Donville Inniss Case Points to Endemic Corruption in Barbados
The blogmaster found the Patrick Hoyos article to be – without prolix – a good summary of the Donville Inniss matter. Especially as it pertains to the inference other payments were made to Donville Inniss and that bribery by elected officials was commonplace in Barbados. Although we have the Attorney General et al saying that…
The blogmaster found the Patrick Hoyos article to be – without prolix – a good summary of the Donville Inniss matter. Especially as it pertains to the inference other payments were made to Donville Inniss and that bribery by elected officials was commonplace in Barbados. Although we have the Attorney General et al saying that local laws would not have permitted prosecution of Inniss this position was challenged during the Inniss trial.
The blogmaster’s wish is that we have a dispassionate debate in Barbados and a call to action by our officials regarding the honest prosecution of public officials. It is ironic former Speaker of the House MICHAEL CARRINGTON and Adriel Brathwaite, former Attorney General showed support for Inniss by attending the trial in New York. CARRINGTON’s legacy will be that a High Court judge had to issue a court order for him to release monies due his client 70+ John Griffiths, the blogmaster will remember Brathwiate for promising to report to parliament the status of Mia Mottley’s qualification (LEC) to practice before the Courts of Barbados. He never did.
The time has come to arrest the moral and ethical rot- add criminal. We have started to experience the negative fallout of pushing our heads in the sand.
Time for the authorities to do a job.
Time for the Prime Minister, Attorney General and stakeholders to lead the charge.
Importantly, time for John Citizens to hold officials accountable.
David, Blogmaster
PS. Blame the blogmaster for paragraphs highlighted blue.
Patrick Hoyos, journalist and publisher specialising in business
Four little words that spell prison
It was a four-word text that probably took only a few seconds to write and send, but the events it set in motion led to a guilty verdict on all three counts for former Minister of Industry and Commerce, Donville Inniss.
A United States jury last Thursday found Inniss guilty of two counts of money laundering stemming from two money transfers to the bank accounts of a dental office in New York, and one count of conspiracy to launder money. Prosecutors said Inniss arranged for the money to be transferred through the bank accounts to conceal the bribes. According to the Wall Street Journal, Anthony Ricco, a lawyer for Inniss, didn’t dispute the money transfers, but argued the government’s evidence didn’t support its view that there had been bribes in 2015 and 2016.
According to the Nation newspaper’s Maria Bradshaw, US Prosecutor David Gopstein, in his summation to the jury, said that Inniss was not performing consulting services for Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited, but was taking bribes and laundering money.
The prosecutor said that up to 2014, ICBL held 50 per cent of the Barbados Investment and Development Corporation’s (BIDC) insurance contract, while Consumers’ Guarantee Insurance had 30 per cent and Trident Insurance 20 per cent.
When the time came for renewal in 2015, the BIDC board of directors recommended that the contract remain the same way, but on June 30, 2015, Alex Tasker, who was the senior vicepresident of ICBL, sent Inniss a text message saying: “We have to talk”.
This four-word message, the prosecutor told the jury, led to the bribery, which was arranged in a week and a half. The day after that text message, Inniss sent a letter to Sonja Trotman, chief executive officer of BIDC, inquiring about the insurance renewal.
As a result, ICBL increased its share to 70 per cent share, leaving CGI with 30 per cent, and Trident Insurance with zero.
The Wall Street Journal said that ICBL, which allegedly paid the bribes, “received a publicised letter in 2018 from the US Justice Department saying it was closing a probe into whether the company had violated the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.”
That letter said, in part, that “the Department’s investigation found that ICBL, through its employees and agents, paid approximately $36 000 in bribes to a Barbadian government official in exchange for insurance contracts resulting in approximately $686 827.50 in total premiums for the contracts and approximately $93 940.19 in net profits”. The WSJ’s Dylan Tokar wrote in Friday’s edition that “ICBL had voluntarily disclosed the bribes, enhanced its compliance program and fired the individuals involved in the misconduct, the Justice Department said.”
He added that the Justice Department had sent the letter to ICBL under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act’s Corporate Enforcement Policy which, he said, “offers leniency to companies that disclose potential foreign bribery violations to prosecutors”. This means that Donville, Ingrid [Innes] and Alex had their conspiracy exposed by the parent of the company on whose behalf the latter two were working to increase sales, or at least make budget.
Isn’t it ironic?
