Thanks to Bajan Citizen for producing relevant links to the latest story making the rounds about Mark Maloney being scammed out of US10 million dollars purported to be a payment for 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine on behalf of Barbados and two other governments.
The blogmaster has two questions:
- On what basis was Maloney’s company Radical Investments Ltd selected to broker this transaction.
- Is the government out of pocket because of the errant transaction.
- How does being out of pocket USD6.7 million affect Maloney’s financial state to continue to do business.
Mark Maloney Says $12M COVID Vaccine Deal Was A Scam
https://www.law360.com/commercialcontracts/articles/1422923/barbados-co-says-12m-covid-vaccine-deal-was-a-scam
The case is Radical Investments Ltd. v. Good Vibrations Entertainment LLC et al., case number 9:21-cv-81761, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida
Radical Investments Ltd. is a St Lucia registered company owned by Mark Maloney.
He appears to have been swindled out of $6.7 millon USD from the governments of St Lucia, the Bahamas and Barbados who contributed money to buy COVID vaccines for their citizens.
“In April 2021, the Governments of Saint Lucia, The Bahamas and Barbados initiated a bulk purchase of AstraZeneca vaccines, as the minimum purchase from authorized suppliers was one million (1,000,000) vaccines.”
http://www.govt.lc/news/saint-lucia-s-efforts-to-secure-high-demand-covid-19-vaccines.
St Lucia contributed $7.3 million EC
https://www.caribbeannewsglobal.com/approval-of-direct-purchase-for-astrazeneca-radical-investments-ltd/
Mark Maloney is deputy chair of the private sector group put together last March to fundraise and acquire more vaccines.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/03/03/high-powered-group-ready-to-assist-with-vaccine-financing/
It is not clear what due dilligence Mr Maloney did before entering into this commercial arrangement with Good Vibrations Entertainment LLC. If you were looking to purchase pharmaceuticals would you do business with a company whith a name that connotes mechanical sexual services, and with an address at 21218 St Andrews Blvd Suite 318 that is a mailbox in a UPS store where 175 other fly by night companies also have their “headquarters”???
http://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/SearchResultDetail?inquirytype=EntityName&directionType=CurrentList&searchNameOrder=GOODVIBRATIONSENTERTAINMENT%20L210002390860&aggregateId=flal-l21000239086-b92f38d8-b344-45fc-b36d-1320f1675828&searchTerm=GOOD%20VIBRATIONS%20AUDIO%2C%20LLC&listNameOrder=GOODVIBRATIONSAUDIO%20L190000122850
1,308 responses to “Mark Maloney Scammed!”
@Donna
The word was out he was not fussy about running therefore it is a timing issue about when to make the announcement . Who knows if this influenced the timing of the announcement.
WS
Yes its not good to assume but There is enuff mothings In public to came to a conclusion of who did the approaching
What do u want mia to do? Explain when and what time the final dot was placed on the contract will be the next asking .
The trini approched malmoney
Malmoney approached the 3 governments
Mia said not one cent until he delivers
A conclusion/ assumption can be made from the three sentences above
Its all In the public domain you just dont want to accept it?
WE Are an educate people
“Could it be that she has become so accustomed to ‘yes-men’ and sycophants and to acting in a high-handed minister that she misread the Minister of Health?”
they have a track record of BLATANTLY DISRESPECTING Black African people all the time, this is no different, people have said for DECADES that BLP has always been an anti-Black government who DID NOT want any independence for the Black majority, so no surprise that there has always been this continuing over half century of subjugation and diisenfranchisment in Black lives..leaking from the dirty minds in the parliament..
so even if maloney approached the governemnt first…WHAT IS THERE TO HIDE…from the minister of health…
#nolegstostandon
me thinks maloney will be THROWN UNDER THE BUS for this one, just like he was in the pretend act when deceiving the public and using him as a RED HERRING to be elected…
Donna
I’ll give you an example of WARU-War-on-U’s appalling ignorance.
