Kenneth Rijok, a Financial Crimes investigator based in Miami, FL, reported on his blog on Friday that Dominica's prime minister Roosevelt Skerrit is currently under investigation by Federal prosecutors in New York for his role in the sale of a diplomatic passport to Iranian Alireza Monfared. As he noted, Mr. Rijok based his bombshell revelation on information he received from his confidential sources, access we do not have. What we can say is this; based on the preponderance of information and evidence, circumstantial and otherwise, that exists in the public domain, it is certainly possible that Mr. Skerrit may be under scrutiny by the US authorities, in particular Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara. Insofar as it has to do with the most recent developments relating Iranian Alireza Monfared, what we know would be sufficient to initiate an investigations into Mr. Skerrit and his activities. Let us look at some.

Roosevelt Skerrit handed Mr. Monfared a diplomatic passport in March 2015 in Malaysia, just a few days having had the passport issued in Roseau. At that time Mr. Skerrit was visiting Mr. Monfared, the architect of My Dominica Trade House [MDTH], at his luxurious residence in Kuala Lumpur. In June 2015, after the entire MDTH fiasco exploded into the open, Mr. Skerrit told us that Mr. Monfared "is not an agent of the Economic Citizenship Programme, is not an agent of Discover Dominica Authority, is not an agent of Invest Dominica Authority. This is a gentleman who became a Dominican citizen who went through the due diligence process, there were no adverse findings about the gentleman and he was approved and granted citizenship. Because the guy feels so passionately about Dominica, he uses his own money to pay staff and to pay researchers to help promote Dominica". Mr. Skerrit failed to tell us then how much Mr. Monfared paid to be a citizen of Dominica with a diplomatic passport.

Mr. Skerrit took pains to state that Mr. Monfared had gone through the due diligence process and that there were no red flags, a position backed up by personal mouthpiece, Anthony Astaphan who noted that the process was done by Bishop Services, a highly-experienced private investigative service company based in New York City. In an interview with Simeon Albert on Kairi FM on Saturday January 28th, Astaphan stated that Monfared's fugitive status and connection to fellow Iranian Babak Zanjani, on death row in Iran for his involvement in the largest bribery scheme in the history of that country, only came to light at the start of this year. That is a lie.

From our investigations we can say that Monfared may not have been a fugitive from justice at the time he paid for his passport but we would like to believe that Bishop Services would have alerted the government of Dominica to a few significant kinks in Mr. Monfared's armour that should have at least given Mr. Skerrit pause. The reputation of Bishop is exemplary so we're inclined to believe that the company would have told Mr. Skerrit that he should avoid Mr. Monfared. But, as is clearly evidenced by his past and future behavior, Mr. Skerrit is magnet for corruption; the man has never met a scam he didn't like or want to participate in.

MiTC investigators have uncovered a direct link between Mr. Monfared and Mr. Zanjani that predates Mr. Monfared becoming an ambassador for Dominica. If we could have found it we have no reason to believe Bishop Services could not have.

Skerrit (l), Monfared (r) in Malaysia soon after Monfared received his diplomatic passport

Two years before Skerrit handled Mr. Monfared his diplomatic passport, on April 11, 2013, the United States Treasury Department, acting on Executive Order 13382 of 2005, which established sanctions on companies doing business with Iran, placed Iranian billionaire Babak Zanjani on the official sanctions list. Also included on that list was a company called International Safe Oil of Malaysia [Click to view]. Mr. Zanjani, during the presidency of former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had enjoyed significant influence within the Iranian political establishment and used that influence to build an empire based on the sale of illegal oil, circumventing the global sanctions regime imposed by the United Nations. His sanctions-busting operations made him billions which allowed him to funnel billions more into the Iranian treasury and millions more into the pockets of numerous corrupt Iranian officials. Mr. Zanjani appears to have lost favour in Teheran when Mr. Ahmadinejad was replaced as Iranian president by Hassan Rouhani in August 2013 whose campaign for office was based on change; the old guard was out, a new one took up residence with the incoming Rouhani, who was a fierce opponent of Ahmadinejad.

The fallout of the change in presidency did not go well for Zanjani, and he became a target for his opponents, which ultimately resulted in him being prosecuted in what is being called the largest bribery scheme in the history of the country. As a result of the trial, Mr. Zanjani was convicted and sentenced to be executed; he sits on death row today. But in his rise to fame and fortune, Mr. Zanjani had a team of able assistants, one of which is Reza Zarrab.