It is also a different version of how the story got out than what our own Attorney-General said last Thursday after the verdict was handed down. He said: “It is significant that the conviction came about because individuals who had knowledge of the events were prepared to speak out and to give evidence about wrongdoing.” The AG added: “This is something that is required at all levels in Barbados’ society whether dealing with the scourge of corruption or the scourge of gun violence.”
Meantime, Tokar noted that the Justice Department last year charged ICBL’s former chief executive officer, Ingrid Innes, and its former senior vice- president, Tasker, “who prosecutors said acted as Mr Inniss’ co-conspirators. The two remain at large, a spokesman for the department said.”
As far as I can see, the response in Barbados among the average citizen has been that it’s about time somebody was charged for all of the perceived corruption that went on under the last administration. I haven’t heard much, if any, sympathy for Inniss or his alleged co-conspirators.”
Patrick Hoyos is a journalist and publisher specialising in business. Email: bsjbarbados@gmail.com
Patrick Hoyos
Is it not standard for officers (by invitation) of the company to present management reports to the Board?
Loading…
robert lucas
@ David January 24, 2020 9:13 AM
“The matter is considered sub judice because lawyers for Inniss have signaled he will appeal”
So what ? Barbados is an entirely different jurisdiction to the US. Making a statement in Barbados will not affect the outcome of the case. The local legal fraternity use this sub judice thing to cow free expression. In America when the OJ case was going on, commentators were having a field day. This is a ruse to intimidate the populace and I will not observe it.
So why are we BUvians only discussing one case of Donvilledidit and won the race to the USA court conviction.
ENDEMIC ” a condition regularly found among particular people or in a certain area.”
So let us add other instances of corruption so as to give credibility to the use of the word endemic.
Those who PAY BRIBES and those who ACCEPT or DEMAND BRIBES are equally GUILTY.
Loading…
NorthernObserver
@Blogmaster
yes. and it is selective versus exhaustive.
As a comparison….neither the Annual report covering the annual 2018 period, for FB&M nor ICBL, makes any reference to this matter. They will likely argue it is “immaterial”.
Yet….FB&M only owns just over 51% of ICBL, it is over 2,000 Barbadians who own 48% and who were faced with a large dividend decline last year. These shareholders need to be ‘keeping noise’. And find out out which of FB&M and ICBL have been booking the various charges.
Loading…
John A
@ Northern
You may find it in the small print of the notes as ” an adjustment” LOL
Loading…
John A
@ Northern
If it not there it might be under the other 2 darkholes they like to drop embarrassments into in the notes.
UNUSUAL EXPENSES
MISCELLANEOUS
You could loss way $80000 bajan In there and the average shareholder wouldn’t even know to look in those 2 Pandora boxes.
Loading…
peterlawrencethompson
I remember hearing of a DLP cabinet minister who put a bunch of money that he was trying to hide into his mother’s Bank account. But then when his mother died, his siblings demanded their share. Who was that?
Loading…
NorthernObserver
@DIW
“The only push back I have with ur analysis is the ‘dismissal’ of the additional 20%.”[quote]
The DOJ letter referenced above, pegs the premium(s) from BIDC, to ICBL, at US$687,000. I ‘suspect’ they may cover premiums from TWO years. Hence the 20% in premiums, held by Trident are “relatively small”. What is does subsequently, is raise why ICBL chose to offer 5% of the TOTAL business??? This may suggest, word was out was that BIDC was giving ICBL LESS than the prior year, hence their desire to hold on to what they had, plus more.
ICBL Annual report 2018 year….”Net Loss and EPS
The Net Loss attributable to the shareholders of the
Company for 2018 was ($8.9M) compared to a loss
of ($1.2M) in 2017, resulting in EPS of ($0.23), a $0.20
reduction year over year. ”
see if your search can find anything. Didn’t have time to seek the needle in the haystack
Loading…
John A
@ Northern
The info you desire would be in the accompanying notes to the audit which do not have to be made public.
Anyhow as you washing their laundry let me get piece lol. So you lose one year $1.2M and wunna come back in $2018 and loss $8.9M. In all of this the same board et al watch the two top brass tek up $36k USD and pay a dentist in New York for dentures or something so!
All that said the same board there and not a single case brought by ICBL nor we Legal Eagle in government. I would say something fishy here, but wuhloss it smell like Oistins market after the water did lock up for a month!
There is enough for the FSC to commission a governance review of ICBL and the finds could possibly trigger the investigation that has been late in coming.
Loading…
John A
@ david.
The supervisor of insurance should of been on this like flies on horse dung! There is more than enough to support an enquiry here. Likewise the DPP in conjunction with the fraud squad as well.
