ST LUCIA CORRUPTION CASE AGAINST FREDERICK HEADS TO COURT

Below is a Wikileaks Report on St. Lucia

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SUMMARY

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¶1.  (SBU) The long-running saga of the Minister Richard Frederick's corruption case appears headed towards a final resolution.  Frederick lost his action for dismissal of charges against him relating to evasion of taxes for the importation of a vehicle, and the case is finally headed to trial.  If Frederick loses in court, and is convicted of criminal tax evasion, he will be forced to resign.  End Summary

¶2.  (C) Five years ago, St. Lucian Housing Minister Richard Frederick imported two cars, worth USD 70,000, from Florida duty-free. The Comptroller of Customs, Terrence Leonard, objected to the duty-free status of the cars and charged Minister Frederick with criminal tax evasion.  He had the Minister detained and questioned over one year ago, but did not file criminal charges at that time. Ever since then the two have been engaging in a long-running legal and public relations battle. Leonard maintains that the Minister knowingly evaded paying proper customs duty on the vehicles. The Minister disputes the claim, maintaining that he was entitled to the duty-free importation by virtue of his status as a member of government, and arguing that too long a time has passed since he imported the cars, so the case against him should be dismissed. The Customs comptroller has complained ever since then that he has been blocked in pursuing charges against Frederick by the Attorney General and others in the government allied with the Minister. Frederick is very popular among the poorer elements of Castries, but is widely seen as corrupt, and some also claim that he is allied with narco-traffickers.

¶3.  (C) In the most recent court battle, Minister Frederick filed two suits against the government.  The first suit sought to have the customs case dismissed, charging that it was without merit and had been instigated to embarrass him politically.  He also sought damages of USD 448,000 in compensation for loss of use, return of the vehicles and for wrongful arrest in the customs investigation.  The court ruled against Frederick in the attempt to have the customs case dismissed and ruled against him in refusing to enter damages against him for wrongful arrest.  This ruling now opens the way for the Customs Comptroller to formally charge him with criminal evasion of customs duty.  Poloff spoke with Leonard, who was very pleased that he would finally get his day in court.  He noted that Frederick has filed an emergency appeal, but is confident Frederick will lose the appeal and the case will proceed to trial, probably early in January.  

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COMMENT

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¶4.  (C) The Frederick case has been at the center of St. Lucian politics for a number of years. In addition to the customs case and possible narcotics ties, several American investors claim that he illegally expropriated land holdings.  They have appealed the decision to the Prime Minister. Minister Frederick is politically well connected, however, and is closely allied with Rufus Bousquet's faction of the ruling party.  In person, Frederick can be charming and gregarious, but also comes across as self-serving and duplicitous.  The Customs Comptroller has a well-deserved reputation for being both the most honest government official in St. Lucia and for being as stubborn as a Pitbull.  Despite the wishes of many that this case would go away, he clearly has persevered in not letting the matter rest.  If Frederick is convicted, it will remove one major source of opposition to Prime Minister King within the cabinet, allowing the PM to consolidate his shaky base of power.  End comment.

Source: http://wikileaks.org/cable/2008/12/08BRIDGETOWN704.html

WILL THE POLICE AND THE DPP ARREST THE GOVERNMENT AND MR CHOU?

"No Government should be above the law. So, why should the police or DPP arrest ordinary citizens for breaking the law, and allow members of the Government of St. Lucia and the Taiwanese Ambassador to break our laws with impunity?"

 As the Super 8 prepares to launch what it calls its massive rally near the Public Library in Vieux Fort, lets us examine the “Sword of Damocles” that hangs over the head of a corrupt government which has taken the country to the brink of economic disaster, international shame and social chaos.

No Government should be above the law. So, why should the police or DPP arrest ordinary citizens for breaking the law, and allow members of the Government of St. Lucia and the Taiwanese Ambassador to break our laws with impunity?

There are international precedents where a country’s law-enforcement machinery has closed in, arrest and charge Ministers of Government for breaking the law; so why is the Police and DPP afraid to do the same in St. Lucia?

We want our law enforcement machinery and other arms of justice to take the lead and demonstrate their intestinal fortitude by arresting members of the government and their accessories for openly breaking the law.

The tyrants in the Middle East thought they would enjoy “eternal” immunity for their atrocities and crimes against humanity against their very own people. But the "ordinary man on the street" who make governments "powerful" can also make them "powerless".

Saddam was toppled and executed; the democratic revolution in Egypt brought the collapse of the Mubarak government; the rebels in Libya are as we speak toppling the Gaddafi Regime. The Assad regime is also at a tottering angle and it’s a matter of time before the inevitable happens!

In each of the cases cited above, it was unadulterated “people’s power” which solved the problem.

