Millar told the court that in August 2015, she attended a meeting with former chief executive officer (CEO) of ICBL Ingrid Innes and former senior vice-president with responsibility for business development and marketing Alex Tasker.
Following that meeting, she said Innes instructed her to make “an urgent payment” of a referral bonus to Inniss.
She said she was uncomfortable with the request made by Innes as he was “politically exposed” and she enquired if she Innes had cleared such a transaction with the company’s chairman John Wight, to which Innes responded, “It’s fine”.
Donville Inniss GUILTY as Charged
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724 responses to “Donville Inniss GUILTY as Charged”
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@ Mariposa January 18, 2020 7:08 AM
You’re absolutely right. Looking at the local slave mentality, I wouldn’t be surprised if Donville is soon appointed ambassador or receives one of those worthless medals. What else should we expect from the DLP?
@ Prodigal Son January 18, 2020 12:24 AM
Spare your crocodile tears. I am quite sure that our Most Honourable Prime Minister is laughing up her sleeve and that our Honourable Attorney General has played his part in the success of the conviction. Very good.
It may be true that many male Barbadians have jerked off while watching a service from a certain Barbadian businessman. But I would rather think about the many victims of the DLP dictatorship who had to emigrate or committed suicide between 2008 and 2018. Donville, on the other hand, lived like a privileged rich white man and despised the black masses. He had a comfortable, trouble-free life for ten years. Donville will at least lose his visa for the USA and will no longer be allowed to enter the country.
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@ Tron
Donville Inniss is not a nice person, but his prosecution and conviction in a US court of law raises as many questions as it answers, most important of which is the long-reach of US law.
First, at the time of writing, of our senior politicians, only Verla de Peiza has made any comment about the conviction. This deafening silence is an insult to the people of Barbados and confirms the lack of moral moorings in our high command.
Others have been named in the New York court as taking part in this conspiracy, some of them also wanted by the US authorities. Are these people living in Barbados? Will they be arrested and tried, or extradited to the US?
ICBL is still tracking in Barbados, what has the regulator done about this? Has anyone involved in this crime be banned from being directors or senior executive of any company in Barbados, listed or limited liability?
If the police delayed taking any action during the Inniss trial, in order not to pervert that trial, are they now going to take action? Has an inquiry been launched?
The luke warm words by the Motley government’s attorney general that had Inniss been tried in Barbados he would have been acquitted in light of the absence of any integrity legislation is poppycock. There are already laws in place to deal with the abuse of public office; fraud; malfeasance in office; and money laundering.
Finally, a major local story, the conviction of a recent senior government minister, and the disgraceful CBC TV news carried a slot of a few seconds. Further, the once highly respected Advocate carries more nonsense about China than it did on Inniss’ conviction. A few paragraphs on the front page. Our journalism is a disgrace. Only the Nation made any attempt to report the case as it should have been, and its offerings were poor.
Let me end by saying that on the evening of the New York court result, our president was in St Lucy taking part in some silly discussion about ideas. Not a word was said about the idea of getting honest people in politics.
Maybe this is world class, punching above our weight. -
@ Tron January 18, 2020 7:26 AM
“Spare your crocodile tears. I am quite sure that our Most Honourable Prime Minister is laughing up her sleeve and that our Honourable Attorney General has played his part in the success of the conviction. Very good.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++=Tron, clearly you are not au fait with the incestuous goings-on between the identical twins of Bajan politics.
The only difference between them is the colour of the livery they wear on the racing day of the grand Treasury Stakes called the General Elections.
You are clearly a spectator on the periphery and not in tune with what takes place in the sanctum sanctorum of the identical bedrock supporting the political kith and social kin in Barbados.
Why do you think the leper fella is still free as a cuckoo bird and Malmoney still driving his duty-free luxury vehicle?
Do you really feel if that money was paid locally in Mickey mouse dollars in a tranches under the M/L threshold that the Don would not be president of the DLP today with a big blue and yellow ‘gatherin’ and looking to replace MAM in the next big race to win control of the people’s ‘free’ money?
