est. 2007

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Donville Inniss’ File Missing from Mottley’s Red Bag

BREAKING: Alex Tasker ordered extradited https://www.nationnews.com/2021/09/08/breaking-alex-tasker-ordered-extradited/   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…

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BREAKING: Alex Tasker ordered extradited https://www.nationnews.com/2021/09/08/breaking-alex-tasker-ordered-extradited/

 

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.

Donville Inniss Case Points to Endemic Corruption in Barbados

The traditional media is off and running with the big headlines about the sentence federal District Court Judge Kiyo Matsumoto is scheduled to deliver today in New York in the Donville Inniss matter. It is the story traditional media will have a healthy appetite for because of flagging circulation.

Mia’s Red Bag has come up empty so far

 

The concern of the blogmaster confirmed in the deliberations during the Donville Inniss trial is the strong inference there is pervasive corrupt behaviour in the way business is conducted by some PUBLIC and PRIVATE officials in Barbados. Successive governments over the years have paid lip service to unearthing and punishing corruption even in the face of obvious indications of wrong doing. The Mia Mottley government is better placed than her predecessors given the unprecedented mandate handed to her government to do something about it. It is no secret however to those in the know that Donville and Mia are bosom buddies.

The following is a blog repost from January 20, 2020 which captures key concerns by the blogmaster, the late journalist Patrick Hoyos and the BU family.

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 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.

Read full text of BU blog – https://barbadosunderground.net/2020/01/24/donville-inniss-case-points-to-endemic-corruption-in-barbados/

817 responses to “Donville Inniss’ File Missing from Mottley’s Red Bag”

  1. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @Tron
    “Surely, there are zero kick-backs now”
    That term has been banned. Aspirants are to use more appropriate terms, like “success fees” which convey a highly positive emotive.

  2. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @Barbados Underground Whistleblower
    I was being, what is the term Tasker used in court? Charitable.

  3. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    Now that the news leak out about a new Chair of BTMI the Gov’t is going to turn tail and run the other way
    +++++
    As per BT
    The document said: “Whereas the Interview Panel as assigned by the Board has unanimously agreed to recommend Mr. Jens Thraenhart as the candidate for the position of CEO of the Company subject to reference and background checks being conducted, be it resolved that Mr Jens Thraenhart be and is hereby recommended for appointment to the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Company, for a term of three years with the option to renew, subject to reference and background checks being conducted.”

    https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/09/11/leaked-document-states-that-a-canadian-german-beat-out-shortlisted-candidates-for-tourism-agency-chief/

  4. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @Sarge
    How can the Board commit to writing anything substantive when a candidate is “subject to reference and background checks being conducted”.
    Almost seems like it was an ‘intentional’ leak.

  5. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Wuh wrong wid wunna ?

    Many hands make light work and when there are no competent Bajans available, a CanGermans will suffice.

  6. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    https://www.destinationmekong.com/2021/03/15/jens-thraenhart-departs-from-the-mekong-tourism-coordinating-office/

  7. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    Even the disclosure of information is evolving. Once the blogmater would have to read ‘paper copies falling off a truck’ :-).
    Now we have digital/electronic leaks 🙂

  8. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Specialties: Travel and Hospitality Industry:
    Sales and Marketing, Business Strategic Planning, e-Commerce, Online Distribution, Interactive Marketing, Direct and Database Marketing, CRM, Search Engine Marketing, Business Developement, Product Development and Implementation, Brand Strategy and Positioning, Effective Website Design, Internet Adoption, Entrepreneurship

  9. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    De man got enless qualifications an 25 years experience.

  10. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Caswell ent mekkin sport.

    https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/09/11/franklyn-wants-answers-on-reported-appointment-at-btmi/

  11. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @Hants
    I suggested earlier the “leak” maybe “intentional”. Sen CF is shoe #1 to drop. Wait for #2. And #3.
    Remember how Druggie got Browns job? It is called a ‘hack job’.

  12. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    @NO
    You sure have a few names for DF, a friend calls him Doug Fool

  13. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    One, man’s opinion
    Are we a nation or just a number of small independent businesses located on an island?
    Do we have memories? Memories that we share as a nation or as a people or are we doomed to relive the same experiences every year?

    Why do I ask these questions?
    (1) Yesterday a blogger posted about limited access to some beaches as if he had discovered the wheel. A next blogger had to point out that this was something that happens very often. As a people or as a nation, are we unable to learn? By now, all foreign and local folks should know that (a) obstacles which limit access to the beach will be removed and (b) harsh fines will be imposed. This nonsense can only reoccur, if the perpetrators know that those in power will turn a blind eye. Are we allowing a few to sell our collective birthright for a mess of pottage?

    (2) Must I remind you that as the tourist season approaches, we will soon see ads for a work permit for a foreigner as the position could not be filled with a local person? Over 60 years with tourism as a main plank in our economy and all we have are qualified maids; not even qualified gardeners as there was a recent ad for a glorified gardener at one of the businesses. How can we as a nation that boast of a high literacy rates allow businesses to post these ads, year after year.
    These types of ads tell me there is no national planning. Our vision of tourism is to get them here and to get them out of the island. Now, Covid-19 and late delivery of PCR tests show that our simple model is failing as we are having difficulty getting visitors off of the island.