She posted a video from Jackie Stewart’s Facebook page in which she (Stewart) was talking about a legal matter between her, George Payne and Dale Marshall.
All I ‘said’ was that we’re ‘hearing’ one side of the story and such matters needed to be resolved in Court, where the Judge/Magistrate would make an INFORMED decision based on the evidence presented or articulated by the plaintiff and defendant.
‘Buh Idiot’ rushed off to Facebook to ‘tell’ Stewart that ‘Artaxerxes’ on BU defending Payne and Marshall.
And, subsequently returned to the forum, in glee, ‘feeling PROUD’ to ‘say,’ I’m famous because Stewart had MY NAME all over Facebook for the world to see and everyone is talking about me, …………. when she, Stewart and the ‘Facebook crew,’ DO NOT KNOW WHO I AM.
How the hell would I become famous or embarrassed when people were ‘talking’ about the PSEUDONYM ‘Artaxerxes,’………… a name they could not associate with ME or MY REAL NAME?
But, I wasn’t surprised, after all, the lady admitted to BU that she never used to listen to anything the teachers at school said.
https://media.tenor.com/images/b056d7d835ff43ee381a6efbbf1f14db/tenor.gif
What is the latest with Jackie Stewart? Has she got her issue resolved?
Skinner
The man announces he’s not running (not a resignation) and you’re quick to turn it into a scandal. I seek no credibility on BU and certainly not from you.. After all, you rate the soon to be Pulitzer price-winner and fellow scandal chaser WURA; therefore, me being credible in your jaundiced view is near impossible and undoubtedly undesirous. The first covid vaccine was approved in December 2020. Tell me where in the world any government publicly tendered for the provision of vaccines, especially in the early days of authorisation? According to Bradshaw’s press statement, in February 2021 people (plural) approached the government. One was actually paid, though the money was subsequently refunded on failing to source any vaccines. Somehow the focus is on the matter where government smartly never paid a cent. We have Bajans receiving Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Sinopharm. Were there tenders? The government purchased PPE, masks, sanitiser etc etc. Were there tenders? A global pandemic and y’all talking about tenders.🤭 Governing from an armchair is one thing; but when its rooted in misinformation and reasoning that is unpragmatic, that’s unforgivable. Small wonder you got 149 votes and lost your deposit. Furthermore, your factless way of building an argument is outdated, we’re well into the digital age where credible information abounds. 🦕 #ijustwannareadbu
@ John 2
I did not ask you to anything. What really is in the public domain ?
The question remains: How did a government get itself embroiled in such a fiasco ? How did Maloney become so influential to approach a government about the importation of vaccines and why was the public not told before the shit hit the fan?
Why was the Minister of Health left out of the loop ? Why did he know where the government was sourcing vaccines from all along but somehow was left out of this scheme/ scam?
Why would a Minister announce his decision to exit public life in the middle of the most serious health crisis for which he has given excellent leadership as the substantive minister.
Education is quite common . Common sense is not.
Again I ask : Why did the government not engage in comprehensive due diligence before committing the country to such a transaction ?
WURA-War-on-U September 30, 2021 6:32 PM #: “oh they are happy to have me, you gotta join the dim, dimmer, dimmest brigade….since neither of you have those skillsets….ya make it seem like expertise, simply beause you POST NOTHING, but feed off the posts of others….”
Hahahaha
“……. oh they are happy to have me.” ‘Yuh got dat one right.’
The problem with WARU is, she is a MISERABLE old woman, who is EASY to FRET……….. EASILY RILED UP……….. EASILY PROVOKED to ANGER.
And, “the dim, dimmer, dimmest brigade” is having a ‘field day,’………. PROVING IT……… EVERYDAY, and successfully so, too.
Thing is, yuh don’t have to possess any special type of “skillsets” to do it.
