Dominican passports and the profiteers of shame

Roseau, Dominica (TDN) — When then prime minister Mary Eugenia Charles introduced the concept of economic citizenship to the Dominican people in the August 1990 it was largely intended to serve as a means of spurring economic development following the demise of the banana industry.

Dominican passports selling for US $75 000.

That program targeted mainly Asian investors and was aimed at attracting foreign direct investment for hotel and resort development, agro-processing, manufacturing, housing and fisheries.

In 1996, the United Workers Party launched a re-engineered program that ran in tandem with the earlier program, but which made the sale of passports more readily available. Today, and several years later the program under the Skerrit administration has become an intense source of embarrassment to the Dominican people. Diplomatic passports are being doled out for exorbitant sums, and it is not clear if any of these fees come back to the Dominican Treasury.

What is without dispute is that over the years, the program has been used to line the pockets of a few individuals while allowing Dominican passports to go to persons of less than noble repute. Today, holders or former holders of Dominican passports include disgraced Australian magnate Christopher Skase, indicted ambassadors Roman Laskschin and Rudolph King, Chairman of the failed CLICO insurance company Leroy Paris, and more recently fugitive from Indian justice Karan Singh.

Anecdotal evidence also points to members of the Chinese Triad, and scores of Iranian, Russian, and Middle Eastern nationals who claim Dominica as their second nationality.

Needless to say, these individuals have little or no interest in furthering Dominica’s economic prospects but as the records show are more interested in taking advantage of a program that has gone horribly wrong.

The process of obtaining a passport is promoted as been relatively simple, and as a ‘Passport to Paradise.” After paying a deposit from the $100 000 USD for family applicants and $75 000 for an individual the applicant is interviewed either directly by the prime minister or his designated representative. Additional fees run from a minimum $10 000 USD, which is paid to the private agents charged with securing clients.

The wanton sale of Dominican passports, numbering in the thousands, under the so called economic citizenship program lacks transparency and is bedeviled by the near absence of any due diligence conducted on the applicants.

As early as 2001, the red flag was raised by the Assistant Manager of the International Business Unit of the ministry of finance. In a letter copied to the prime minister it was made clear that issues of due diligence troubled the program. The official made reference to economic citizenship, which was granted to a David Mehranban, an Iranian citizen, on September 20, 2001 and a Conrad Rooks, whose nationality was not stated, on September 28, 2001. "None of the files contained due diligence reports on the applicants," the letter stated. "Mr. Mehranban is an Iranian and his application for economic citizenship was processed after the September 11th 2001 terrorist attack on the USA," it emphasized.

Ten years later and despite protestations to the contrary, the problem persists. An exhaustive investigation by the Dominican.net has revealed that no due diligence was conducted on Indian national Karan Singh when he applied in 2010. It has since been revealed that at the time Singh had several complaints lodged against him in the Indian courts and was a fugitive from justice.

What makes the case even more interesting is that an investigation by the Dominican.net revealed that Singh was introduced to passport agent Alick Lawrence by Anthony Astaphan a close advisor and lawyer to prime minister Roosevelt Skerrit. When approached for comment on his involvement, Astaphan was adamant in his response indicating that “ the answer is no. I have never represented Singh or any other person requesting an economic citizenship program. In fact I have never met or spoken to the man.”

In 2000, Christopher Skase purchased a Dominican passport as he sought to evade extradition from Spain. Skase who has since died, but at the time was Australia's most wanted fugitive was one of the richest men in Australia. He had fled to Spain eight years earlier after the collapse of his Qintex media, hotel and resort empire left him with corporate debts of almost $1billion.

In the e 2005 elections, Susan Oldie a wealthy resident of the Cayman Islands paid EC $400 000 for a diplomatic passport. This amount went straight into a private bank account in Dominica that was then used to partly finance the labour party’s 2005 elections.

Around the same time, Leroy Paris a top executive at CLICO was granted a diplomatic passport and in return made several thousands of dollars available for the election campaign of the labour government. His application for a US visa was denied after the government failed to satisfy US authorities that a Barbadian citizen was in fact a bona fide Dominican ambassador.

Lakschin, a Russian businessman who had a case pending against him in the Swedish courts had his credentials rejected twice by the Russians, once under the UWP government and later under Skerrit’s government. In April, 2006 when he attempted to use diplomatic immunity to evade the charges, the Swiss government revoked his diplomatic immunity. Dominica initially filed suit on his behalf but after the case was publicized in theDominican. net it was quietly withdrawn.

Just days after appearing in a photo on theDominican.net greeting the prime minister of Bahrain, Rudolph King was languishing in a United States jail after being brought up on charges in a US federal court for trying to defraud the government of more than $2 million.

What is even more telling about this whole sordid affair is the complete lack of accountability to the Dominican public. Government stubbornly refuses to reveal the numbers or proceeds from the sale of the passports. Ambassadors are appointed without public knowledge and only come to light after investigations by the media.

The abuse of the program has already cost Dominicans visa-free entry into Canada, and in a post September 2011 world, heightened scrutiny by European and United States government officials. This is enough to put an end to a program that can only lead to more unpleasantness for upstanding Dominican citizens.