BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, CM—Prime Minister Dr. Terrance Drew strongly condemns what he describes as a “calculated and malicious try” to blackmail and extort the St. Kitts-Nevis authorities.
Talking with reporters on the month-to-month version of “The Roundtable,” Prime Minister Drew stated that international and native individuals had approached him with a requirement for between US$40 million and US$100 million in alternate for suppressing the discharge of a video aimed toward discrediting the nation’s Citizenship by Funding (CBI) program.
Underneath the CBI, international traders are granted citizenship of the Twin Island Federation in return for making a considerable funding within the nation’s socio-economic improvement.
“Folks got here to my workplace asking for 40 to 100 million {dollars} for that video to not be launched. I instructed them no. That’s extortion. That’s blackmail, and (the video) will likely be stuffed with lies,” Prime Minister Drew stated.
He made it clear that he wouldn’t succumb to threats or coercion and that no public funds could be used to settle a blatant try to undermine the integrity of the nation or its CBI programme.
“You’re not going to get one cent out of me,” Prime Minister Drew stated, noting that he has instructed the Workplace of the Lawyer Basic to pursue all acceptable authorized avenues. He additionally confirmed {that a} globally revered worldwide legislation agency has been retained to handle the matter.
“This can be a critical, critical matter. That is extortion of a state, of a rustic. Nobody has the precise to stroll into the Prime Minister’s Workplace to blackmail or extort since you wish to convey out a nasty, malicious video to assault our nation.”
Prime Minister Drew additional alleged {that a} recognized firm is behind the video and has “purchased” people inside St. Kitts and Nevis to take part in its scheme.
“That is one thing that I’ll battle and battle to the tip as a result of the precedent should not be set in St. Kitts and Nevis that individuals can stroll into the Prime Minister’s Workplace (and make such calls for). This won’t be allowed to face,” Prime Minister Drew stated.
He instructed reporters his authorities is dedicated to transparency, good governance, and nationwide curiosity safety. He vowed to pursue this matter to the fullest extent of the legislation.
In the meantime, the St. Kitts-Nevis authorities says the draft of the Invoice to determine a Regional Regulator for the CBI program has been reviewed by the Attorneys Basic and Chief Parliamentary Counsel of the 5 international locations within the Organisation of Jap Caribbean States (OECS) which function such a program.
The discussions passed off throughout the Seventh Assembly of Jap Caribbean Forex Union (ECCU) Attorneys Basic and Chief Parliamentary Counsel, held in Anguilla from Could 7 to 9.
“This legislative milestone follows intensive regional collaboration among the many 5 CBI-participating ECCU member states – Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Kitts and Nevis – and marks the subsequent step in fulfilling commitments made beneath the March 2024 Memorandum of Settlement to harmonize, regulate, and strengthen regional CBI operations via a unified authorized and institutional framework,” a authorities assertion stated.
The draft Invoice, ready by authorized drafting advisor Lydia Elliott, was offered to the authorized and regulatory management for scrutiny, suggestions, and refinement.
“The enabling laws, as soon as enacted throughout collaborating member states, will formally set up the regional regulator as a separate authorized entity to supervise compliance, transparency, and integrity within the CBI trade by worldwide greatest practices,” the assertion stated.
The regional regulator will likely be liable for issuing regional CBI insurance policies, licensing brokers/entrepreneurs, approving due-diligence frameworks, auditing nationwide CBI Items, sustaining a public register of licensees, and deterring misleading practices.
The initiative is spearheaded by the Interim Regulatory Fee (IRC), an eight-member physique comprised of authorized, monetary, compliance, and enforcement specialists from the 5 collaborating states, the Jap Caribbean Central Financial institution (ECCB), the St. Lucia-based OECS Fee, and the Trinidad-based CARICOM IMPACS.
Over the previous two months, the IRC has led public consultations within the 5 member states, which concerned enter from governments, opposition political events, civil society stakeholders, and most of the people, the assertion stated.
“This draft laws represents the end result of a historic reform effort that started in December 2022, when St. Kitts and Nevis took daring, first-in-region steps to reposition the CBI trade for sustainability, credibility, and resilience,” stated the Lawyer Basic, Garth Wilkin, who attended the discussions in Anguilla.
“With the regional regulator now in sight, we’re closing the loop on these reforms. This can be a governance safeguard for the way forward for our financial safety and our status on the worldwide stage,” he stated, reaffirming the St. Kitts-Nevis authorities’s dedication to making sure that the CBI trade stays a official and revered instrument for nationwide improvement, conscious of each home wants and worldwide expectations.
“The region-wide effort to control, monitor, and modernize this very important financial pillar sends a transparent sign – the Caribbean is critical about transparency, accountability, and long-term resilience of its CBI applications, the federal government assertion added.