A woman at her age is still fighting to be RELEVANT in life, on a blog where 95% of contributors, including her…….. are anonymous. So, who is she trying to impress, by repeatedly mentioning about UNIDENTIFIED ACHIEVEMENTS she supposedly ACCOMPLISHED after being on the BU for over 9 years?
From time to time, David BU has used my contributions as well as those of other anonymous contributors, to start a blog. Dr. GP had ‘Sweet Sunday Sermon.’ Pachamama also posts interesting articles.
She cannot impress the ‘real name contributors’ either. Heather Cole usually posts excellent articles for discussion, so too has Caswell Franklyn, Jeff Cumberbatch and Kammie Holder. Even the so called ‘brilliant journalist,’ had a weekly column called, ‘Notes of a Native Son.’
BU gave kudos to Peter Lawrence Thompson for ‘Welcome Stamp’ initiative.
What has WARU-War-on-U done?
Again I ask : Why did the government not engage in comprehensive due diligence before committing the country to such a transaction ?
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ESPECIALLY WHEN DONE IN CAHOOTS WITH THE BIGGEST KICK BACK CONMAN BUSINESSMAN ON THE 2 x 3 ISLAND SO ACKNOWLEDGED BY MIA MOTTLEY IN 2018.
Show us where Motley called Maloney a conman.
@NO
Please…I am a white boy, no chance of getting elected in Barbados. Though given your praise of Chastenet, maybe you need one?
Don’t sell yourself short, with the right Party and program you could make it but of course you may not want to leave the lobsters out East, I hear that some are having a good season.
Think of TT Lewis and I believe the last was Maurice Ward, why even Peter Morgan made the cut, and he was from “over and away” or to use the language of the Maritimes “Come from away”
She talked about “feed(ing) off the post of others,”……….. the SAME lady who has a habit of ‘copy and pasting’ news articles to BU and RIDING on the ideas and opinions of other people as if they are her own.
I’m sure the forum will also remember when she used to “feed off the posts of,”
….. Naked Departure
…… Whatsapp
…… Facebook
Recall when she spent several months posting videos and regurgitating information from JACKIE STEWART’S Facebook, believing it to be FACT, WITHOUT first VERIFYING whether or not it was ACCURATE.
Words such as ‘set up, low lifes, tiefing,’ or phrases, ‘low life thieves in Parliament, robbing people of land and bank accounts,’ ‘setting up the DEA to steal plantations and bank accounts,’ ‘stealing the Treasury and pension fund,’………….. DID NOT ORIGINATE with her, but with Jackie Stewart.
….. ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database….. remember, according to her, those individuals listed as directors of companies on the directorship flowcharts means they have offshore bank accounts and are involved in money laundering.
Recently, she attempted to ‘hijack’ the focus away from serious discussion on two blogs, when she spent several days copy and pasting excerpts from ‘The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,’ and DID NOT EVEN KNOW what the word ‘indigenous’ MEANT.
This was evidenced by the fact that she referred to Africans brought to Caribbean as slaves, were indigenous to the region and believed those rights were applicable to their descendants.
She hasn’t presented anything ORIGINAL to BU……… and none of her contributions have been up to a standard to be used to start a blog.
“Why did he know where the government was sourcing vaccines from all along but somehow was left out of this scheme/ scam?”
that is the BILLION DOLLAR in written off VAT question…that NONE CAN ANSWER….why was the whole transaction hidden from the minister of health who was BLINDSIDED when asked about the maloney buying vaccine fiasco…..he was obviously VERY SHOCKED..
but don’t worry, the electorate got this…..that is who is HOLDING THE REAL POWER NOW…everyone else is a pretender…who have to beg for votes to see another 5 years.
“After all, you rate the soon to be Pulitzer price-winner and fellow scandal chaser WURA;”
are you jealous, the mentally challenged need no rating, always backing dead horses nullifies that..
