For the UK it is all about the money, not justice by John Thompson More than five years after the suspension of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) Constitution, it is now clear that the United Kingdoms excursion into TCIs internal affairs is more about finding lucrative employment for retired and semi-retired British civil servants, policemen, and lawyers, than cleaning up corruption. Readers might think that conclusion is cynical, and it may be, but all I ask is that you give me five minutes, as the evidence could not be more compelling. First, if the UK Government wanted to clean up corruption in the TCI, it could not have done a worse job. The best solution would have been to send a few Scotland Yard detectives to the TCI, posing as investors, to confirm that bribes were being solicited or, as the SIPT suggests, demanded by Ministers as the price to play. If that was done, and if there was rampant and systemic corruption as Sir Robin Auld has suggested, irrefutable evidence of the SIPTs allegations could have been easily recorded, putting the FCOs case beyond all doubt, and charges and trials could have been brought and completed within a year, avoiding the need for expensive and protracted investigations and prosecutions by retired and semi-retired former British civil servants, all while living it up in five-star beachfront resorts at the TCI taxpayers expense. Second, what we got instead is a bizarre show in the form of a Commission of Inquiry (COI), held at a five-star beachfront resort, and presided over by retired British judge Sir Robin Auld, along with a cast of other British characters. While that exercise was entertaining, it was very expensive entertainment. It shut the country down for months, with Government being distracted and dysfunctional for several months before the COI and for many months afterwards. Likewise with many member of the community. Even worse yet, it put Aulds subjects on alert that they were the targets of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). If the FCO wanted to catch criminals and tackle corruption, that was the worst way to do so, but dont draw any conclusions yet. Third, following Aulds COI, UK law firm Edwards Wildman was engaged to recover assets, for which it has charged the TCI more than $13M, to collect just over $19.5M in cash. That firm now attends international conferences on corruption, bragging about the hundreds of acres it has recovered for the people of the TCI, describing its efforts as one of the most extensive asset recovery programs in the world. What it fails to mention is that despite the extensive scope of its work, it has left untouched the largest allegations of misappropriation of public assets in the history of the TCI, involving contracts in the hundreds of millions and land in the thousands of acres. You dont need to be too imaginative to guess that the lucky recipient of that myopia just happens to be a powerful and politically-connected British subject, with tentacles reaching to the highest levels of the UKs Conservative Party. Fourth, in addition to Edwards Wildmans TCI gravy train, Helen Garlick, a semi-retired former employee in the UKs Serious Fraud Office (SFO), was also hired by the FCO in 2009. She had been sacked by British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2006, over an expensive two-year investigation, which the UK Government forced her to shut down. In August 2009, after languishing in private practice for three years, but more or less behaving, the FCO returned the favour, and asked Garlick to quote on heading up criminal investigations and possible prosecutions of Aulds COI subjects; a financial opportunity she jumped on, quoting six million dollars for a two year contract. Once engaged, with no effective oversight, Garlicks joyride has gone from madness to even greater madness, with her hiring dozens of retired, white, former officers of Londons MET, along with a half dozen or so white English lawyers. What started out as a two-year engagement, with a trove of evidence handed to her SIPT by Auld, and given to him by the very persons Garlick was investigating, more than five years and fifty million dollars later, has turned into a fleecing of the TCI taxpayer. Fifth, as for the FCOs seriousness about fighting corruption, the SIPT has been consistently side-tracked by matters outside their remit, including Ponzi schemes and stamp duty prosecutions, all while on the publics purse. Finally, and we suggest that it is now safe to draw conclusions, even when attending to its corruption investigations, shockingly, white Anglo-Saxon developers who Garlick says paid bribes, have consistently been the recipients of backroom deals involving the sale of Get Out of Jail Cards. In all but one case the expats Garlick says paid bribes have gotten off entirely free, with at least three well known cases of persons she says paid bribes now actively involved in promoting local businesses, with several key persons sitting at the very top of the local tourism industry. After more than five years, with trials nowhere in sight, Garlicks shambolic investigations have turned out to be more of a racket than part of a criminal justice system. Unlike The Auld Show, the SIPTs investigations are not just painful to watch, they are offensive to the TCIs sense of right and wrong, and Garlics SIPT has brought the entire TCI judicial system into disrepute. Large swathes of the public now believe that even the Judiciary is a joke, at best blindly overseeing a rigged criminal justice system, and at worst, being the handmaiden of a prosecutor who has written, and is implementing, the selective enforcement of this countrys criminal laws. In 2009 Garlicks SIPT was welcomed to these Islands by a large segment of the community like a rock star. More than five years later, she is the target of picketers, with even her defendants most ardent enemies distancing themselves from what has been a disgraceful abuse of investigative authority and a shameful lining of her pockets at the taxpayers expense. This might have all been dismissed as gross incompetence and sloppiness if Garlicks SIPT had indulged in a two-year investigation, as originally contracted, but what we have here is a lavishly funded investigation that is more than half a decade in the works, that was given a head start, involving dozens of senior UK police officers, that have cost TCI taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. My view, to put it bluntly, is that this fleecing of the TCI public, while turning a blind eye to the biggest incidences of corruption, is an egregious form corruption in itself. Yes, corruption. I also have a theory, which is that it is also a clever scheme pushed by Garlicks SIPT to keep their gravy train rolling, permitted because of the UKs stated policy of exporting its legal services, its long standing desire to reward washed up and/or retired British civil servants and technocrats, and its indifference to corruption that benefits Anglo-Saxon Britons. If you think my views are far off the mark, just Google UK Legal Services on the International Stage: Underpinning growth and stability, or conveniently clink the link below. You only need to read the first page. While more than two centuries have passed since the U.K. abolished slavery, the people of the Caribbean are still treated as chattels for the financial benefit of the English, with hypocritical lip service to rule of law, justice, and other grand ideals, but can you say Ka-Ching? It is all about the money, the money, not justice.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 18:20:15 +0000