INDIAN CROOKS CONTINUE TO EXPLOIT WEAK CBI DUE DILIGENCE PROCESS TO OBTAIN DOMINICAN CITIZENSHIP

The lawsuit filed by Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit against Dr. Thomson Fontaine was discussed in Part No.1 of an article entitled, “Does the Claimant-PM Skerrit want to negotiate a way out of his lawsuit against Dr. Fontaine while the case is frustrated with undue delay at the High Court?[1]

As reported in a story of December 30, 2011 entitled,“PM Skerrit sues Dr. Thomson Fontaine and Q95FM”[2], a lawsuit was filed against Dr. Fontaine and West Indies Communications Enterprises Limited (WICE), the parent company of Q95 FM Radio, seeking substantial damages, including aggravating damages in the sum of $250,000.00 for alleged defamation contained in certain articles, emails and statements. The Prime Minister also sought an injunction from the court to restraining the Defendants from further publishing or causing to be published any or similar defamatory words about him with costs.

 The lawsuit claimed that Dr. Fontaine made allegations and statements relating to Dominica’s Economic Citizenship (CBI) Program and alleged sale of passports, which received widespread publication via the internet and radio. Prime Minister Skerrit was particularly concerned about what his counsel described as published false allegations that a known terrorist Ibrahim Dawood was the holder of a Dominican passport. The lawsuit pointed to allegations that PM Skerrit’s was involved in the selling or granting of a Commonwealth of Dominica passport to Darwood, who is a notorious terrorist and underworld don that Pakistan admitted was one of the world’s most wanted men, who lives in Karachi.

 The PM’s attorneys highlighted the government assurances that the allegations were totally false and had caused unnecessary alarm on the island. PM Skerrit, stated, “these allegations about the passports sales to Dawood were conspiracies and illusions in collusion with criminal elements to attack him and the national integrity of the country.” At about the same time in November 2011, the Skerrit-led DLP administration made a public statement in the media that Dawood, the alleged notorious terrorist was not a holder of a Dominica passport, in spite of the fact that Dawood family was in Dominica and his son was allegedly kidnapped from his estranged wife. The statement of the government sought to deny the allegations of Dr. Fontaine, which was based on a “reliable tip” reportedly from agents and associates of Dawood. 

More importantly, according to the government, “the security and due process measures that are in place would make it impossible for a notorious criminal and/or wanted terrorist to be granted economic citizenship or passport,” all claims that the public now knows are like a basket collecting rainwater.  The evidence shows that this is untrue.

PM Skerrit had seemingly declared that he had enough and he needed to make an example of Dr. Fontaine to deter others who dared to speak about or write about the corruption that has engulfed the passport selling business of Dominica – both diplomatic and ordinary. As Skerrit stated, he was not prepared to tolerate the damage to his reputation and the integrity of the country by Dr. Fontaine and others with what he described as “sustained lies and misinformation about the sales of Dominican passports.” However, in the absence of transparency, truth, integrity, timely and accurate public disclosures and accountability of matters related to the sale of our passports, especially as the incidents of corruption and abuse of state resources continue, the public will continue to be suspicious, raise more questions and seek to learn the hidden facts and forbidden truth of the government’s conduct and management of our citizenship.

In Part 2 of the Dominica Patriot’s article[3], it was noted that Dr. Fontaine remains unfazed and resolute. He is still anxious to have his day in court to defend the statements made, although one suspects that Dahwood may indeed not possess Dominican citizenship as stated by the Skerrit Administration. Nevertheless, since 2011, there have been several related incidents reported by international reputable organizations of actual sales or intention to sell/acquire Dominican citizenship including diplomatic passports to international crooks such as Deziani Alison-Madueke, the former Minister of Petroleum Resources for Nigeria, Francesco Corallo, an Italian who allegedly was sought by Dominica to be Permanent Representative to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and who was arrested in St. Maarten, among many others including Christopher Thomson and Ms. Susan Oldie and of the Cayman Islands, who allegedly paid US $400,000.00, which was deposited at an account at RBC, Roseau Dominica which was gone towards the financing of the DLP political campaign in 2004-2005 and not to the government treasury as was later confirmed by certain DLP operatives. Dr. Fontaine has expressed a desire to bring to an end what he considers to be the wanton sale of Dominica’s passports and the lack of transparency and accountability of the CBI funds that are supposed to be reported to the treasury of Dominica. 

As history would have it recorded, the political persecution of Dr. Fontaine has since been intensified. Currently, the DLP Administration has a bench warrant out for his arrest the moment he steps on Dominica soil as a result of a ridiculously bogus charge of incitement.[4] Notwithstanding, the number of reported cases of corrupt criminals either having acquired or attempting to acquire Dominican citizenship over the years and the repeated denial of the Dominican government or its boasting of a full proof due diligence system, the reports of international criminals and fraudsters seeking Dominican citizenship continues.

 The case of Rajiv Saxena and his attempts to acquire Dominican Citizenship

 According to a story from the Economic Times of India of January 2021[5],  the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has urged a special CBI court to cancel the bail granted to Rajiv Saxena, the accused-turned-approver in the Rs 3,600-crore VVIP chopper scandal. In documents filed by the CBI before the lower court seeking judicial custody of Saxena, it claimed that it had retrieved crucial documents from two hard disks belonging to Saxena, which were procured by the Income Tax sleuths during raids in September of 2019.