Reza Zarrab (l), Babak Zanjani (r)

Reza Zarrab is an Turkish gold trader who teamed up with Mr. Zanjani to bust the sanctions regime against Iran. He was arrested in March 2016 by US authorities in Florida acting on a now-unsealed Federal Grand Jury Indictment when he arrived to take his family to Disneyworld [Click to view Indictment]. His arrest immediately exposed the participation of members of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government in a bribery scheme in that country. Mr. Zarrab was at the center of that scandal. Subsequent to his arrest, Mr. Zarrab was transferred to New York, where he has been sitting in jail since. Interestingly, the prosecution of Mr. Zarrab is being handled by US Attorney Preet Bharara, the same attorney currently prosecuting Chinese billionaire Ng Lap Seng, himself in New York under house arrest pending his trial in May 2017. Is it possible that Mr. Bharara and his team of prosecutors, while comparing notes on the Zarrab and Lap Seng cases, may have identified Mr. Skerrit and Dominica as common denominators in both cases? We think it is.

The Malaysian Connection

The case against Zanjani hinged upon allegations, subsequently proven, where Zanjani's oil tankers would anchor outside the Labuan Island District of Malaysia and, under the cover of night, oil was illegally transferred to other tankers operating under various flags of convenience. The Labuan Island District or, the Labuan Federal Territory as it is officially called, is the hub of commercial activity in Malaysia, where all types of business transactions take place, both legal and illegal. Zanjani's business operations were designed to circumvent the global sanctions against Iran emanating from the country's violation of various UN nuclear production protocols. Monies earned from this illegal activity passed through various Zanjani-owned shell companies in Labuan including a large bank, the First Islamic Investment Bank [FIIB], where he had purchased a sizable ownership stake. International Safe Oil [IS-Oil], who we mentioned earlier was added to the US government's official sanctions list in April 2013 was one such Zanjani company [Click here for Treasury's Press Release].

IS-Oil.com WHOIS record

IS-Oil was managed for Zanjani by Alireza Zibahalat Monfared, the owner of My Dominica Trade House [MDTH], also based in the Labuan District. IS-Oil's entire operations were tightly controlled by Monfared; its offices, official contacts, even the management of the company's website. From what we have gathered Mr. Monfared coordinated the entire Malaysian operation for Mr. Zanjani, earning millions of dollars in the process. It is Mr. Monfared's connection to Mr. Zanjani's operation that led to his brief detention in Malaysia at the end of 2015, where he presented his Dominican diplomatic passport to evade authorities. This near-miss experience spooked Mr. Monfared and he quickly packed his bags and fled to Dominica in an attempt to escape justice.

In a March 14, 2016 piece in Newsweek entitled "How Babak Zanjani went from Iran's top sanctions buster to dead billionaire walking", journalist Sune Engel Rasmussen attempted to track down several of Mr. Zanjani's shell companies in Malaysia.

"In early 2014, I traveled to the axis of Zanjani’s empire: Labuan, a Malaysian island little known to outsiders. Its clientele probably prefers it that way, judging from the many lone businessmen and the solemnity of the streets, which look out over oil tankers sloshing in the waves offshore. It is the kind of tax haven where people don’t ask too many questions. At the mention of Zanjani, many industry people nodded knowingly, but few divulged information. One industry source described Zanjani and his cohort like this: “It is a damn mafia.”

"Investigating the Iranian-linked businesses on Labuan constantly results in dead ends. In some cases, oil tankers were leased by a company called Glammarine, which according to Reuters was linked, by way of another shell company, to the National Iranian Oil Co. I tracked down a trust officer from the law firm ZICO, which represents Glammarine. He spoke on condition of anonymity. When I asked whether Glammarine had any physical offices, he said, “Not that I’m aware of.” Asked if the firm had any employees, the officer said, “Not that I’m aware of.”

Partial list of Labuan companies

It is important to understand that at the time of his purchase of our citizenship and diplomatic passport, Alireza Monfared knew that he would eventually be in dire need of its protections. Mr. Zanjani had already been arrested in Teheran, his trial was coming to an end and all evidence pointed to a death sentence should he be convicted; Mr. Monfared evidently saw the writing on the wall and decided to seek some guarantees for himself. Whether Mr. Skerrit knew that is unknown but it would be interesting to know how did Mr. Skerrit get to know Mr. Monfared in the first place. Emmanuel Nanthan is on record as saying that Mr. Monfared visited Dominica at some point and fell in love with the island, which prompted him to seek our citizenship. We do not believe that.