You ought to thank the Bermuda Head Office and the US authorities for their no nonsense treatment of this greedy uppity son of a fisherman who got too big for his intellectual boots. Clearly not as smart as his mouth is loose!
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Hal u expecting too much from this turd world country
Having a court system which would hold up one man to ridicule for stealing a salt bread
While on the other hand letting Charles Herbert go free while a black accomplice languish in jailAs for the long arm of the USA dont forget that govts have signed away much of their power to international bodies dicated by USA policies hence a resistence to rattle the cage most likely signed with a vow of silence
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(Quote):
The luke warm words by the Motley government’s attorney general that had Inniss been tried in Barbados he would have been acquitted in light of the absence of any integrity legislation is poppycock. There are already laws in place to deal with the abuse of public office; fraud; malfeasance in office; and money laundering. (Unquote).
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Now this is the kind of Hal Austin we admire!
Refreshed and full of steam to roll the wicket for the BU fast bowlers.
Imagine alleged white collar criminals known to the public are walking around free as wild doves and with all the evidence in the public domain not even a ‘pretend’ investigation by the local law enforcement authorities.
Now you can see why your boy Leroy is deemed Mr. Untouchable.
Barbados is indeed fast becoming a fully-fledged “failed state”.
Welcome back, fellow Saint Giles boy! With this contribution O.J. Morris would have been ‘most’ proud of his scion from the ‘Ivy’ family tree of academia.
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Prodigal welcome back a bit surprise that you have sympathy for Mr Inniss who in my view was an arrogant indivisual and deserved his fate.As for Mr Lucas why should some people not rub it in if it was Ms Mottley some here would be shouting from the roof top go figure.Then there is the cut and paste artist from Canada who wanted to shift the discusion to the bribers and since the guilty verdict is asking why the US persecuted Mr Inniss for $36,000 US dollars?This guy cannot be serious, Mr Inniss commited a crime and was caught and punished nothing to understand about that.As for Mariposa are you sure you want a tell all book which could implicate several of the ex miniters as well as some of the Bees as well. However to be clear whoever is found guilty should be charged whether b or d.
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Hi Hal,
I do not know if you explained your absence elsewhere. I know that you do not have to.
But it gives a great deal of pressure in seeing you here.
a———————–****——————-aFor some reason this Donville Inniss story does not “fire’ me up in anyway.
The only thing that caught my attention was the petty sum involved.
For some of you already on the island, the ‘price to play’ may be lower than what we think. -
Let’s see what the all talk no action brigade does as the world watches..let’s hear the next excuse about why they can do nothing about corruption coming from Dale whistleblower.
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@ Theo
Many thanks. I was trying to punch above my weight and become world class. Seriously, just trying to get the technology replaced.
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If you have been follow8ng the story you might appreciate ICBL reported the matter as they are obligated under money laundering obligations. What has unfolded should be taken in context. This is not about the amount or about Innis, or Barbados as s9me suggest, the transaction was prosecutor an obvious reason.
>
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It gives me a great deal of pleasure in seeing you here,
I was given a mouse with three buttons and a wheel. Possibly the worst invention ever…
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We interpret stories in our own way. The bit that catches my attention my be irrelevant to others, and what catches their may be uninteresting to me.
I have no intention of appealing to them or following them
I just comment on what catches my attention,, It’s not a B thing or a D thing, just me.
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@ David,
that begs the question- why did ICBL not hand over the same package it compiled for the US authorities to the FIU in Bim or the Fraud Squad or whatever it is called in Bim?
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@greene
From your comments on BU on this matter your question is taken as a rhetorical one.
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i suppose it can be seen that way lol but seriously that package could have been a basis for a complaint, what say you?
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Lorenzo u sound very nervous
Why not a tell all
Being a fall guy come with its consequences -
@Greene
The blogmaster’s read is that the amounts would have been reported in the local jurisdiction perhaps post revelation. More importantly the cooperation of local authorities would have been coopted. The FBI does not enter a jurisdiction without clearance.
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The annual costs of international corruption amount to a staggering $3.6 trillion in the form of bribes and stolen money, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on International Anti-Corruption Day, December 9, 2018.