This has got to be the biggest joke making the rounds now in the Florida court system.
Loading…
Greene
@Hal
what you are talking about is director disqualification which falls under the company act in most jurisdictions. whilst i havent researched it, i doubt Bim has such a rule.
sub judice doesnt preclude any person from discussing in general terms any court case but we like to use it as an excuse. in addition no lawyers has to discuss this matter sub judice or not.
@dribbler
quote] Or put another way he has a superb opportunity to restore some of his school pride following the trauma of a crooked former PM… or is that just too ‘old school ]quote
kindly explain how that former PM was a crook
Loading…
WURA-War-on-U
Yall ain’t getting that none of them want an investigation, who is sitting on whose board and who is investing in this or that taxpayer funded project with the taxpayers and pensioners ALWAYS THE LOSERS will come to light. Not even Donville was brave Enuff to put on a defense. Too much will come out and trigger enuff investigations to last 30 or 40 years, they will all be going to court with walking sticks…or in prison for that length of time.
they are all just sitting and praying that all this will just go away, while we are all praying and hoping that there are really 17 sealed indictments waiting for all of them….as people have been saying for some time.
Loading…
Tron
The former AG and Carrington must lose their admission to the bar. Both damage the reputation of the Barbados legal profession by openly standing up for the Don. Their behaviour gives foreign investors the impression that in Barbados the legal profession is closer to drug trafficking and forced prostitution than being an honourable profession. Both defame an entire profession.
Ideally, the Bar Association should revoke the admission of ALL DLP party members and then re-admit those who exceptionally prove to be innocent.
Loading…
robert lucas
@ David January 24, 2020 3:29 PM
That is not a tongue in cheek statement. I meant every word. I am not particularly interested in what these jokers in the judiciary say. Let me repeat what I have stated else where on this blog. I have no faith/confidence in the judiciary of this country. Remember, it took the Caribbean Court of Justice to inform these jokers that a man remanded for five years must have the five years deducted from the actual time he is required to serve. It was then made impossible to sue the asses ( that is what they are,pompous asses, walking around the place in their wigs seemingly never having heard Hans Christian Andersen song,” The King’s new clothes). The easiest course at University and these nit wits want to lord it over people.
Loading…
Silly Woman
@Hoyoa “June 30, 2015, Alex Tasker, who was the senior vicepresident of ICBL, sent Inniss a text message saying: “We have to talk”.
I know that we are not supposed to impute motive, but i wonder what motivated Tasker to call Inniss?
Loading…
NorthernObserver
@Tron
Bullshit.
The former AG and DI have been friends long before politics.
Maybe even business associates.
Nothing wrong in supporting your friends, even if they do things they may regret.
Loading…
NorthernObserver
re Minority Shareholders Assoc
dunno. Did they ever meet with any success? C&W? or any other?
Really tough when your position is <10%, and or, a single entity has >50%.
BTW…a JV between ICBL & NIS is mentioned, what is that?
Loading…
John A
@ Northern.
Don’t waste you time. Why not ask Tron why his beloved Attorney General has not moved on this matter?
Why has a party that run of Accountability and Transparent with the intention of stamping out Corruption not done one RH to pursue this matter in light of all that came out of the Florida Case?
Bare hot air and long talk that is all we ever get from politicians.
Loading…
Silly Woman
@David January 24, 2020 9:13 AM “The matter is considered sub judice because lawyers for Inniss have signaled he will appeal.”
Question for the legal eagles: if matter is sub judice in the USA is it also sub judice in Barbados?
“In law, sub judice, Latin for “under a judge”, means that a particular case or matter is under trial or being considered by a judge or court. In England and Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Canada, Sri Lanka, and Israel it is generally considered inappropriate to comment publicly on cases sub judice, which can be an offence in itself, leading to contempt of court proceedings. This is particularly true in criminal cases, where publicly discussing cases sub judice may constitute interference with due process” Wiki
Loading…
Silly Woman
@Ewart Archer January 24, 2020 11:26 AM “I thought the blog master asked for a “dispassionate” debate. Instead of feasting on gossip and railing against a prominent scapegoalt”
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. So now we the ordinary voters are responsible for the downfall of a prominent?
My auntie was Donville’s constituent. She was disabled and at home for the better part of a decade. She lived within easy walking distance of Donville’s office. Never saw him. Weeks after she died a cheap postcard showed up at the then empty house. I don’t know if Donville saw that as help. It was NOT help. and I immediately threw it into the garbage. I was her principal caregiver and to the best of my knowledge she received NOTHING from her MP. No material help. No referral to government help, no visits, no phone calls. If MP’s ignore their elderly disabled constituents, who then are they giving all of this help to?
