to the present situation involving China and land it is acquiring, located in Antigua. Other Chinese projects located in Latin America may also be considered by the new American administration to be in violation of the Monroe Doctrine.

What action the United States will take, regarding Antigua, and a number of other ongoing Chinese projects, we cannot say, but the last time America invoked the Doctrine, after a coup had taken place in Grenada, and an airport which would have given the Soviet Union the capability of landing transport aircraft was under construction by the Cuban military, it involved direct action by American forces. When it comes to enforcing the Monroe Doctrine, history tells us that the United States will undertake whatsoever action it deems necessary and proper under the circumstances. We are hopeful for a diplomatic, or at worse an economic, solution to the problem. It is hoped that China will understand this, and govern itself accordingly.