 The retrieved documents show that Rajiv Saxena had made “past efforts” to acquire citizenship of the Commonwealth of Dominica and Cyprus via their Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programs, while “intentionally keeping the Indian authorities in the dark regarding such attempts about his attempts to acquire foreign citizenship from Dominica in a bid to thwart the probe, especially as Dominica does not have an extradition treaty with India.”  The agency further submitted before the Delhi high court that Saxena had evaded investigation and had to be extradited from Dubai to India in January 2019

 In February, 2019, it was reported in “The Poineer[6]and other news outlets that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in India had tracked a dozen secret Swiss bank accounts in the name of one Rajiv Saxena, who is the main accused in a scam known as “the Rs3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam.” The accounts were held by the accused, his family members, and associates funded from kickbacks in the now-scrapped deal.

Rajiv Saxena was deported by the UAE authorities on 30 January 2019. He was formally arrested the 31 January 2019 and a court later granted his remand to the ED. This followed the arrest of his wife in 2017. The ED probe revealed that the company, Agusta Westland International Ltd, UK paid an amount of Euro 58 million as kickbacks through other companies, Gordian Services Sarl, Tunisia and IDS Sarl, Tunisia. These companies further siphoned off the kickback funds-Proceeds of Crime in the name of consultancy contracts to Interstellar Technologies Ltd., Mauritius (owned by Rajiv Saxena), and companies, which were then transferred to UHY Saxena, Dubai, Matrix Holdings Ltd. Dubai and others.

Rajiv Saxena and his wife Shivani are partners/ Directors in UHY Saxena, Dubai and Matrix Holdings Limited, Dubai. Both these companies are said to be recipients of bribes in their respective Dubai bank accounts from Interstellar Technologies Ltd. Mauritius. An investigation by ED also revealed that Rajiv Saxena and his wife Shivani have remitted/ transferred huge amounts of money through their companies in Dubai to various other accounts including in the Swiss Bank accounts. The ED is probing why Rajiv Saxena is maintaining a dozen Swiss bank accounts if he and his family members were the only beneficial owners.  Saxena is said to be an approver in Enforcement Directorate -ED’s case but a co-accused in the case filed by the CBI. He has repeatedly denied all allegations leveled against him, stating that he has fully cooperated with the investigating agencies.

The CBI also had a supplementary charge sheet alleging a nexus between an alleged middleman C.M and Saxena. CM allegedly paid EURO 0.9 million to four entities belonging to Saxena from the proceeds of crime. It has also been alleged that Saxena conspired with C M co-accused G K, and top officials of a company A.W in routing kickbacks/commission paid by through two companies. Saxena has also been accused of having received 12.40 million euros in the account of another company from M/s AgustaWestland.

In December 2020, Saxena was charged by the CBI for allegedly facilitating the payment of kickbacks to swing the VVIP chopper deal in favour of M/s AgustaWestland.

In the submission before a local court, the CBI said its recent supplementary charge sheet naming Saxena as an accused was filed after getting crucial information from the income tax department. In that regard, the CBI has sought  the judicial custody (jail) of Saxena arguing that  Saxena does not deserve “parity” with the other accused in the AgustaWestland case as he “misled” the probe agencies and is “not cooperating” with the investigation. It further argued that Saxena needs to be sent behind bars for an “effective investigation”, although the same Court had previously granted Saxena regular bail, rejecting CBI’s contention that he be jailed but the court was unaware then of his attempts to acquire Dominican citizenship to thwart the probe.

There is no information to indicate whether Rajiv Saxena eventually succeeded in acquiring citizenship from Dominica, information that the people of Dominica will sadly not be made aware of as long as the non-transparent and corrupt DLP administration remains in office.

 

[1] PART 1: DOES THE CLAIMANT-PM SKERRIT WANT TO NEGOTIATE A WAY OUT OF HIS LAWSUIT AGAINST DR. FONTAINE WHILE THE CASE IS FRUSTRATED WITH UNDUE DELAY AT THE HIGH COURT? – Dominica Patriot

[2] PM Skerrit sues Dr. Thomson Fontaine and Q95FM | Dominica Vibes News

[3] PART 2: DOES THE CLAIMANT-PM SKERRIT WANT TO NEGOTIATE A WAY OUT OF HIS LAWSUIT AGAINST DR. FONTAINE WHILE THE CASE IS FRUSTRATED WITH UNDUE DELAY AT THE HIGH COURT? – Dominica Patriot

[4] Court case of incitement against Linton, Fontaine adjourned to January 2019 – Nice FM 104.3 (nicefmradio.com) AND PART I- CASE OF INCITEMENT AGAINST LENNOX ET AL MUST BE DISMISSED IF DONALD TRUMP CAN BE ACQUITTED – Dominica Patriot;

[5] VVIP chopper scam: Rajiv Saxena tried to acquire foreign citizenship to avoid probe, says CBI – The Economic Times (indiatimes.com) and also in VVIP chopper scam: Rajiv Saxena tried to acquire foreign citizenship to avoid probe, says CBI » TechnoCodex

 [6] ED tracks Swiss Bank A/Cs of Agusta scamster (dailypioneer.com)  & ED tracks Swiss Bank A/Cs of Agusta scamster (follownewsandmedia.blogspot.com)

 

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