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Posted: Monday 7 July, 2014 at 1:34 PM

Clecton Phillip’s statement on CIP an ‘eyebrow raiser’

By: Staff Reporter, SKNVibes.com

    BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - AN email sent late last night (July 6) to SKNVibes by  Clecton Phillip, an affiliate of the People’s Labour Party (PLP) and the Unity Construct, indicated that “CARICOM Warns Douglas To Clean Up His Citizenship By Investment Act”.

     

    The opening paragraph of the email reads, “CARICOM warns Douglas to clean up his act and bring our CBI program out of the shadows cast by "illicit actors" who use our passport to commit international financial crimes and circumvent international sanctions against "terrorist states". CARICOM advises Douglas that purging our CBI program of these "illicit actors" is important to establishing the credibility of the CBI programs and improving the fiscal position of other Member States "at a time of acute economic and financial stress" and "given the imperative of enhancing the security of the Region while ensuring the protection and expansion of their revenue base...”

    Also included in the email was the full text of the CARICOM report and web link to the report.

    That report states: “Heads of Government received a report from the Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis with respect to the Citizenship by Investment Programme (CIP) undertaken by his country.

    They commended St Kitts and Nevis for its recent economic performance while acknowledging the importance of such programmes in improving the fiscal position of some Member States at a time of acute economic and financial stress thereby assisting in maintaining their development efforts.

    Heads of Government emphasised their strong support for the efforts of St Kitts and Nevis to enhance its regulatory regime in relation to its CIP, fully cognisant of the need to adhere to the most rigorous international standards to safeguard the integrity of the country and the Programme.

    Heads of Government urged all countries engaging in such a programme to co-operate and co-ordinate their regulatory systems with respect to both the CIP and to financial services generally given the imperative of enhancing the security of the Region while ensuring the protection and expansion of their revenue base.

    Heads of Government further commended the Government of St Kitts and Nevis for its on-going work in strengthening the legal, regulatory and administrative framework governing the CIP to ensure that it exceeds international standards.”

    In addition to the email being sent to local media houses, it also surfaced on social media works and blog sites, which resulted in a number of individuals calling SKNVibes alleging that there is some degree of distortion in Phillip’s opening paragraph.

    It was said that an initial look at the email suggests that Phillip’s use of the expressions “illicit actors” and “terrorists states” implied that this was the language used in the CARICOM release.

    In an attempt to clarify, SKNVibes made contact with Phillip who vociferously indicated that his intention was not to mislead anyone and explained that the terms “illicit actors” and “terrorist states” were lifted from an advisory issued by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) on St. Kitts and Nevis’ Citizen by Investment Programme in May, 2014.

    He added that anyone who is aware of the FinCen advisory would understand that that is where the terms were taken from.

    Moreover, Phillip told this publication that the opening paragraph of his email is his interpretation of CARICOM’s communiqué and “journalism 101” dictates that the opening paragraph of any article should grab the attention of the reader.

    Contrariwise to Phillip’s interpretation, Press Secretary to the Prime Minister Erasmus Williams, in a release on CARICOM’s communiqué, interpreted it as reflecting that the “Caribbean leaders have thrown their full support behind St. Kitts and Nevis’ Citizenship and Investment Programme and gave high commendation for the on-going work in strengthening the legal, regulatory and administrative framework governing the CIP to ensure that it exceeds international standards”.

     
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