A PM is chargd; the seedy British Virgin Islands
Offshore criminal activity, dirty money, business jets, corrupt political elites, and the seedy underside of the British Virgin Islands, the notorious UK tax haven which had featured in the Pandora Papers investigation by journalists, have once again come into the spotlight after its Prime Minister Andrew Fahie, was charged in the United States with Colombian cocaine trafficking and money laundering conspiracies.
Fahie, 51, was charged on Friday with two others in a multimillion-dollar drugs conspiracy involving thousands of kilos of cocaine from Colombia. A bond hearing is on Wednesday.
He was arrested along with BVI Ports Authority head, Oleanvine Pickering Maynard and her son Kadeem.
Fahie is alleged to have arrived in the southern US state of Florida to accept a US$ 700,000 payment, ( Rs 248 million) along with another.
BVI is a British overseas territory and its Governor General John Rankin is Queen Elizabeth’s representative on the island. It is UK’s largest offshore financial centre.
There are self-governing British overseas territories across four oceans and nine time zones. These range from Bermuda in the Atlantic to Pitcairn in the Pacific and have a population of about 250,000. The UK is obliged under Chapter XI article 73 of the United Nations Charter to provide for the wellbeing of the inhabitants.
Under constitutional law, the UK Parliament has unlimited powers to legislate for these territories, but largely exercised in areas of foreign policy and national security.
Fahie’s arrest has now raised constitutional questions. UK Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss says in a Tweet: “We’ll ensure governance standards in the British Virgin Islands are restored.’’
The powerful US Justice Department said in a statement that Andrew Alturo Fahie, managing director of the BVI Ports Authority Oleanvine Pickering Maynard, and the port director’s son, Kadeem Stephan Maynard, have been charged with cocaine trafficking and money laundering conspiracies for agreeing to facilitate the safe passage through BVI ports of tons of Colombian cocaine headed to Miami, in Florida.
In exchange, the defendants would make millions, which would be funnelled through different businesses and bank accounts to hide the money’s source, the DOJ said.
In Sri Lanka, the secret offshore dealings of a member of the Rajapaksa kleptocracy, Nirupama Rajapaksa and her husband Thirukumar Nadesan became widely known as a result of the Pandora Papers investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, including The Guardian and the BBC.
Nirupama, a lawmaker from 2010 to 2015, is a relative of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Both have denied the offshore wealth allegations, saying in a letter dated October 6, 2021, they “are totally innocent’’. While not linked to the BVI, the couple, the ICJ found, had “set up anonymous offshore trusts and shell companies to acquire artwork and luxury apartments and to store cash, securities and other assets in secret.’’
On Friday in Miami, the DOJ said Fahie and Oleanvin Maynard were arrested in Miami, when they had arrived “to pick up a US$ 700,000 cash advance on their deal. The third defendant, K. Maynard, was arrested in St. Thomas’’.
The DOJ affidavit said that in March and April, Fahie, Oleanvine Maynard, and Kadeem Maynard participated in a series of meetings with the purported drug trafficker to broker the deal. Fahie and Oleanvin Maynard would secure required licenses, shield the cocaine-filled boats while in BVI’s ports, and grease the palm of a potentially problematic government official. They discussed bringing 3,000 kilograms of cocaine through a BVI port as a test run, followed by 3,000 kilograms once or twice a month for four months. Fahie and Oleanvine Maynard would get a percentage of the cocaine’s sales – millions of dollars, it is alleged.
US Drug Enforcement Administration agents had posed as Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel members to arrange a meeting between Lebanese Hezbollah operatives and Fahie to set up a place to store thousands of kilograms of drugs from Colombia, The Guardian reports in London, citing court documents.
The agents offered to store drugs in 5kg buckets of paint, in the BVI for one or two days before shipment to Miami or New York.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement flagged on her Twitter account that the arrest of “the Premier of the British Virgin Islands on charges related to drugs trafficking and money laundering is extremely concerning and underlines the need for urgent action.’’
Her statement refers to a Commission of Inquiry report into governance in the British Virgin Islands.
“In January 2021, we set out significant concerns about the deteriorating state of governance in the British Virgin Islands, as well as the potential vulnerability of the islands to serious organised crime. The UK Government supported the then governor’s decision to launch an independent Inquiry into governance of the Territory.’’
The inquiry report was published just ahead of Fahie’s arrest. The report recommends that BVI constitution be suspended.
More than five months ago, The Guardian reported Fahie as saying in London in reference to the UK commission of inquiry, that: “The key to any country is its reputation, but so far, and thank God for that, there is no evidence provided in the CoI showing that the BVI is corrupt. We have provided them with over 200,000 papers.”
Referring to claims by the previous governor Gus Jaspert that senior figures were involved in drug- running, The Guardian reported him as saying: “I find that statement very irresponsible. It is clear from the inquiry there is no evidence to back up what he is saying, and it would be interesting to see if he would be willing to say that outside the protection of the inquiry as a private citizen. In saying that, he did not bear in mind the reputation of the BVI, families, the economy.”
Among the allegations that surfaced at the UK inquiry was the practice of handing out BVI citizenship status, known as “persons who are deemed to belong to the Virgin Islands’’.
A US dollar-linked visa scheme has now been initiated in Sri Lanka based on a proposal by a prominent tycoon close to the ruling political elite, raising concerns over crimes such as money laundering.
The Pandora Papers named more that 670 BVI-registered offshore companies.
The Sanctions and Anti- Money Laundering Act passed in 2018 by the UK Parliament, under which overseas territories must publish registers of beneficial ownership, brought the UK’s ties to such territories under the scrutiny.
The territories are Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Antarctic Territory, the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Pitcairn, St Helena ( with Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha), South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands, the Sovereign Base Areas, and the Turks & Caicos.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office became responsible for the territories from the Colonial Office in 1968.