“One was actually paid, though the money was subsequently refunded on failing to source any vaccines.”
would it not have been prudent to go straight to the manufacturers waiting list then…….instead of going through a gaggle of companies who are not manufacturers, instead of involving maloney with other governments and their money…..has St. Lucia been repaid all their money yet?
“We have Bajans receiving Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Sinopharm. Were there tenders? ”
DONATIONS…we were right here remember….lol
yet yall find yaselves in a pickle with a world audience looking on…..ha
@TLSN October 1, 2021 4:13 AM “Cuhdear Bajan, I saw this story and thought of your comments from earlier…These types of purchases degrades the finances of poor developing countries such as Barbados and is not something we should take LIGHTLY or smirk at.”
Why are you calling my name?
Wha’ I do you?
Unlike you I am no partisan yard fowl.
I have always earned my living by the sweat of my own brow. In addition I walk to errands getting my exercise at the same time. Or rarely I take public transportation, typically a ZR so what would I do with a Mercedes or Lamborghini or Rolls Royce, or BMW or whatever? Such things would only be a burden to me. I don’t want or need any political party to give me 3 tons of metal, plastic and vinyl to take my 135 pound body anywhere. I am capable of self propulsion, because of course I am not obese.
Where in the world have you ever seen a 135 pound politician?
LOL!!!
WS
I was responding to ur query as to who approached who !!!
I cannot answer any of your other questions. I am sure you already arrived at your own assumptions
I read of an AGREEMENT on behalf of Barbados not Any TRANSACTION
If i put myself In Mia shoes i would see it as an attempt to keep infection and festshow down and fully open the economy ASAP .
Remember this was march and we werent hit by delta yet and air travel wasnt open up ( maybe an eyen on having crop over? )
Malmoney is a business man and jumped at a change of making money on the vaccines and also if the country open back up he would start back makinga lot more than he is currently making with all his other business ventures on island. As the country economy expands so will malmoneys pockets – thats why he could put his own cash
IMO. Barbados due diligence was done at the ‘cash on delivery only’
How secretive could the deal have been when you had Two other countries In on it?
Or those Two PMs were also getting kickbacks?
If MOH was not In the loop and he think he should go then i agree with him
“DONATIONS…we were right here remember….lol”
All the vaccines are donations? There’s nothing funnier than know-it-alls knowing little to nothing. By the way, prudent is agreeing to pay when the goods land.
@WURA-War-on-U October 1, 2021 5:33 AM “…people now live on fastfood”
Had a cou-cou and steamed flying fish today. Piece of sweet potato and some cucumber on the side. Washed it down with a glass of my own coconut water. Grew the okras, sweet peppers, sweet potato, and cucumber myself.
Tek dat!
@John2
You are spouting BS. The government has a responsibility to engage in fit and proper transactions not withstanding procuring vaccines in the Wild West called for different approaches.
They stated: “As a direct and proximate result of defendants’ participation in, and furtherance of the conspiracy, plaintiff has suffered substantial economic damages.
Xxxxxxxx
Further, the people of Barbados have been deprived of life-saving
Xcccccccc
All these little nuggets of complaints points at the Barbados govt and leadership involvement
Xxxxx
How is it that the people of Barbados is being derived of vaccine if govt did not pay for the vaccine
Govt says payment on arrival was their choice
If these people renege or did not deliver to govt their guilt would be one of broken contract
But where money is involved they owe govt nothing
Maloney statement has holes which can easily exposed who was paying for the vaccine or if govt gave Maloney x amount of dollars towards a down payment with the remains monies paid by govt at delivery
Oh what a tangled web of lies and deception
I simply asked two questions in reference to the media release about the scam and my comment was placed in moderation
Boy oh boy things gone Haywire up I’m here
Only news was that of MoH Bosstic.
To quote
“Nothing to see here”. Move on.