Alireza Monfared showed up in Dominica at the start of 2016 fleeing a dragnet which was closing in on him. He took up residence at a house on Morne Daniel owned by a Dominican who lives in the diaspora. Mr. Monfared's accommodations were arranged by Emmanuel Nanthan, the head of Dominica's Citizenship by Investment progamme, who was photographed celebrating Mr. Monfared at a lavish soiree in Malaysia subsequent to Mr. Monfared's receipt of our diplomatic passport.

CBI chief Emmanuel Nanthan in Malaysia receiving gifts and having a good time

Mr. Nanthan is also famous for having been the recipient of a $1.3 million dollar boost to his bank account. This sudden infusion of cash into an account that historically held small amounts prompted the bank to ask questions as to the origin of the funds, as required by law. The bank was summarily told that the funds were the proceeds from the sale of passports. But Mr. Nanthan is not an authorized seller of passports. His job is to administer the programme. That Mr. Nanthan was able to collect such a large amount of cash in such a short period of time from a programme he ought to be simply managing points to nothing other than official corruption; Mr. Nanthan accepts bribes or "gifts", as he probably would call it. There is no other explanation for it. The entire embarrassing revelation caused the government to complain to the bank and demand the dismissal of the branch manager, who was promptly replaced.

During the time Mr. Monfared was hiding out on island, he was seen frequently in the company of Mr. Nanthan as well as a cadre of government and Labour party bigwigs. That Mr. Monfared hemmed so closely with government officials suggests to us that they were protecting him; the government, in particular the Security Ministry and the Prime Minister, must have known of the manhunt for Mr. Monfared. Dominica is a participating member of Interpol, the International Police Organization. . 

At some point in 2016 Interpol contacted the authorities in Dominica to establish the whereabouts of Monfared and possibly, request his detention in lieu of an official extradition request. We believe that a similar request may have arrived at the desk of Dominica's Foreign Minister, Francine Baron, from the Foreign Ministry if Iran. We know that nothing was done to secure Mr. Monfared and he was subsequently allowed to flee Dominica in September for parts unknown to most except a few officials, to avoid an embarrassing situation where our country would be under the world's klieg lights for harboring a major fugitive. Mr. Monfared ended up in the Dominican Republic where he was discovered recently. He was flown to Havana and then on to Moscow and ultimately Teheran, where he sits in an Iranian jail pending trial.

The Road Ahead

Last week as news of Mr. Monfared's arrest and extradition to Iran engulfed us, Dominica's Foreign Ministry released an image of what was claimed to be Mr. Monfared's diplomatic passport with a cancelled stamp on a page adjacent to his ID. Interestingly, the Ms. Baron's ministry stated in a press release that accompanied the photograph that Mr. Monfared had gone through the due diligence process. If her intent is to have us assume that she is referring to the process prior to the issuance of the passport we can't say, but we do know that Anthony Astaphan stated that the passport was cancelled after due diligence was done on Mr. Monfared. So we have a situation where both Mr. Skerrit and Ms. Baron are implying that due diligence was done first, and Astaphan declaring it was done after. Who do you believe? 

What has Mr. Skerrit got us into? Did he knowingly provide "aid and comfort" to an international criminal? Knowing all these facts, we ask again; are US prosecutors, in particular, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara, looking into Mr. Skerrit and his activities? We would if we were prosecutors but time will tell. Mr. Skerrit, as a head of state, will continue to be granted deference by the prosecutors; neither Mr. Bharara nor the US State Department want to ignite an international incident relating to a head of state of a sovereign nation. But that will last only so long as Mr. Skerrit remains Dominica's prime minister. It is quite possible that there is a sealed indictment awaiting Mr. Skerrit when he leaves office. That too we will discover but until then, we have to take action. We cannot continue to allow Mr. Skerrit to drag us and the name of the country we so love down the drain with him. Mr. Skerrit's continued presence as prime minister is cancerous to us and may ultimately prove to be fatal. We have got to act. Now!

After the embarrassing arrest of another dodgy diplomat, this time a crime fugitive who was given a safe haven in Dominica, the Ministry Of Foreign Affairs declared in a press statement that the dodgy diplomat was well vetted by internationally recognized Due Diligence firm. 