    (3) The biggie. This shows there is no success planning. After all of the “brilliant” and successful BTMI officials that we had over the past years, we cannot find a local to succeed a departing official. Brilliance, my foot! This is failure of the worst kind. Were these brilliant Bajan so insecure that they could not groom one or two local to succeed them? Our metrics for measuring success is flawed. We applaud those who feather their nests and run without considering the fate of the nation.

    Most companies have success planning so that if the there is an accident, key members of the organization are replaced and the company hardly misses a beat. Part of the job description of Jens Thraenhart is that he should be able to groom at least two possible local candidates to succeed him.

    ————————xx—————————–

    There is one aspect of our behavior that I do not like. They are some who believe that they can get out front and give the kiss of life to individuals. Intentional or not, this must stop.

  14. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @Sarge
    A few? Always the same ONE.

  15. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    http://www.coastal.gov.bb/

  16. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    He will be missed.

    https://www.nationnews.com/2021/09/13/david-ellis-signs-off-brass-tacks/

  17. David Avatar
    David

    Attorney appeals for Inniss’ release
    By Maria Bradshaw
    mariabradshaw@nationnews.com
    Former Government minister Donville Inniss has made a last-ditch effort to get out of prison, with his attorney reiterating to the appeals court in the United States that Inniss’ two-year conviction for money laundering should be overturned.
    Inniss will find out in the next few months if his appeal is successful.
    Replying to prosecutors’ arguments for the conviction to remain, attorney Joel Hirschhorn submitted a 19-page brief to the court on April 28, outlining perceived errors which he said were made during the 2020 trial.
    Inniss, a former Minister of International Business, is serving two years in a US federal prison for laundering bribe payments from a Barbados-based insurance company through banks on Long Island, New York. He will also spend two years of supervised probation.
    Among other things his counsel submitted were that the jury instructions were erroneous and prejudicial, the conspiracy instruction was unjust, and the jury was not instructed on all elements of the specified unlawful activity charged in the indictment.
    Hirschhorn argued that the way the court defined conduct which violates the money laundering charge was contrary to the ordinary, everyday understanding of what money laundering is.
    “Money laundering, as the term is commonly understood, first requires generation of ‘proceeds from an unlawful activity which, through subsequent transactions, are made to appear legitimate,” he said. He added that the government failed to prove that his client laundered the proceeds of the alleged bribe payments he received because the series of wire transfers at issue represented the completion of the bribery scheme and did not independently constitute money laundering.
    Hirschhorn further charged that the district court’s general conspiracy, substantive money laundering, accomplice testimony and specified unlawful activity instructions were “clearly erroneous”.
    “[The] appellant recognises that his trial counsel requested the conspiracy instruction he now challenges, as well as the government’s view that any potential error resulting from the instruction was ‘invited’. However, rigid application of procedural rules should not preclude review of substantively unjust actions, especially when it is a defendant’s attorney, not the defendant himself, whose faulty decision-making created the error,” he submitted.
    He also pointed out that the use of the word “criminals” in the conspiracy instruction was highly prejudicial to Inniss.
    “The language of general conspiracy instructions used in other federal circuits is much more neutral than the one at issue here, primarily because they do not employ the word ‘criminals’. Therefore, it is not far-fetched to think that the language of the conspiracy instruction invited jurors (who presumably do not associate with criminals) to assume that ‘birds of a feather flock together’.”
    Instruction knocked
    Hirschhorn also knocked the substantive money laundering instruction as being inconsistent.
    “Contrary to the government’s assertion, the general intent instruction that the government need not prove the defendant was aware of the specific provision of the law that he is charged with violating or any other specific provision, providing that he had knowledge that his conduct was, in a general sense, unlawful, was inconsistent with the trial court’s prior statement regarding the need for a specific intent to promote the carrying-on of the bribery scheme,” he said.
    “Again, to the untrained ear, it would be difficult to reconcile, on the one hand, the need to find that the appellant specifically intended to participate in a bribery scheme violating a particular Barbadian law, while, on the other, hearing that he need not have been aware of any provision of the law he allegedly violated, so long as he knew it was unlawful ‘in a general sense’.”
    Furthermore, he said the accomplice witness instruction was also erroneous and prejudicial as “when read in its entirety, it is glaringly obvious that the instruction improperly vouched for the credibility of the immunised accomplice witness testimony”.
    The attorney told the appeals court the jury was not instructed on all elements of the specified unlawful activity (SUA) charged in the indictment, adding the US government assumed a burden of proving the SUA in this case was a bribe relating to a Government contract or subcontract.
    “It is, therefore, not disputed that the jury was instructed it could find guilt only upon finding that the bribe at issue was in respect of any matter or transaction whatsoever, actual or proposed, in which the Crown or public body is concerned . . . .”
    He added: “The district court’s failure to list an essential element of the charged SUA baited the jury to fish for a guilty verdict in polluted waters. As result, the burden the government assumed in its charging decision was lessened.”
    Hirschhorn concluded by telling the court that the convictions must be vacated: “For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of conviction should be reversed, and this cause remanded for further proceedings as appropriate.”

    Source: Nation

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