Corruption can take many forms: bribery, embezzlement, money laundering, tax evasion and cronyism, to name a few.
Fighting corruption is a global concer and evidence shows that it hurts poor people disproportionately. -
i got the impression the cooperation between the US Authorities and ICBL ownership was done in the US even though the documents were held in Bim but almost everything is portable these days.
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@greene
We can all agree the AG is under pressure or should be to pursue he matter locally.
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@ David
i am on record as saying that there is nothing stopping the AG from directing a senior civil servant or a senior person at BIDC to compile the info and hand it over to the police along with a statement of complaint. it baffles me why he has not so done
to say that he directed the police to investigate is a cop out, so to speak
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@ Hal Austin January 18, 2020 7:58 AM
US law enforcement authorities have selected Inniss because he is a resident of a US state (Tampa, Florida), has a residence permit and apparently also has a bank account there. So they even had to charge him under the law. They had no discretion. – As for the seriousness of our government: Who testified in US court that Inniss committed a crime under local law? Right, a LOCAL lawyer. He could have said otherwise. But he didn’t.
I know a lot of other members of the blue elite with residence permit in the USA or bank account in the USA. They all have to fear imprisonment when they travel to the USA or to states with extradition agreements.
@ Miller January 18, 2020 8:12 AM
I’m just playing the ignorant court jester. If you operate in the Bermuda Triangle of power, you know very well how your xxxxx despise the puppets and servants as impoverished savages. I see things so much from the inside that I can look out Donville’s ass through the front of his mouth. A little cynicism and fake naivety can’t hurt in this state opera.
@ Lorenzo January 18, 2020 9:02 AM
Thanks for your support. We must resist any attempt to show compassion here or to distract attention with completely unfounded accusations against Mia Mottley and Dale Marshall.
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Early on when they were newly elected, people were saying that they tried to put stumbling blocks in the FBIs way, but we saw them get in anyway. Don’t see any fuss being made, Interpol is also always there..
As long as they do not feel invincible and untouchable anymore with their arrogant, ignorant selves, let them get some sleepless nights for a few years to come..
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Some folks are opining that if Donville had opted for reimbursement in local l’argent this case wouldn’t have seen the light of day. However Donville, ever mindful of the optics of seeing a rival politician waving around a copy of a cheque at Election time at which time he was hopeful of being the leader of a competing political party opted for the offshore route never cognizant of the fact that he was leaping from the frying pan into the fire.
Let this be a lesson to all the politicians and wannabe politicians “there is no place like home”.
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Tron,
it is always important to be v accurate where the law is concerned. no one and i mean no one could testify that Inniss committed a crime under Bim’s laws. where a person committed a crime is left to the court and more accurately the jury to decide
what may have happened is that the lawyer as an expert witness testified that the circumstances as outlined by the US authorities may have been a crime under the Prevention of Corruption Act as the predicate offence or bribery under comparable US law as a basis for the M/L in the US.
you generally post crap for laffs or whatever but for the importance of accuracy as i see it, it is good to correct the record
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Greene,
If I follow your logic, 300 years of slavery, abduction, human trafficking, murder, forced labour and rape were not a crime in Barbados either.
I seriously ask myself why your comrade Robert Morriss played the race card before the last election and demanded an apology from the white minority. Your party always refers to the black masses. At the cost of 95% of the black population, your party wants to live like the white masters of Barbados. Somehow that seems contradictory to me.
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Most black politicians are house negroes who continue to serve the interest of massa (the white man)…
https://youtu.be/MiY47c-L2dM -
@ Miller
Corruption is rampant. Donville has no one to blame but himself. That being said can you imagine any politician anywhere else in the world stating on the floor of parliament, the senate , Congress or anywhere else saying that they owe taxes and hope to get around to paying them sometime?
That’s where we are as a country. It’s obvious that Donville was going to be protected by the Duopoly on the frivolous excuse that we do not have any law to deal with his dishonesty.
Yet , in the same country , we can arrest ordinary citizens for money laundering. Pray tell under what law are they hauled before the courts that somehow is absent in Donville’s case.