The statement read; “In 2014 Ali Reza Ziba Halat Monfared, an Iranian businessman resident in Malaysia, became a citizen of Dominica under the Citizenship by Investment Programme .Prior to becoming a citizen a comprehensive due diligence investigation was conducted in 2014 in respect of him by an internationally recognised U.S. due diligence firm as required by the relevant regulations.

Mr. Monfared’s due diligence report showed no areas of concern in any jurisdiction or country including Iran, and he passed all other security checks. Additionally, the report found no pending legal or other matters against him anywhere.”

The internationally recognized US due diligence company was identified by Anthony Astaphan as Bishops Services. According to Bishops Services their company has been in operation for 115 years so the question is – How would such a reputable company allow a foul mouth lawyer with extensive moral turpitude to smear the company’s reputation?  Let’s not forget that Anthony Astaphan also threw Bishops Services under the bus when it was revealed that Karan Singh a “dodgy Indian lawyer was actually hiding in Dominica, with a Dominica Passport # R0069612.

There is no doubt that in doing their due diligence, Bishops Services would have found out that in 2013 Mr Monfared had a pending lawsuit in Kualar Lumpar high court, Malaysia. Law Suit No. 22NCVC. Mr Monfared had been sued by his business partner Sayan Kiran for an unpaid loan in the sum of RM 7,406,059.36, the equivalence of US $1.852 Million.  The money was used to purchase a parcel of land.


The looming question is -Did Bishops Services really miss this law suit in the Kualar Lumpar or is it that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is simply lying to cover up a mafia Prime Minister.

We want to remind the Ministry Of Foreign Affairs that they should keep a boiler plate statement for Dodgy Characters as we are about to “De Massais “ another dodgy character, another one harboured by our corrupt government and their operatives.

Knock Knock !! Who is There ?  Just Keep in touch with MiTC.

To All Crooked Politicians and Lawyers in Dominica – Peeeka booo we see you.
Stay Tuned – The Cover is Coming Off.

After we flush out the other dodgy character living and operating out of Dominica we anticipate that Tony Astaphan will jump in to cover the Prime Minister. We are asking Tony this time to offer a different type of support. Roosevelt Skeerit told us that he is not sure where “the next manner of Bird is going to come from” to provide the golden egg.  Since it is alleged that Tony has a wild Bird – it would be magnanimous of Tony to provide the cabinet with a wild bird to provide the struggling economy with that golden egg.

Alireza Monfared (l), Roosevelt Skerrit (r)

#CBS, #60Minutes, #RooseveltSkerrit

As the focus continues on Dominica's mysterious diplomatic corps, I made contact with one of our ambassadors, Jonathan Seeker Reed Brown. Never heard of him? Don't be embarrassed, you're not the only one.

Ambassador Brown is a fellow UK citizen who has been residing in Florida for several years. He holds the title of Ambassador-at-Large but exactly what he has done for Dominica in the intervening years since he has acquired his diplomatic passport is a great mystery. How he came to be in possession of our diplomatic passport is an open question and Ambassador Brown refuses to tell us how he came to be in possession of it.

Born in June 1967 in Cumbria, UK, Jonathan Brown formed a smoked fish company called Grants Smokehouse in 1985. In 1996 he moved the United States to take over a failed seafood company in Pennsylvania which he restarted as Macknight Smoked Foods. In 1997 Macknights opened a factory in Florida, which is located in the Aventura neighbourhood north of Miami. Ambassador Brown currently resides in Coral Gables.

I reached out to Ambassador Brown on January 6th to get a sense as to what he does for Dominica in his capacity as Ambassador-at-Large. I emailed him at his official ambassadorial email address, found on his website www.ambassadortodominica.com, as well as his official business email address at Macknight Smoked Foods. He replied to me using his business email address.

Mr. Brown stated to me in his email that he is in the process of establishing a 3,000 sq.ft. office on Brickell Key in Miami, which has already cost him over $2 million. The office is to serve as a trade and consular office and he hopes to "make it a place all Dominicans can come to if they have any problems or need help while in Florida". From his email, we knew Mr. Brown was lying.

For those who do not know, Brickell Key is a small island just south of downtown Miami at the mouth of the Miami river that is home to a highly exclusive primarily residential community. Besides the obvious question as to why would Mr. Brown spend his own money to establish an office that caters to Dominicans on Brickell Key, the more troubling question is this; assuming that what he says has some truth to it, how is it possible for this individual to establish a Dominica Trade and Consular office, which would take on the appearance of being a functional Dominica government outpost, without the knowledge of the very people the office is supposed to serve?