——x—–
My wife was 135 years ago. At 5ft 9 ins that was a beautiful woman. Still beautiful, but she has not grown any taller.😃
@ david
And where did i say not?
https://barbadostoday.bb/category/local-news/
@Enuff October 1, 2021 4:15 PM “…you rate the soon to be Pulitzer price-winner.”
I know that BU is not a classroom, but it really hurts me when people write price when they mean prize.
Price=the amount of money given or set as consideration for the sale of a specified thing
Prize=a thing given as a reward to the winner of a competition or in recognition of an outstanding achievement.
Cuhdear Bajan
Purposely written as PRICE. But thanks.🤫
@William Skinner October 1, 2021 8:59 AM “Did Bostic jump or was he pushed ??????”
Neither. He walked.
And gentleman that he is, he did not run away in the midst of this pandemic. If he had our goose would really be cooked.
I agree whole heartedly with his decision.
Sometimes the stench in a place is so bad, decent people just have to walk out.
Money and status int everything.
Don’t know why he is letting my price or prize hurt his head for, he should be worrying about his BF..i told them already it’s not what they think it is, they are too used to the contemporary ways of doing things…all he got to do is wait patiently and see when it materializes what it really is..
“How is it that the people of Barbados is being derived of vaccine if govt did not pay for the vaccine”
even running scam on the court…🤣🤣🤣..were i the judge, i would want to know if the island was out of vaccines when they cooked up this scam….
“Tek dat!”
rocked some spinach today that i grew…with fish…tek dat..
am not concerned with what yall bought, because so far ya BOUGHT NOTHING, unless yall lying about not f\giving maloney mone, since ya said the money ya passed for vaccines did not materialize and ya got the money back and ya BF went bust after that…….Ferdinand is in the news OUTLINING all the vaccines ya got on donation…at least 70, 000 doses..recently, another 60 thousand between WHO and Canada….and i believe 15 thousand from China….and i know the US did give a big batch …ALL DONATIONS…so yall did not need to buy anything or set maloney loose on the other islands AT THAT TIME…isn’t Ferdinand part of the ministry of health, so would she NOT KNOW…
“We have plenty AstraZeneca. We have some expiring at the end of October and some expiring at the end of December. We were doing well with the first tranche and the second tranche, but the third overlapped a bit and we got the donation from Canada, so it gave us extra we had not planned for,” she explained.
In recent months, Barbados drew down 30 000 doses from the World Health Organisation’s COVAX facility, and another 30 000 doses of AstraZeneca were provided by Canada.
Ferdinand said they still had more than half of the 70 000-odd doses of Pfizer received on August 13.”
I don’t see where yall bought anything, so stop LYING…
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” Hamlet / William Shakespeare
I trust that the Danes will forgive me for taking the name of their state in vain.
Mentally challenged Enuff….READ IT TWICE…
the mentally challenged will always jump out with shit…..St. Lucia suffered LOSSES IN THE MILLIONS…
well this is me being my optimistic self and looking at the bright side….no one even had to shut down their scamming in the Caribbean….they did it on their own…no one will go AMYWHERE NEAR ANY OF THEM………the mentality challenged’s BF just left Trinidad, they are surely not going to invite him back……his name is now MUD EVERYWHERE…….
it’s only to make sure they can’t take this outright wickedness to our ancestral lands cause the sellouts will have no problem facilitating them, but they are shit outta luck this time around……
that’s the bright side..
This would be :
they are too used to the colonial conventional ways of doing things……and not familiar with the new age creative, cause yall spent too much time with ya jealous selves demonizing and robbing them……….all he got to do is wait patiently and see when it materializes what it really is..
“,,,to write directly to the Prime Minister of Barbados on July 2, 2021. Moore attached a purchase and sale agreement which was to be between Prestige and the Government of Barbados in the amount of US$23 million, and requested that the Barbados Government sign and return the purchase agreement immediately, and further stated in this correspondence that if the Government of Barbados signed this new agreement, it would be the fastest option for delivery of the vaccines.”