Am I therefore left to conclude that we can do away with the fraud squad in our police department?The Duopoly Rules
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@ Hal
The reason that they are reluctant to speak is because Donville is one of the tribe. Obviously the instructions from on high to CBC was to go easy on Donville. This is how the Duopoly works. Donville has very close friends in the current parliament and they know how to operate. Don’t forget before his current predicament , he was a “rising star “ in the Duopoly.The Duopoly Rules
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“that begs the question- why did ICBL not hand over the same package it compiled for the US authorities to the FIU in Bim or the Fraud Squad or whatever it is called in Bim?”
Greene
Your contributions to topics such as this are always informative and enlightening.
I asked the following question in a previous contribution: January 15, 2020 9:30 PM
“On whose authority would the police investigate this matter? Would they do so on their own volition or would ICBL officials have to make a formal complaint, provide them with the necessary information and ask them to proceed with investigations?”
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@ Artax,
the complaint does not have to come from ICBL it could come from the Gov as in a senior civil servant or a senior executive at BIDC the SOE concerned. we have a misunderstanding of what the police can do under these circumstances. how would the police know what went on if someone does tell them?
the police just cant ruck up at ICBL doors and ask for documents. what documents? who will speak to the documents? and most importantly why would ICBL speak to them? would the police have a search warrant or a production order? and if they dont have a complaint and a complainant what would form the basis for a a search warrant or a production order?
the police can make inquiries at BIDC but are they obliged to speak to the police without a directive from the Board? and a search warrant or a production order does not guarantee cooperation in terms of some one telling the police what actually happened, which is what is necessary at the initial stages.
that is why it is necessary for either ICBL or BIDC to make a complaint to police with an explanatory statement and documents and further cooperation
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The great sympathy of many Barbadian lawyers, civil servants and politicians for Donville Inniss and his crimes and business activities in adult entertainment has, in my opinion, two reasons:
First, Barbados is a developing country. We cannot expect the native population to make the mental and moral leap from caveman to civilisation within a few decades. It is therefore perfectly normal that serious crimes have no consequences. Just ask the tourists after the fourth glass of rum what they really think about the natives.
Secondly, it is the mentality of the plantation. Here only the white owner and the white slave driver is the bad guy, but not the inmates. Between the inmates there is an excessive solidarity, even if they rob each other, rape each other or otherwise become criminals. It is very revelaing to speak of “brother” in the context of Donville Inniss. That also explains why the civil servants are so lazy. They actually think that with their laziness they are harming virtual white colonial masters.
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Prosecutors detail how Inniss abused his position
Prosecutors Sylvia Shweder and David Gopstein this morning convinced a 12-member jury that Donville Inniss had accepted two bribes from the Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited (ICBL) and that he had conspired to commit money laundering.
Their submissions led to Inniss being convicted of two counts of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering in the Eastern District Federal Court in New York.
Gopstein, who led off the closing arguments, told the jury during his hour-long presentation that Inniss had “abused his power” as Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development, by taking bribes and laundering them through his friend Roger Clarke’s dental company in the US, Crystal Dental Lab.
He maintained that the evidence presented by the prosecution including documents, witness testimonies, emails and text messages, was “overwhelming evidence of Inniss’ guilt”.
Gopstein told the jurors that the prosecution had proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the former minister was guilty of the charges.
He explained that not much of the evidence which had been presented was in dispute.
“It can’t be disputed that ICBL sent $36 000 to Crystal Dental Lab for consultation services which were never provided. It can’t be disputed that the money was for Inniss and it cannot be disputed that ICBL sent the money to secure Government contracts.
“That alone should be enough evidence,” Gopstein insisted.
However, he further pointed to the figure of $16 536.73 that was sent to Inniss in 2015, saying it was exactly five per cent of ICBL’s contract covering the Barbados Investment and Development Corporation (BIDC) that year.
“You don’t randomly end up at the number $16 536.73,” he told the jury.
Gopstein noted that when discussions by the BIDC board of management commenced regarding the issuing of insurance contracts, it was recommended that similar to 2014, ICBL should receive 50 per cent of the contract, Consumer Guarantee Insurance (CGI) 30 per cent and Trident Insurance 20 per cent.