Mr. Brown touted his work in developing the Amanyara Resort in the Turks & Caicos Islands (www.aman.com/resorts/amanyara). The Amanyara is resort development that sells villas to wealthy individuals, a project identical to the Cabrits Resort in Portsmouth and the new Jungle Bay in Soufriere. Which begs the question; is Mr. Brown a passport seller?

Mr. Brown's last correspondence to me before he cut off communication was that he will be in Dominica in April of this year with officials of Trader Joe's, a large American grocery chain, ostensibly to sign a deal to source product for I presume, their 460 stores across the United States. Is anyone on Dominica aware of such a potential windfall? Do the farmers know that one of Mr. Skerrit's ambassadors is about to deliver manna from heaven?

To view the emails between me and Ambassador Brown, click this image link:

The recently concluded Village Council elections in La Plaine was no doubt widely watched by Dominicans across the political spectrum for many reasons, one of which was to determine whether the "win" by Petter St. Jean of the Dominica Labour Party in the 2014 General Elections was genuine or, as we all suspected, heavily tainted by the influx of large amounts of paid foreign voters. This time around there were no indications that Roosevelt Skerrit resorted to the same strategy of importing voters from the diaspora to corrupt the La Plaine plebiscite and, coming on the heels of a loss in the Canefield Urban Council elections just a couple months ago, it was critical to determine whether Mr. Skerrit's party could stand on its own without the assistance of a battery of bribed voters. The jury is now in.

Roosevelt Skerrit and Petter St. Jean have suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of upstart Jason Fontaine and his team of patriots. The lopsided win by Mr. Fontaine has undoubtedly demonstrated that given the chance, Dominicans will kick Mr. Skerrit out in a heartbeat. Even Labourites voted for Mr. Fontaine. Mr. Fontaine has pledged to work with all members of the Council for the betterment of La Plaine, and we must commend him on that. But we must also warn Mr. Fontaine that he must not allow himself to succumb to niaveté; all is not what it appears to be.

Mr. Skerrit may not have imported voters to influence the La Plaine ballot last week but, over an extended period time, he certainly pulled out all the stops to guide the vote towards his party. Through an intermediary, we have received a list of voters who appear to have benefited from thousands of dollars worth of "housing assistance" in the several months and up to a year leading up to the vote. The list shows that Mr. Skerrit's government authorized expenses at J. Astaphans and P.H. Williams totaling $253,332.03 of taxpayer-financed housing supplies for their preferred supporters. J. Astaphans got the most business, collecting $214,167.23 while P.H. Williams collected $39,164.80. Two supporters, Juliana Lewis and Netty Laudat each received $28,033.59 in supplies; Florence Stedman benefited the least, receiving only $877.68 in supplies. This appears to MiTC to be a clear case of embezzlement.



As you can see from this list, Mr. Skerrit's operatives took the time to check off each individual who received their ill-gotten benefits. The administrator, who remains unknown at this time, was paid $1,000 to execute the distribution of the supplies. In addition to that, a hand-written note indicates that a Ms. Belina Joseph was also due $200.

How much more evidence of unabashed, rampant corruption by Roosevelt Skerrit is needed to demonstrate to Dominicans that it is past the time to kick this government out of office. That's our tax dollars; this money did not come from Mr. Skerrit's pockets, although that would be our tax dollars as well. Mr. Skerrit's lawyer Anthony Astaphan has admitted that the US$400,000 paid by Susan Olde for our Diplomatic passports was used by the Dominica Labour Party to finance their election campaign. Those are our passports, the money belonged to us, but Mr. Skerrit's lawyer says on the record that the state's money was used to finance Mr. Skerrit's political party. That is theft. The Dominica Labour Party spent in excess of $30 million on the election campaign of 2014; is it that difficult to imagine that this money came from the state's coffers as well?

Public Works workers are still waiting to get paid. 


This report has been updated to reflect a more broader time period. This distribution of state money occurred over a  much wider time period than previously thought. We can confirm that the largess began several months ago and may have commenced as early as late 2015.

Ever wondered why Gregor Nassief chose to attack UWP political leader Lennox Linton out of the blue? We thought all along that Gregor was simply looking out for his interests in Secret Bay, but as it turns out, that's not all. It now appears to us that Gregor has launched his assault on Mr. Linton on behalf of his brother as well.