I don’t know where this rumor has arisen that we the electorate are a burdren on our MP’s.
Our MP’s typically ignore us except when THEY WANT SOMETHING FROM US, that is when they want a vote on election day.
Too many of them, all parties are too damn useless.
If you listened carefully to the first press conference given by the AG when he mentioned the ICBL matter, he intimated that ICBL underwrites a significant share of government business. Somewhere in the statement an answer is lurking.
Loading…
TLSN
This podcast is an eye opener (you may have to deactivate your cookies to listen to it). It is a high quality investigation carried out by The Guardian newspaper on Isabel dos Santos. By extension it helps to explain the relationship shared between White Oaks and the BLP.
“The easiest course at University and these nit wits want to lord it over people.”
that is most of them, uppity, ignorant and full of themselves, all of them educated at the people’s expense and all they know to do is tief, sell out and show off, nothing positive or progressive to help lift up the people and country, that is foreign to them…the lawyers and other self serving politicians have destroyed the island with stupidity..
everyone now awaits their… reap what they sowed moments…Donville was first.
Loading…
Silly Woman
The Barbados Bar Association has expressed its disapproval of money laundering in the wake of a recent guilty verdict against former Minister of Commerce and Industry Donville Inniss.
…
President of the Bar; Rosalind Smith-Millar said the association did not condone the breaking of the law in any form by any person.
“I think it is very sad that someone who had achieved such a position of power in public life has found himself in this position. I think it is important that we hasten to get integrity in public life legislation in place. “To speak on behalf of the Bar, all I can say is that we do not condone breaking of the law by anyone under any circumstances. Those who break the law will have to face the consequences,” she said.
Meanwhile members of the fraternity remained mum when asked to comment on the case, particularly on Inniss’ defence strategy where no witnesses were called and he said nothing in his defence.
Queen’s Counsel Hal Gollop said he could offer no comment on the matter
“I am a lawyer, and my information is that matter is on appeal which means it is sub judice and I have no comment to make about it,: he said
Other prominent attorneys responded similarly.
Michael Lashley and Andrew Pilgrim, both QC;s as well as Douglas Trotman, said they preferred not to comment on the issue.
Inniss who remains on bail, will return to court on February 13 for sentencing.
He was arrested in 2018 following a year-long undercover probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
Sunday Sun, January 19, 2020, page 3A
Loading…
Prodigal Son
I notice that ICBL had to forfeit the profit made from this business transaction…..$93,000 US…..that is all taxpayers monies……can we all acknowledge now why the economy went down the drain and why no buses, garbage trucks, police vehicles could be bought and why no roads could be fixed……the bribes had to be paid at the expense of Barbadians.
Even the mighty US got some of our taxpayers’ monies.
Has anyone stopped to think that bearing in mind the nature of Barbadian politics that maybe the AG is hoping that the US bring the charges and not the local police?
Loading…
WURA-War-on-U
“President of the Bar Rosalind Smith-Millar said the association did not condone the breaking of the law in any form by any person.”
Yet they have no problem when lawyers steal client’s funds which they have been doing for decades or steal whole estates from generations of beneficiaries of the elderly or go into people’s million dollar bank accounts and remove every penny ….these liars and frauds from the bar association calling themselves heads.
Loading…
WURA-War-on-U
When you have made yourself notorious and believe you will always be untouchable..
An article on Mia by a journalist making the rounds on FB. That false sense of entitlement and pretend invincibility is OVER…………alyuh criminal syndicate is in the full glare of the world and everyone is watching. I would much prefer to be me any day than any of you.
Dumbass ass fowls can continue following, everyone will be happy to see the end result embarassment.
Loading…
WURA-War-on-U
Yep…the criminal syndicate that continues to rob vulnerable black people in the Caribbean cannot hide anymore, they are MAGGOTS feeding off the living and their time has come to be exposed ..they have carried on their fraud against people long Enuff…how does it feel to see your thieving pretense selves being shown to the world..
I notice this story was on Barbados Underground before with this very same journalist who realised that the black faces in the parliament were fighting to keep the apartheid and racism against the black majority alive and well. EVIL NEGROS.
You are right. A ban can also be under regulatory rules. Look at the former CEO of Wells Fargo. As to sub judice, a breach is a criminal offence ( I know, the SFO threatened me), but it does not apply in judge-only cases.