He said on June 11, 2015, that recommendation was made again by the BIDC board.
But on June 22, 2015, a decision was made to award ICBL 70 per cent of the contract and CGI 30 per cent.
Gopstein said this was made after several text messages and emails between Inniss and ICBL’s former senior vice-president Alex Tasker via their personal emails.
He made note of a subsequent email from Tasker where he enquired about the percentage of ICBL’s contract. Gopstein said this was done to calculate the amount which Inniss would be paid.
The prosecutor said Inniss then sent an email detailing Crystal Dental Lab’s banking details. He said this was despite the fact that the company had been dissolved since 2004.
He said two days after the money was sent to the dental company it was deposited onto Inniss’ account.
“He would have sent the money to his account, but he didn’t do that. He sent it to his friend’s business account,” Gopstein said, noting that Inniss had several bank accounts in the US.
He argued that the $20 000 payment made in 2016, was not an exact five per cent, but had simply “been rounded off” to escape suspicion.
Gopstein said Inniss’ plan “fell apart” after ICBL’s former chairman John Wight became aware of the transactions and began to investigate.
In his closing arguments, Ricco said the US had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Inniss had accepted a bribe.
He admitted that while there was evidence of money being sent to Inniss, it had not been proved the money was because of bribes.
He argued that the flurry of emails between Inniss and the BIDC’s board had shown that there had been a vetting of insurance companies before ICBL was eventually awarded the contract.
Ricco said Inniss had not interfered with that vetting process.
He pointed to the testimony of former ICBL deputy chief executive officer Goulburn Alleyne, who spoke of the rigorous checks which were made.
“The BIDC board decided on the 70/30 split after they expressed concerns about the conditions of the other insurance companies which were not transparent and their ability to handle the portfolio,” Ricco said.
He said ICBL was the only ‘A’ listed insurance company which had the capacity to insure 100 per cent of the BIDC’s properties valued at over $100 million and were rightfully chosen.
“What did Inniss ask the board to do or not to do? It went through the vetting process and they followed procedure. ICBL ended up with the better share as they should have,” Ricco said.
He also maintained that the emails exchanged between Inniss and Tasker had nothing to do with accepting bribes.
But in her rebuttal, lead attorney Shweder pointed to the fact that Ricco had not touched on the subject of Crystal Dental Lab, the $16 536.73 or Roger Clarke.
She said this was because “he had no explanation”.
Shweder told the jurors Inniss had operated in secrecy because he did not want to be caught.
“It has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that he took bribes. He did it in secret because it is illegal. The testimonies and the bank records show it and he hid the payments because he knew it was wrong,” she contended.
“If this money was a political contribution it would have been sent to his bank account in Barbados, not to the US.”
https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/01/17/prosecutors-detail-how-inniss-abused-his-position/
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Greene
Thank you.
You have explained “in a nut shell” what I have been “trying to say,” only I was not being specific.
There is a big difference between this situation and loitering or stop and searches.
It also brings me back to Miller’s question relative to Crime Stoppers.
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@Greene, you write and have argued your case here with the dexterity of a trained legal practioner so continue to expand on the following please.
You stated: “the police can make inquiries at BIDC but are they obliged to speak to the police without a directive from the Board? and a search warrant or a production order does not guarantee cooperation in terms of some one telling the police what actually happened, which is what is necessary at the initial stages.”
1…* but are they obliged to speak to the police without a directive from the Board?*
Are you saying that under local law, if the police have valid suspicion of a crime and made an investigatory visit to ICBL that they could simply be stonewalled because the Board did not give approval to talk to them in furtherance of their probable cause information even with a valid search warrant in hand?
2…that is why it is necessary for either ICBL or BIDC to make a complaint to police with an explanatory statement and documents and further cooperation
Am I too understand from this interesting piece of legal finessing that police authorities only step forward on company fraud, insider trading, bribery and so on BASED on internal complaints with explanatory notes ?
3.Not trying to get into apparent cross talk but simply want to get you to clarify the above which though legally reasoned are also absolutely TOO nuanced.
It’s like the mind bending remarks from our AG about Inniss not being liable under some aspect of our local ML law but omitting to add that he would just as easily be indictable under our bribery or fraud statutes.