If what we're hearing from usually reliable sources deep inside the cabal is true, then Mr. Skerrit is set to announce that he is handing over US$2 million of CBI money to Yvor Nassief, ostensibly to resuscitate the old DCP plant. You heard it here first.

Yvor Nassief, whose stint as Tourism minister was as lackluster as the record of the current occupant of that ministry Robert Tonge, apparently has the blessings of Mr. Skerrit to do something at DCP, anything. We're told that Mr. Skerrit will make that announcement this week, possibly as early as Monday, so we await his news conference with bated breath.

The Rich get Richer and the Poor get Poorer.

Dear Gregor,

I understand you are the Head of Roosevelt Skerrit’s strategy committee for the assassination of the character of Lennox Linton in the wake of the January 01, 2017 edition of CBS News 60 Minutes and I therefore presume it is in that capacity you asked me the following question in your Open Letter:

“How could you go on a news program watched by over 12+ million American viewers and portray your island – our island – as a rogue nation selling passports “mail order” (suggesting you can buy a passport like you buy a pair of shoes on Amazon.com), and worst, suggesting that we are selling them to criminals”?

For the avoidance of doubt, as a citizen of Dominica by birth, a parliamentarian representing the people of Marigot and Leader of the Parliamentary Opposition, I agreed to be interviewed by CBS News 60 Minutes for a story on Citizenship By Investment in the Caribbean. I did not ask for specifics on viewership to determine whether there was need to have them reduce the numbers from 12 + million Americans to 12 + hundred Dominicans to better suit the tourist and passport selling interests of you and other operatives of the Skerrit regime.

I did not portray Dominica as a “rogue nation”. That description emerged from your perception for which you must accept full responsibility. Note well, I am not asking how you could say or write that about Dominica.

It was Steve Kroft, the CBS News 60 Minutes Correspondent who suggested in a question that since passport purchasers could pay for their passports from wherever they are in the world and did not have to show up in Dominica to receive them, then it was “sorta mail order citizenship”. I said: “Sort of. Something like that”. In the CBI program as is the case in the mail order business, there is no face to face contact between buyer and seller in the exchange of goods and/or services for money. So Gregor, your embarrassment with the inconvenience of this fact doesn’t make it any less true that there are similarities between buying a Dominican passport and buying a pair of shoes on Amazon.com.

I did not merely suggest that we are selling passports to criminals. I stated as truth and fact that “We had a diplomatic passport in the hands of Francesco Corallo, who, at the time, was on INTERPOL’s list of most-wanted criminals”.

Since Roosevelt Skerrit became Prime Minister in 2004, Dominica Diplomatic passports have been traded under the table to scoundrels, fugitives, tax cheats, fraudsters, money launderers and racketeers. You know only too well that this is the gospel truth but you engage your blind eyes and deaf ears as this guild of rogues compromises our international diplomacy to entrench itself as the single biggest threat to the integrity, safety and continuity of the CBI program.

Gregor, take your head out of the sand. Our country is indeed run by a criminal enterprise that has mercilessly abused public office for private multi-million dollar gain. You have decided and remain adamant that you are too blind to see the evidence, but I am sure, in order to justify not writing an Open Letter to Skerrit you will continue to ask for what stares you in the face each and every day.

Under that criminal enterprise, the Citizenship By Investment Program has been mismanaged and corrupted to become primarily a source of funding for Labour Party theft of elections and wealth creation for a chosen few while thousands of young people cannot find jobs; small business owners, farmers, construction workers and service sector employees are catching hell; health care is in decline and students at UWI cannot graduate because their government (swimming in passport millions) has not paid the agreed UWI economic cost for ten years.

Dominica cannot be dependent on “tourism as a major pillar of economic development”, it cannot “desperately (need) investment in new projects to create jobs”, it cannot be expecting international assistance because it “was left so fragile after Tropical Storm Erika” and not recognize and accept it has a moral obligation to responsible behavior for the advancement of global civilization. Our country, Gregor, has no absolute right to engage in behaviors (like under the table sale of diplomatic passports) that endanger the security of other nations – the same tourist markets we are relying on - with the excuse that such behavior is driven by economic necessity.

Our country’s reputation has been severely tarnished by the reckless and utterly corrupt behavior of the Skerrit regime. Instead of ridiculing and crucifying me for speaking incontrovertible truths on behalf of the poor people of this country to “the most successful television broadcast in history”, send an Open Letter to Skerrit asking him to follow my example and accept the invitation of CBS News 60 Minutes to tell his wonderful story of CBI truth and fact to a global audience and thereby begin to repair the international image of Dominica that his leadership actions have savagely brutalized.

