EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT MEMBERS CALL FOR TERMINATION OF EU VISA WAIVER PROGRAM FOR ST KITTS & NEVIS

Two members of the European Parliament, in a letter to senior EP leadership, have called for the termination of the existing EU visa waiver program for St Kitts & Nevis, citing a number of SKN passport holders, who acquired their Kittitian nationality through the Citizenship by Investment program, who are known to be career criminals, either currently wanted by the authorities, or already under arrest for white collar crimes. 

They have a point. The Malaysian (1MDB) fugitive, Jho Low, and the Iranian banker known as Ali Sadr Hasheminejad (Pilatus Bank) are both named as holders of SKN CBI passports. The Russian national Andrei Pavlov, accused of criminal activity, appears to have been barred from EU entry, but he used his St Kitts CBI passport to enter the EU more than 30 times. The fact that Canada dropped St kitts & Nevis from their visa waiver program is also cited ion support of their position.

 The complete text of their letter follows here:

PRESIDENT OF PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN FOOTBALL CLUB UNDER INVESTIGATION FOR CORRUPTION

Nasser Al-Khekaifi, the president of the Paris Saint-Germain football club has been placed under investigation for suspected corruption, as part of a five-year corruption inquiry; PSG is owned by Qatar. Al-Khelaifi is also chairman of of beIN Sports, and on the executive committee of UEFA.

Al-Khelaifi has been linked to a major role in making illicit payments designed to assist Qatar to host track & field world championship events. A suspicious payment of $3.5m was made days before Doha was approved, over London, as IAAF world champion event host. Al-Khelaifi's attorney alleges that the payment was for commercial broadcast rights to the event.

RECENT MAJOR GLOBAL MONEY LAUNDERING FINES

READ THE FEDERAL COURT ORDER BLOCKING BORDER WALL FUNDS

If you are following the case where the Sierra Club sued the President to block his used of restricted Federal funds to build a border wall on the frontier with Mexico, you can read the court order blocking the use of those funds here.

ADNAN EL SHUKRIJUMAH, SENIOR AL-QAEDA LEADER WANTED FOR FAILED NYC PLOT

AFTER SUPPORTING ALEX MORAN AS ITS "ECONOMIC ENVOY," ANTIGUA DUMPS HIM AND LIES ABOUT HIS DIPLOMATIC STATUS

When the news broke about the arrest in Colombia, on money laundering charges, of Alex Saab Morán's accountant and auditor, Antigua's Foreign Ministry affirmed his diplomatic status as" Economic Envoy," and placed an article in Caribbean media to the effect that Saab had personally denied that he was a money launderer, and that his arrested associates would be released, and the matter dropped. The article was an obvious piece of damage control, designed to raise questions of fact and issues of law about Saab, so that the impact of damaging news that Antigua is selling diplomatic passports to dodgy buyers would be minimized.   

When it became public knowledge that Saab had indeed been indicted in the Republic of Colombia, Antigua very quietly distanced itself from the accused Colombian money launderer. It also evaded the fact that it had admitted he had been issued a diplomatic passport, by asserting that he did not have one, only a CBI passport, and that he was NOT a diplomat on behalf of Antigua. Any compliance officer with a bare minimum of skills know that Saab should never been issued any type of Antiguan passport, due to his well-known illicit activities on behalf of the Maduro regime, especially the country's president

Saab remains a fugitive from justice; his whereabouts are unknown, though three countries, including the United States, are seeking to arrest him. His Antigua-domiciled offshore bank, his close relationship with one of Antigua's major local banks, and his known friendship with the Prime Minister, all will be exposed, should he tried for his crimes. We wonder how Antigua will spin that information.

COUNCIL OF EUROPE DRAFT REPORT ON MALTA IS A MUST READ FOR COMPLIANCE OFFICERS

If you or your bank clients have any business in Malta, with Maltese banks, or its government, you will want to read the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights draft report on the Galizia assassination ans the Rule of Law. It covers the rampant corruption that infects the island, which shares the shortcomings of many of the "Banana Republics," but is within the European Union, which makes it an attractive target for money launderers, terrorist financiers, and every type of white collar criminals.

Read the draft report here..

NIGERIAN FEDERAL JUDGE FACING MONEY LAUNDERING AND CORRUPTION CHARGES SEEKS DISMISSAL ON PROCEDURAL GROUNDS

Attorneys for former Justice of the Federal High Court Nigeria Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia have filed motions to dismiss the money laundering and corruption case pending against her, on several grounds. The eighteen counts filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission include Conspiracy, Money Laundering, Unlawful Enrichment, and Retention of the Proceeds of Crime.

The issues presented by defense counsel :

(1) The Court did not have jurisdiction, as the defendant had not been dismissed from her position as a judge, and there was no order published confirming that act.
(2) The dismissal without prejudice of a prior case against this defendant operated as a bar to this action.
(3) The criminal charges are not valid.

The Defendant has entered a not guilty plea. Defense motions will be heard on May 31.

ALI SAED BIN ALI EL-HOORIE, WANTED KHOBAR TOWERS SAUDI HEZBOLLAH LEADER

POLICE IN DOMINICA TO GET TANKS FROM CHINA; WILL STATE OF EMERGENCY BE DECLARED TO CANCEL UPCOMING ELECTIONS ?