As the US prosecutor suggested: the plan “fell apart” after the chairman Wight became aware of the transactions and began to investigate
In sum, it only NEEDS ONE person to unwind this string of corruption in Bim… like those old chicken/pig feed bags… one proper tug of the right end of the complex and seeminlg securely tied bags would render it open in a flash…. tug the wrong way and you are in knots for hours!
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@ William,
Who audited ICBL’s books in 2015/16? Will the auditors be ask to account for their 2015/6 work by their professional body? Back to your duopoly? Are we now to assume that the Barbados authorities will now seize Donville’s property empire as proceeds from crime? Was he the only minister, or are we waiting for confessions?
@Tron
You are falling for the excuse used by the US to intervene in a Barbados matter. Fundamentally, our officials are incompetent. It appears as if the US was aware of the alleged offence while Donville was a minister. If so, bilateral arrangements between the US and Barbados should have meant the US informing the Barbados authorities, since the offence took place in the Barbados jurisdiction.
They did not because they have no confidence in the Barbados authorities. In any case, the evidence given in the New York court is now in the public domain, there is no need for local authorities to wait for a formal complaint. Any of the authorities can approach ICBL or any of the individuals and ask about the evidence given in the US court. Will Donville be formally charged in Barbados? Will ICBL be fined by the regulator? Will any of the individuals involved, including Donville, be banned from holding office in any Barbados company?
Where is Freundel? Where is the micro-managing president who is always ready with the fictional mantra of punching above our weight and being world class?
Meanwhile, we gathering’ to eat fried chicken and wuk up. -
@ Artax January 18, 2020 1:07 PM
You can expect the legally-trained Detective Inspector DI “Green(e)” to avoid that question like the plague or to even touch it like a lawyer infected with TB with a barge pole.
On what basis, Constitutional or otherwise, does the main law enforcement agency act on the receipt of tips about criminal via the Crime Stoppers hotline?
Who are these “complainants” or observers of criminal acts prepared to provide written evidence or give testimony in a duly convened court of law?
Watch out for the ad hominem response from Chief Inspector Green(e) trained at the DLP college of subterfuge and deflection to avoid the naked truth.
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Life ..stranger than fiction at times?… how exercises you do regularly can one day be fatally dangerous to your health!
Those who forget their history are often liable to repeat it…soooo let’s reacquanit ourselves with the outstanding Antiguan John William Ashe.
Diplomat and politician who was President of the United Nations General Assembly at its 68th session, from September 2013 to September 2014 among other high roles. He was born in St. John’s, Antigua with some Bajan maternal roots and was first in his family to attend university and excelled all the way to a PhD in Bioengineering.
“…On 6 October 2015, Ashe was arrested and charged,[12] along with five others, in a criminal complaint filed by federal prosecutors in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, reflecting an expansion of a probe into the dealings of Macau real estate developer Ng Lap Seng. The complaint accused Ashe of using “his official position to obtain for Ng potentially lucrative investments in Antigua” as part of an alleged broader scheme to funnel more than $1 million in bribes from Chinese sources to facilitate business dealings, particularly in real estate. He died while awaiting trial.
Ashe was found dead at his home in Dobbs Ferry, New York on June 22, 2016. The Westchester County, New York medical examiner’s office reported that Ashe died of injuries… (specifically, traumatic asphyxia, and laryngeal fractures) suffered when a barbell he was lifting from a bench dropped on his neck.
Anyhow, this is Bdos we don’t do that type of shizz…And Inniss already spill the beans anyhow. So he safe.
But for what it’s worth I am sure his wife and children bore the brunt of his fall from grace too after such an OUTSTANDING climb from that hard work to those hallowed posts!
I gone.
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@Miller & Greene
Local Board members operating under the Company Act have a fiduciary responsibility to respond/behave in the best interest of the company. You may extrapolate as you deem fit given the matter at hand.
Also we have some here conflating matters. Although the bribe originated in Barbados the indictment in the US was about money laundering that occurred through a bank in the US.