Good luck with the various battles you claim to be fighting. I have been fighting for some of these very things like “increased competitiveness of our investment framework” since the gentler days of the early 1990’s when we played scrabble at my house sometimes until the wee hours of the morning. You didn’t question my judgment on matters of public interest based on truth and fact at that time; but you are criticizing it now.

Times do change.

With all that you had going for you at the time - excellent entrepreneurial vision and outstanding technology skills and competencies - I never saw you as candidate for membership in the gallery of apologists committed to deifying a corrupt prime minister hell bent on dictatorial control. I never saw you as heartless, selfish and insensitive, but your untenable position in this matter and your attack on the rights of the people of Salisbury to protest for their rights have exposed the extent to which, in protection of your tourism profits and windfall passport money, you are now willing to throw fuel on the misery that is burning away the lives of poor people and their children in Dominica.

Like you “I would never deliberately go onto a world stage and air what I consider to be my perception of our nation’s dirty laundry”. And to be clear, I did no such thing on 60 Minutes. Unlike you though, I will not lie, I will not spin and I will not cover up skulduggery in defense of anyone especially an unapologetically corrupt head of government who is methodically spreading ignorance and poverty among the powerless to hold their government to ransom indefinitely.

You ask, what do I want? I want an immediate end to the under the table sale of Dominica’s diplomatic passports and/or the assignment of diplomatic rank and privileges to crooks and criminals. Do you? I want full transparency and accountability in the management of Dominica’s CBI program. Do you? I want Dominica to resolve the concerns over breaches to the global security architecture from its CBI program as represented by officials of the US Department of Homeland Security. Do you? I want immediate cancellation of the practice of paying huge, sweetheart commissions to an exclusive marketer when the work of promoting and selling passports is being done by agents. Do you? I want funds from the sale of Dominican passports to benefit all Dominicans and not just the chosen few marketers and agents and those privileged to chose them. Do you?

You conclude your letter with some disturbing statements:

“I hope our CBI program, after being in existence for 23 years, survives this. Now, more than ever, our country needs it… I hope Dominica recovers. I fear you may not”.

Gregor, what exactly is it that Lennox may not recover from and why? Those who do not recover, or fail to recover from whatever, end up dead. Do you have a plan for me? Is this a new, craftier version of the execution threat against Lennox and his family being peddled by supporters of Roosevelt Skerrit?

How do you know when Roosevelt Skerrit is lying? When his mouth is open. Roosevelt told the nation on Wednesday that he had never been contacted by CBS News. We knew that was a lie; CBS is a professional organization, that is not how they work.

Q95's Mathias Peltier Jr. contacted CBS and got a response to Mr. Skerrit's lie; here's the email. We've concealed the email addresses to protect those individuals.

So says Sam Raphael. Mr. Raphael is on Q95's The Hot Seat with Mathias Peltier today putting up a defense for a programme from which he earns an enormous amount of money, in both fees and investment dollars. In his interview, Mr. Raphael belted out what we consider a rather ridiculous and offensive comment; he equated the sale of our citizenship to the sale of bananas.

Mr. Raphael, you need to apologize to Dominicans for this. Your reference to protecting a banana and tourist industry as equivalent to the sale of our national identity is egregious and deserves a forceful response from Dominicans. In fact, we suggest that since you believe our identity is equivalent to a tropical fruit, we have a suggestion for all Dominican farmers; please assist Mr. Raphael in the construction of his new project at Soufriere by dumping loads of bananas on his property. He should have no problem selling the bananas in Dubai to earn cash for his hotel project.

Mr. Raphael presented a vigorous defense of the CBI programme, which we expected. This is Mr. Raphael's cash cow, we should expect him to do what is necessary to protect it while giving the appearance of being impartial in the debate. But Mr. Raphael is not and cannot be considered to be an impartial arbiter in this debate.

Sam started off by accusing CBS of doing a hit job on the CBI programmes of the Caribbean. We've heard this before; last week, Vince Henderson and Anthony Astaphan used the words "economic terrorism" to describe the CBS programme. "Hit job" and "economic terrorism" in this context are two sides of the same coin, so who is Mr. Raphael fooling when he says that he was not on Q95 as a government spokesman.

