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We recently discussed the uproar caused by the disclosure that the former Prime Minister of St Kitts, Denzil Douglas, not only obtained a diplomatic passport from Dominica, immediately after St Kitts was the subject of a scathing Advisory, issued in 2014 by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), but that Mr. Douglas was listed as a Dominican national. Obviously, powerful Kittitians, when faced with the prospect of detailed inquiry at Customs & Immigration, when they arrived in the United States, used their connections to obtain what are, frankly, illegal diplomatic passports that violate the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
It has now gotten worse; Caribbean media has exposed yet another St Kitts politician holding a Dominica Diplomatic passport, also obtained right after the FinCEN Advisory on St Kitts. This one was issued to Timothy Harris, the sitting Prime Minister of St Kitts, and it also states that the holder is a Dominican national, a misstatement of a material fact.
Just how many of the estimated 500 diplomatic passports were handed out to St Kitts government officials, and politicians, by corrupt senior Dominica leaders ? No wonder the Foreign Minister of Dominica has openly refused to publish the list of Dominica diplomatic passport holders; if the voters of Dominica ever read it, her tenancy in government will come to a swift end, and her arrest will be a foregone conclusion. The illegal passport factory that she commands is a racketeer-influenced criminal enterprise, a cash cow for corrupt politicians.
Denzil Douglas Dominica Diplomatic Passport
These passports, which are reportedly sold for obscenely high sums of cash, or for the exchange of other, illegal, favors, are an insult to the United Nations, and pose a clear and present danger of being abused for money laundering and other financial crimes. We trust that compliance officers at the world's international banks take note, and conduct themselves accordingly.
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* If you take the two passport numbers 0000319 and 0000462, and the issue dates, Dominica issued over 150 new diplomatic passports in one year, between 2014 and 2015. Considering that Dominica only has a few embassies and bona fide diplomatic postings, who has all these prized documents ?
Chronicles of Monte Friesner - Senior Financial Crime Analyst
Contributed by Kenneth Rijock - Financial Crime Consultant