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dpD
a search warrant only gives police the right to search and seize documents subject to seizure named in the warrant or any other illegal items they encounter. it doesnt compel compliance from anyone. in fact the search is conducted by the police.
a production order compels a person or company to produce certain documents based on affidavits from the police- in that way it is like a warrant except where the police conduct the search in a warrant the company produces the documents in a production order
no one from BIDC which is a SOE ran by a board or the like has to speak to the police or explain any documents. they may but dont have to and police cant make them. the Board or whoever governs BIDC could so direct. the same goes for ICBL.
the police can have all the documents in the world but how can they get it into evidence without some provenance as to its authenticity and someone to explain the document and in some cases its context and contents. i know of no police who could do that for evidentiary purpose.
in a court case the police can only say how they collected the documents and what the documents literally say. they cannot speak to its context.
police approach prosecutors with what they think are smoking guns in the form of documents only to be deflated when they are told to get someone to explain the context, if the contents are readily explainable or they cant get them into evidence without someone to authenticate them. of course sometimes the documents are indeed smoking guns especially emails
in this matter didnt someone from ICBL speak to being pressured by innes to send payment etc. without this how strong would have the case presentation before the jury?
and check out the summation. the defence explained away the emails and this was not rebutted by the prosecutor. this is because no one spoke to the context of those emails.
the AG is absolutely correct. the Bim laws re M/L at the time of this matter did not capture what Innis did, notwithstanding offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1929 wrt what Inniss did.
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Miller,
most tips from crime stoppers is info or intelligence which the police develop and action to get evidence.
where it is direct evidence police may try to get statements from the tipster and or some other persons. police operate on statements. withoit them how would they present files to the prosecutor.
tips from crime stoppers dont take away from nothing i have said earlier.
David,
the interests of the company dont always mean working with police or legal authorities unless it is detrimental to the company and its shareholders. sometimes company take internal action
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If ICBL concealed their relatively small payments to Donville Inniss as “consulting fees,” it is highly unlikely that any blame can be placed on the company’s auditors.
The payments were probably below the materiality threshold the auditors used for their work, and who knows if management deflected or responded inappropriately to any audit inquiries.
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@greene
This is true but the blogmaster is yet to be convinced that the interest is not present.
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“But on June 22, 2015, a decision was made to award ICBL 70 per cent of the contract and CGI 30 per cent.”
well…it will definitely be interesting to watch, especially the part where the AG gets a request to hand over Tasker and Innes….let’s see them say no.
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@ Greene
Ignore the money laundering allegation. Donville committed the offence, if the evidence is accurate, of fraud, malfeasance in public office, abuse of public office. Any of these will be more powerful charges than money laundering, which, as I understand it, came out of RICO legislation. The substantive offence was committed in Barbados..
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Miller,
most tips from crime stoppers is info or intelligence which the police develop and action to get evidence.
where it is direct evidence police may try to get statements from the tipster and or some other persons. police operate on statements. without them how would they present files to the prosecutor.
tips from crime stoppers dont take away from nothing i have said earlier.
David,
the interests of the company dont always mean working with police or legal authorities unless it is detrimental to the company and its shareholders. sometimes company take internal action,
correct the ML took place in the US but the criminal conduct or predicate offence took place in Bim. that is why the lawyer from Bim was called to give evidence to say that Inniss’s action re the reason for the payment in the US could have constituted corruption under the BIM Prevention of Corruption Act 1929, which is comparable to bribery in the US, for the ML in the US to succeed. and that is why Innes and Tasker have been indicted in the US on conspiracy to ML and not corruption or the US bribery
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US authorities made an example of Donville Inniss but turn a blind eye to other corruption US officials who have committed worse crime.
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@Greene
Any decent company especially an ICBL that is Best A rated will protect its reputation without compromise. One suspects ICBL and its parent would have this written into governance policy. Of course any director of the board would be duty bound if questioned by the police to present concerns to the Board and at minimum issue a formal position to a police request.
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@ David
which again begs the question- why didnt ICBL turn over the package they presented to the US authorities to the Bim FIU if they didnt want to turn it over to the police?
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@Greene
The blogmaster is yet to be convinced they did not.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.