He went on to admonish UWP political leader Lennox Linton's appearance on 60 Minutes, saying that he, Sam Raphael, would never participate in any programme where the objective was to cause damage to Dominica. This sounded like what Vince Henderson said on Kairi last week as well. Mr. Raphael even told us that at the commencement of his interview with the CBS producers, he recognized that the line CBS was taking was negative. Mr. Raphael, if you recognized from the start  that the interview was going to be a "hit job", (which by your own admission you would never participate in), and you say that you stopped the CBS producers from proceeding, why did you then continue with the interview? You obviously did, because you began to lament the fact that your interview was not used, "cut out" as you put it, from the final production, which you surmised may have been because you were not a "government official" or had high name recognition.

Is that the real reason that you are upset at Mr. Linton? Mr. Linton exposed your rationale when he questioned you as to what you believe was the difference between what you volunteered to the CBS crew in your interview and what was presented by Chris Kalin. You sidestepped Mr. Linton's question but it goes to show why your interview was excluded. Mr. Raphael, if you're a CBS producer and you have two proponents of a programme saying the same thing, which of the two interviews would you go with? The interview with the architect of the programme or the interview of a salesman? Mr. Linton's query laid bare that fact.

Mr. Raphael challenged Mr. Peltier and callers when asked about well-reported flaws in the CBI programme. In an aggressive tone, Mr. Raphael challenged Mr. Peltier and the callers to present proof of the flaws, yet in the same breath, when attacking the US's EB-5 programme as riddled with problems, Mr. Raphael could not identify one issue. Could that be because he does not earn one cent from the US programme?

Generally, Mr. Raphael's presentation today was well-rehearsed and presented, a far cry from the vitriol last week. We understand Mr. Raphael's position; he is determined to secure his income at all costs. We view Mr. Raphael appearance today as simply putting a new, more pleasant face on the same pig. Unfortunately for Mr. Raphael, the vile and brutal words of Anthony Astaphan, Vince Henderson, Petter St. Jean and others, continue to ring in our ears. Nice job Sam, but you've got more work to do.

Curtis Phillip, the man who has called for the execution of several Members of Parliament in Dominica, has once again taken to video to issue what he hopes is an apology. In this newly-released clip, Mr. Phillip is seen "apologizing" to Mr. Lennox Linton and Dr. Thomson Fontaine while simultaneously smiling. What are you apologizing for Mr. Phillip? That you were found out? Or that Scotland Yard may want to have a conversation with you? Sir, don't you know that once MiTC gets a hold of stories like this we will let the world know about your thoughts? You should not have been caught off-guard by the rapid dissemination of this newsworthy story.

Someone needs to explain to Mr. Phillip that it is essential to appear contrite and genuine when issuing an apology, lest one that is being done in the hopes of reversing the damage caused by issuing what amounts to a Fatwa on elected representatives of the people. It also does not help his "apology" when you conclude by saying "rogers and out". This is not a game.

Here is Mr. Phillips' "apology":


Click on this link to view on YouTube:  https://youtu.be/qqLdBpkZdb4

We're in the process of putting together our thoughts on the events of the last few days, vis-a-vis the CBS 60 Minutes interview, but before we posted our thoughts, we thought it necessary to bring to you the basic level of ignorance being exhibited by the likes of Vince Henderson, Anthony Astaphan and this man, one of my neighbors in London, Mr. Curtis Phillip.

Mr. Phillip has decided to document his views on what should become of Mr. Linton as well as other members of the United Workers Party. Mr. Phillip's words are a direct threat to the lives of Mr. Linton, Dr. Fontaine and others and there can be no question that should anything befall these gentlemen and women of the UWP, the blame squarely falls at the feet of Vince Henderson and Anthony Astaphan. Mr. Linton and others must also keep an eye on Mr. Deryck St. Rose of the Commonwealth of Dominica Police Force, who, upon viewing Mr. Phillip's video on Facebook, "loved" it. Can we presume from his actions that Mr. St. Rose would like to see Mr. Linton's life expired? We believe that is a safe assumption.

The violent words of Mr. Philip, who hails from St. Joseph, can directly be attributed to what spewed from the mouths of Henderson and Astaphan. We want to express our concern for Mr. Linton and urge his family and supporters to be on guard for replicas of Mr. Curtis Philip. We encourage Mr. Linton and other members of the United Workers Party to file reports with both the CDPF and Scotland Yard; we need to arrest this immediately.

See Mr. Phillip's video below.



To view the video on YouTube, click this link: https://youtu.be/lri-_T7F5xY