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 Home  >  Headlines  >  OPINION
Posted: Thursday 29 May, 2014 at 7:19 PM

IT WASN’T ME

G.A. Dwyer Astaphan

    A woman was in a certain office in Basseterre this morning cussing me.

     

    She had heard the talk that certain bank accounts were being looked into, and that her name was being called. And she chose to direct her anger at me.

    “Why Dwyer Astaphan don’t shut he ……. mouth? He mussy tink we forget Scotland Yard was investigating him”.

    Now Scotland Yard were never investigating me. Yes, they had made the first steps towards an investigation, but that came about as a result of my initiative through a bank in England. It wasn’t me who they would’ve investigated.

    And it was I who’d put an end to it, because no harm had been done, and I wanted to save certain persons from embarrassment and potentially very serious repercussions.

    Interestingly, some of the very people who I was trying to protect embraced certain political interests, and there was an effort to besmirch my character and destroy my credibility.

    But the effort failed.

    If I were to release documents which were, and still are, under my control, or under the control of my attorneys and other advisers, and replicated and stored in a number of locations, some people would become quite miserable.

    One reason I’m holding on to them is that somebody may say the wrong thing in the wrong place, at the wrong time. And that’s when the party will really start. Meanwhile, I’ll continue cooping them.

    I didn’t tief when I was in Government, or before, or since. The good Lord knows that, and He also knows that I’d be happy to pick up a little change so that I might be able to help some needy people, and have a few pennies in my old age.
     
    But the woman who was cussing me out this morning was not only angry.

    She’s smart enough to know what it means when the Eagles of the US Departments of State, Treasury and Justice, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Scotland Yard and Interpol move in.

    So she’s scared.

    I’m not happy that she’s scared, but it wasn’t me who put her in the dilemma in which she now finds herself.

    And it wasn’t me who brought undesirables to the St.Kitts & Nevis Citizenship by  Investment Program.

    Let me say this.

    The concept of the program is great. And there are some outstanding persons who’ve invested in it. In fact, the vast majority of them are outstanding. But there are a few bad eggs.

    And those bad eggs have gotten through, not because the due diligence process is bad.

    It is not bad.

    Nor have they gotten through because our local service providers are bad, because our local service providers are not bad.

    So I want to make it clear that, for the most part, I’m thankful to and supportive of most developers, supportive of local service providers, and I have no problem with people investing and receiving  passports.

    But the rules need to be followed. As a general principle, the rules that we have are not perfect, but they’re sufficient to provide for a good program.

    The real problem is not with the rules. Rather, it’s with the rule breakers, both at home and overseas.

    And the bad eggs have gotten through because there are some greedy, unprincipled rule-breaking individuals overseas who are too close to major players here in the Federation. They can bypass the local service providers, and even bypass the Citizenship by Investment Unit.

    I don’t know if somebody out there is manufacturing passports illegally or if there’s a totally separate system that allows these hoodlums to get their hands on passports with St.Kitts & Nevis on them.

    The overseas hoodlums use a handful of local ‘runners’, mostly females (one of whom is not even from St.Kitts & Nevis) who they can send to get something signed, or get a favour done, in the dead of night if they want to. And while that’s happening the poor local service providers and the CIU staff don’t have a clue as to what’s going on.

    One of these runners is very, very close to two persons who’re expected to be named as candidates in the upcoming elections.

    So when the US, Canadian, the UK, and Interpol start to ask questions, don’t blame me, because it wasn’t me who caused any of these problems.

    And when Denzil Douglas tells you that he’s “very pleased that the US had uncovered evidence that certain economic citizens were using their St.Kitts & Nevis passports to facilitate unlawful financial transactions, he isn’t half as pleased as I am.

    I don’t know if Douglas is pleased with discovery by the US, Canada and others that people who had already been involved in unlawful financial transactions-the bad eggs- were subsequently given St. Kitts & Nevis passports.

    And this is where the fundamental problem lies. How did they get through? Bad due diligence? I don’t believe so. Bad developers? Generally, I don’t believe so. Bad local service providers? I don’t believe so. Bad workers at the Citizenship by Investment Unit? I don’t believe so.

    The bad eggs got through because of bad people, both overseas and here in the Federation. Greedy, corrupt people.

    And now that the eagles are swarming, the local bad eggs are wetting their pants, acting like ‘dey vex’, and looking to blame other people.

    Remember the name Al Sadat. That’s a man who lives in Dubai. If ever you get to speak with him, ask him if he knows any bad eggs in St.Kitts & Nevis and elsewhere who are involved in our Federation’s Citizenship by Investment Program.

    All  I can say is that it wasn’t me, and it isn’t me.

    And, thank God, it isn’t me who is going to be faced with the possibility of extradition, and thirty years in a jail cell in Arkansas or Manitoba or Yorkshire.
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