So $10 million already “gone down the toilet.” Gimme me anudder $23 million and I will deliver to you de ting that I was not able to deliver for $10 million. Different company so the price nearly triple.
chutzpah=extreme self-confidence or audacity [nice Yiddish word]
Looka that bridge in Brooklyn is now on sale at half price. Gimme USD$1 billion and it is all yours.
Artax,
The blogmaster invites us to join in the discussion. He never said we have to submit articles. A discussion feeds off the opinions of others.
Guilty as charged! Lock muh up in cyberjail!
But back to the topic before the blogmaster lock we out. He is kinda testy today.
IMMEDIATELY yuh hear.
Even my old man who finished school at 11, did not immediately sign ANYTHING. He would discuss it with his wife and have half a dozen or so of his children read it first before he signed.
Note to all: When somebody is insisting on an immediate signature, that is the time you DON’T sign.
And unless I am recalling incorrectly wasn’t Maloney’s brother who was an employee of CIBC and/or First Caribbean was some years ago convicted of some kinda dishonesty and served time at Glendairy or Dodds for it.
So what were you saying about those vaccines again Fraud Enuff….ah told you ya going to get handcuffed…
That would be Fraud Enuff’s brother-in-law..
@Tron October 1, 2021 11:42 AM “In return, our government should encourage the poorest 50000 locals to emigrate to Costa Rica, Great Guyana, Panama or UK.”
The last time poor black Bajan men, including my granny’s brother who died when he was nearly 90 [yay! hail Bajan manhood] emigrated en masse before you could say “Jack Robinson” they had completed the building of the Panama Canal.
Where the French had failed, and where French “workers” had died like flies, instead of building the thing.
Where the Americans were struggling.
Don’t underestimate poor, black Bajan men.
@de pedantic Dribbler October 1, 2021 12:33 PM “Why was THIS particular businessman tasked with this back channel project.”
Some idiot–not me–made that decision.
A sordid affair the likes of which has never been seen on this little Caribbean outpost long boasting of 100 per cent literacy with a population which punches above its weight.
Nothing gleaned so far from this obvious scam makes sense to Joe Public.
Off the bat a construction company purchasing sensitive life saving vaccines to be jabbed in the arms of humans is hard to understand to put it mildly. Who signed off on this?
The sum of money involved US$10 million is only heard of in these parts when billionairess Rihanna buys her neighbor’s house in some ritzy section of Los Angeles.
This is the level of cash to make a huge difference in the lives of thousands of Bajans currently facing starvation or grinding poverty.
Government spokespersons inform the vaccines acquired by the construction magnate were to be purchased with tax payers funds at Barbados’ border . Of course the vaccines never arrived so government didn’t spend a cent according to PM and DPM.
Were the people ever to know of this deal if the lid was not blown off by a classic American scam?
If it isn’t government’s money lost in the scam whose money is it?
The charity of which the afore mentioned magnate is deputy chair run by real estate big ups in the name of the people of Barbados protest that it is not from the charity’s kitty.
A former St. Lucia PM revealed his country put up EC$ 7 million so we know taxpayers of St. Lucia have been taken to the cleaners with no ticket to collect the laundry.
But that’s around US$ 3 million. The source of another US$7 million is unaccounted for.
Bajans wait in shock and awe to find out the source of the multi millions and who or what swallowed up the money in a scam the writer of Hollywood’s Oceans 8 would be proud of.
The government of Barbados still has much explaining to do as the pending case in South Florida unfolds. An array of suspected unsavory characters are entangled in what may turn out to be the mother of Barbados scandals.
Incredibly the Minister of Health is quoted as not knowing a damn thing about the purchase of vaccines by Radical the company of the construction magnate. The minister has since announced he’s done with elective politics.
The answer of why he made his decision now is blowing in the wind.
Bajans cant wait to hear more chapters and the ending of this mysterious potentially corrupt puzzle.
