Two major stories are developing involving the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programme, the first is in Grenada where the consul general/ambassador for Grenada in Miami, Warren Newfield, resigned his post citing differences with the Keith Mitchell administration.
Mr Newfield also has interest in a CBI project, Kimpton Kawana Bay project. Something that must be disclosed according to Grenada law, particularly as persons have to disclose information as it pertains to heir escrow account where they are holding money. Prime Minister Mitchell has already come out in defence of his administration with him not knowing that Mr Newfield had interest in the Kimpton Kawana project.
Mr Newfield has denied any comments to us on the basis that he must speak with his legal counsel first and apparently there is a court date upcoming on the matter by the end of this month. What will happen out of it, no one knows. All we know is that a CBI project, with $40m left outstanding to complete, is now in the limelight for the wrong reasons and its principal is citing major differences with the government.
Then there is the international controversy surrounding the international fugitive, Mehul Choksi, who is a passport holder in Antigua and Barbuda. Mr Choksi is wanted for embezzling $1.8bn from the Punjab National Bank of India. Mr Choksi is now in Dominica awaiting trial for illegally entering the country from Antigua, however sources are saying that he may have been kidnapped and brought to Dominica as part of an elaborate scheme between the Roosevelt Skerrit administration and the Indian government to have him extradited back to India to face charges.
Antigua’s Prime Minister, Gaston Browne, has washed his hands of Choksi and has gone on record saying that the Dominica government is free to send Choksi back to India. Browne has also said that Choksi was supposedly funding the opposition party in Antigua, which is all the more reason to see Choksi gone.
The abuses of the CBI programme are now evident. The worst fears are being realized. On the one hand we have a high placed government official apparently using his position to solicit funds for his own projects and on the other, we have an internationally wanted fugitive hiding out in the region under the passport of a country.
Where does this leave the reputation of the CBI for the Caribbean? Not very good. As if it has not already had its fair share of assaults, with the most recent one being in Dominica with the Middle Eastern Al Jazreera network profiling the shady characters surrounding that programme.
Things are heating up now.