Loading…
WURA-War-on-U
“but it does not apply in judge-only cases.”
those frauds for lawyers in Barbados would never tell the people that, they have always used it as a weapon of fear…to muzzle people, even their own clients.
Loading…
WURA-WAR-on-U
Well it’s true, the skunks at the bar association know well enuff that personal injury cases are judge only, yet they MUZZLE even the injured from talking, don’t even want them to open their mouths in the courtroom..then they claim to practice westminster style law, but only when it suits their evil purpose…….FRAUDS and liars the whole of them.
the vile supreme court of crooks and thieves…MUST BE DISMANTLED.
Loading…
Mariposa
A very interesting article
Let’s start from the top and clear the air
Bet no one in blp camp touch the above issue
To them it is a dead issue but the underlying sequences lies closely attached to corruption in high places
However Donville Inniss for all intents and purpose would remain the poster child of corruption in Barbados
Wow750 thousand dollars a lot of money towards campagain financing
Loading…
Mariposa
Hmmm seems like toes been steeped on very quiet up in here
Loading…
Baje
Mariposa
What is your point?
Everyone with a modicum of commonsense knows both BLP and DLP present and former Ministers have been crooks and dishonest people and ALL NEED LOCKING UP.
Anyone who takes up for them is a bigger jackass and probably involved in the rampant dishonesty/stealing on the island.
Loading…
Mariposa
Baje
Fair and balanced
Fair and balanced reporting if u know what that means
Loading…
THeOGazerts
A funny thing…
More interested in what happened to the salt-bread case than to Donville Innis..
Don’t want that poor man to fall through the cracks for 12-years.
Loading…
Miller
@ Mariposa January 25, 2020 7:43 AM
So why don’t you go to the police as a complainant with the evidence? Isn’t that what your previous boss man recommended?
Why didn’t your excessively incompetent corrupt deceitful lying party prosecute the OSA heist while it was in office during the lost decade?
Why are you so proud of promoting Donville as the poster boy for the next general elections political horse race which the badly injured DLP is advised to consider itself ‘Scratched’ until further notice?
Why can’t you stop yourself from being used (as the mouthpiece of that totally discredited party) like a thin roll of toilet tissue or as a recycled condom?
Where is your mirror image, Ms Many pussies? Is it that of a blue-blooded johnny?
Loading…
Hal Austin
@ Theo
What salt bread man. He was remanded until January 2, today is Jan 25, yet our great newspapers have not yet reported on the outcome, unless I missed something. If he was Chinese it would have been on the front page of the Advocate.
We are world class when it comes to the rule of law, we punch above our weight.
Loading…
Sargeant
As usual the big thinkers here missing the larger picture, Mariposa is a spokesman for the “buy local” program. If Donville had bought local i.e. received his campaign contribution in local shekels as was done in the past we wouldn’t have fodder for this discussion.
We would be more focused on “We gatherin”.
Loading…
Baje
@ Mariposa
Baje
Fair and balanced
Fair and balanced reporting if u know what that means
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
WHAT MORE FAIR AND BALANCED DO YOU WANT WHEN NEITHER PARTY BLP OR DLP HAS EVER PROSECUTED EACH OTHER FOR THE CORRUPT DEEDS THEY HAVE EXPOSED OR ACCUSED EACH OTHER IN LOCAL COURTS?
AS IT IS ALL BUSINESS AS USUAL WHILST MISLEADING THE GULLIBLE LOCALS.
IN THIS CASE, IT WAS A FOREIGN ENTITY (USA) OUT OF LOCAL CONTROL AND TRICKS THAT EXPOSED AND PROSECUTED TO UPSET THE LOCAL APPLECART.
Hope this helps to remove the cloud in your head and see the bigger picture if u know what that means
Loading…
Tron
@ NorthernObserver January 24, 2020 6:41 PM
“Friends”??? These are nice friends. I’d call them accomplices. Both persons supported a convicted criminal, a foreigner who had abused his residence permit in the USA for crimes under federal law, in public and thus gave the world the impression that Barbados is a criminal hole in nowhere.
We must correct this false picture immediately. We need a major cleansing with the Demon Hammer in the Barbadian legal profession – immediately.
We don’t need lamenting, fables and pretty talk anymore, but tough decisions. The time for male gossip and losers is over in Barbados. Men have ruled Barbados since time began and have done nothing but get women pregnant out of wedlock.
Time for our beloved Mia Mottley to tidy up among the bunch of men and take a hard line on some of these good-for-nothings. She is married to Barbados, as all the deadbeats on the island could not meet her high standards.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.