Roseau, Dominica 2020 ?

If you have not seen the video being circulated on the Internet, it shows heavily armed paramilitary police, dressed in camouflage battledress uniforms, arriving at a peaceful Opposition election rally in the East Caribbean state of Dominica recently. They were carrying assault rifles, obviously to intimidate the attendees, all of whom were unarmed.

China reportedly has shipped tanks to the Commonwealth of Dominica Police, to supplement the armored cars it previously received. Local Opposition leaders and activists openly fear that an incident will be created at a future gathering, and that thereafter Dominica's Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit, will declare a State of Emergency, and cancel upcoming national elections.

The existence of a State of Emergency could result in the arrest of Opposition leaders, as well as their supporters, and they could be imprisoned without trial. It could also involve the seizure of assets and property, including media outlets that have exposed official corruption, as well as the detention of journalists. Compliance officers whose clients are dealing with financial institutions in Dominica should presume that the current government will then be in total control of local bank compliance procedures, and efforts to place or launder the proceeds of corruption will occur without any AML interference.     

DEUTSCHE BANK BLAMES "FAULTY SOFTWARE" FOR NOT FINDING SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY IN CUSTOMER TRANSACTIONS

Deutsche Bank has blamed its massive money laundering activities on faulty software that it used to screen customer transactions for suspicious activity. We wonder how long the bank knew that its software was defective, and why it did not remove, and replace that software the moment its ineffective nature was suspected, let alone known. What's wrong with this picture ?

And what about its statement that no suspicious transactions slipped through compliance, as the result of the allegedly defective software ? How did the bank know that no dirty money was accepted, and transited the bank, if the software was defective ? How could the bank know this ?

Any compliance officer who read this information knows that the excuse proffered by the bank is completely bogus. We wish the bank's shareholders well in their quest to remove bank management, for those senior executives should be held accountable for their sins and transgressions.

IS ANTIGUA SEEKING TO EXTRACT STILL MORE MONEY FROM ITS CBI PASSPORT HOLDERS ?

The Government of Antigua & Barbuda has, by official notice, which appears below, has advised all parties who hold Antiguan passports, that they will now expire on December 31. The current passports, which are machine-readable, will all be replaced by e-passports, which feature a chip containing the individuals identification information. Most of the developed world uses e-passports for security purposes.

The problem is that, when a significant technological change is made to identity documents, they are generally upgraded upon expiration in an individual basis; they are not universally recalled, unless they are defective. Antigua has a large number of Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) passports, sold to foreign nationals. Is this "upgrade," which could have been made at any time during the past decade, a ploy to hit the CBI passport holders for yet another large fee ? We cannot say, but a number of individuals who live in Antigua suspect that the hidden agenda here is to collect additional, and frankly exorbitant, fee once more from the wealthy CBI clients.

Another faction in Antigua believes that the passport upgrade is a tactic to allow the government to remove any CBI passport holders who might now be engaged in any dodgy activities that would damage Antigua's international reputation. The upgrade provides a way to cull out any passport holders whose eventual arrest abroad might again focus unwanted attention upon Antigua as a jurisdiction of choice for fraudsters and sanctions evaders.

The Law of Unintended Consequences also applies; This action will assist in anti-money laundering investigations. We will be closely watching who actually appears in Antigua, to exchange their passport for the upgraded version, whether they hail from the Middle East, Asia, Africa, or from sanctioned countries,which will serve to identify individuals most likely engaged in activities that may violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or the Bribery Act, or corruption laws in other countries. Compliance officers need those names for risk management purposes, and law enforcement agencies may want to open investigations into their nationals who are found to hold CBI passports without any normal business purpose. 

SAIR AL-ADEL, WANTED FOR US EMBASSY BOMBINGS IN AFRICA

MALAYSIA CONTINUES TO ASSIST IRAN IN EVADING OIL SANCTIONS

Our readers are  familiar with the story of how the Iranian oil trader, Alireza Monfared, working out of the Malaysian tax haven of Labuan, parked oil tankers loaded with contraband oil just offshore, while his partners, Reza Zarrab and Babak Zanjani, bartered gold for contraband oil.

Monfared, who later went rogue, and attempted to cheat justice by hiding out in Dominica, is now in an Iranian prison, but Malaysia, using other proxies and agents, continues to aid Iran in vending its sanctioned oil. Reports from the Far East have confirmed that the number of Iranian-origin oil tankers either located in adjacent waters, or steaming in that direction, vastly exceeds Malaysia's national requirements. Obviously, there are new Iranian agents at work, but the scheme continues.

Malaysia and Iran have a long history of cooperation, from the use of five Islamic banks in Malaysia by Iranians engaged in sanctions evasion, to the training of Palestinian terrorists, sponsored by Iran, there. Unfortunately, as a nominal ally of the West, its pro-Iranian stance has been pointedly ignored, but with the zero export position, regarding Iranian oil, taken by the Trump Administration, Malaysia may soon find itself at odds with the US. Will OFAC sanction its activities ? 

READ THE CONFIDENTIAL IRS MEMO IN RELEASE OF TAX RETURNS TO CONGRESS

If you have been seeing news about a 10-page IRS memorandum opinion that requires the Treasury Department to release President Trump's tax returns to the US Congress here.