A scandal which has the potential to see the fall of at least one Caribbean government.
Until then you can only marvel at a sordid affair that has struck our island like a thousand bolts of forked lightning not unlike the deadly covid itself.
“Don’t underestimate poor, black Bajan men.”
and the wicked robbed them and their beneficiaries of their estates that they worked hard in the Panama Canal to save their money and buy upon return..
“Were the people ever to know of this deal if the lid was not blown off by a classic American scam?”
nope…everyone would smile their deceitful smiles raid the treasury and laugh all the way to the bank counting millions, and the ministry of health nor the people would not know the difference….SAME OLD that will never end as long as the corrupt and their side kicks are circling the parliament and people…..gotta thank US scammers…lol
the minister did not even know there is such a company…St. Lucia went by hearsay that such a company is registered there and when they checked, there is none…
the mentally challenged would still like to convince us that this is no big deal……suckers…and so sleazy and corrupt themselves they are trying to blame even bloggers for what is unfolding…..ha.
In local media Astrazenea issues a Press Release on the importance of govt not negotiating with outside influencers the likes of Mark Maloney and others to procure vaccines on their behalf
Astrazenea states it does not do private sales
Xxxxxxx
Still shaking my head as to how govt of Barbados would get country involved in a scam
A PM which has a barrage of lawyers Mia herself being one
Million dollar consultants and a cabinet the size of Mt. Rushmore
Now what else does this saga expose is that Barbados leadership cannot be trusted
Dont know if this shared before:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/26/world/europe/EU-vaccine-hunt.html
But with so much information on how scams worked it wouldn’t take a rocket scientist not to know that in this time when their is high demand for the vaccine that scams would creep up
Not understanding how govt could not see the possibility of scam artist approaching them
Furthermore it has been revealed that one of those scam companies Maloney approached had court judgment leveled against them as of recent
Pray tell where was due diligence done and by whom
Absolutely embracing
SMH
Will repeat this question:
It takes a special kind of person not to see the Maloney adventure as a scam (money grab)..
the outrageous price that would have be paid for each vaccine
the strange cast of characters procuring and selling vaccines
the secrecy from and the exclusion of the MoH
If it had worked then national scamsters would have (1) seen a big payday, (2) be proclaimed as national heroes by the public and (3) receive the first Republic awards.
But it did not work and instead of the glossed over story, we are seeing the nasty underlying skeleton of the scam.
It would appear that St Lucians were more aware of the story at an earlier stage than we were.
Even now we see the GoB engaged in damage control, sending out the spinners and holding the cards close to their chest.
As the true role of GoB officials will be learnt from the court case, it might be expedient if Maloney’s suit dies early in the court of the US.
It would not surprise me if the current GoB finds a creative way to make Maloney whole.
@ Theo
Anybody who reads Barbados Today( Saturday 2nd 2021) will see that AtraZeneca has denied any knowledge of this scheme. They go further and say that any vaccines obtained outside of its procurement policy are likely to be counterfeit.
However the Deputy PM ( Bradshaw) implied differently by trying to say that the first batch of vaccines were obtain through some intermediary who had “ contacts “ in the Indian government . What she did not say is that the Indian government had already secured the vaccines via proper procurement policy. I may be speaking under correction but I thought it was a gift from the Indian government.
In other words if you bought an item through the correct channels and a friend who knows you , indicates you can give away or sell a portion. That is not illegal.
It is obvious that according to AtraZeneca the kind of arrangement we had with Maloney could have seen counterfeit vaccines delivered and paid for by the taxpayers of Barbados.
Like it or not , the fact remains that the government entered an agreement that was potentially grievous to its citizens.
The fact that the Minister of Health did not know about this agreement makes it even more nefarious.
Who don’t like it can lump it but this is a major indictment on the government and all connected parties need to level with the people.
@ Theo
The date of the edition is Friday October 1st. 2021. My apologies. Thanks