If our police and the DPP will not arrest the Government and the Taiwanese Ambassador for breaking our laws, then will an apparently increasing mass of angry people put up with those violations and corruption forever? Under those potentially explosive conditions, what will happen next? If the status quo persist, should we as a people seek the support of the International Community or should we begin to exercise our people’s power and arrest the criminals who form the Government of St. Lucia? Or should we do both?

Let us examine the case for the arrest of the government of St. Lucia.

Section 77 of the Constitution of Saint Lucia which states: 

“All revenues or other moneys raised or received by Saint Lucia (not being revenues or other moneys that are payable, by or under any law for the time being in force in Saint Lucia, into some other fund established for specific purpose) shall be paid into and form a Consolidated Fund.”

The issue is further clearly elucidated in section 7 of the Finance (Administration) Act, Cap 15.01. That section says:

(1) “Subject to the Constitution and except as otherwise provided in this Act, all revenues and other monies raised or received for the purposes of the Government, not being revenue or other monies which are payable by or under any enactment into some other fund established for a specific purpose, shall be paid into and form part of the Consolidated Fund.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1) monies raised or received include monies received by way of a grant, donation, gift or other liked method.”

Clearly, the financial arrangement between UWP Parliamentarians and the Taiwanese is illegal, irrespective of the channels of diversion they used. Channeling the money through a third party like the village council does not mitigate the offence, it only broadens the net for arrest; for they all have broken the laws governing procurement as well as the state laws relating to “sources and application of funds”.

Let us consider some specific cases. At the very top, we have the Tuxedo Trial which was an unequivocal instance where an entire Cabinet of ministers was tried for corruption and found guilty in a Court of Law; yet, they continue to govern as if Tuxedo never happened.

The Minister of Housing was charged for customs fraud; yet, he continues to sit deep within the bosom of government.

Contrary to the provisions of the Constitution and the Finance Administration Act, ministers illegally received millions of dollars from the Taiwanese Ambassador. The Minister for Foreign Affairs is a US federal convict who has broken the Laws of St. Lucia several times with impunity.

The question is: If the police and the DPP will not arrest those criminals who are deeply entrenched in government, then who will? If the trend continues and there is no justice, will the people follow the precedents of the Middle East and seek their own justice?

TROPICAL DEPRESSION NUMBER 10

Tropical Depression 10 formed early this morning in the far eastern Atlantic. Recent satellite images show that this system is continuing to get better organized, and may become Tropical Storm Jose later today. The good news is that most indications are this system will pose no threat to any significant land masses while moving slowly to the northwest this weekend. Here is the current information about it.

Status                  :        Tropical Depression

Position              :        12.4° N, 30.4° W

Winds                 :        35 mph

Gusts                   :        45 mph

Movement          :        WNW 13 mph

Pressure             :        29.74 in / 1007 mb

Below is a computer model showing the projected path and  development of the system:

Details and projections for Tropical Depression Jose

MR MAURUS FAUCHER: AMBASSADOR PLENIPOTENTIARY FOR CHOISEUL

 by Augustin Charles, PhD (UWI), JP

 

 

 

MY OPEN THOUGHTS OF MAURUS FAUCHER, JP

 MY FIRST ENCOUNTER

I first knew Maurus Faucher when I was a school boy, perhaps age 13. In fact my first encounter with him is still very vivid in my mind. There was a beachside cricket match in the Village - exactly where the Choiseul Fisheries is located - and he was the scorer. Upon looking at the "scoresheet", his stylish penmanship immediately caught my attention. I told my friends said “I wish I could write like this”. 

Indeed, he had the most stylish handwriting I had ever known; and even when it was elegantly stylish, it was extremely legible.

Later on, I learned he was also the printer/painter who inscribed most of those lovely names and insignia on the canoe boats that lined our beachfront. I was also told that he was the one who also printed names on the "Milo", "Sweet peace" and "Sugar Plum" trucks.

THE GOOD SAMARITAN

As I grew up, I got to know Mr Faucher more and more. He was probably the “lone loud voice” in a typically quiet and serene village setting. He had an irresistible penchant for intellectual exchanges; and so he would normally judge your quality by your eloquence. In other words, if you were eloquent, you were bright; if you were not, you were - to quote him - a “nonentity” or a “numbskull”. 

Mr Faucher took up residence in the community of Le Riche (just a couple of hundred yards down the road from me) about 40 years ago; and our close physical proximity to each other resulted in the deepening and broadening of both my knowledge and relationship with him. 

As time went by, I began to discover the deep sense of humanity in him - despite his seeming confrontational façade. I finally discovered he was a Good Samaritan who was very responsive to people’s needs and sufferings.

THE VILLAGE WHERE FAUCH WAS BORN

I remember when he first came to live at Le Riche, he was the only person who owned a vehicle and the quantum of voluntary service he gave to the community was unrivalled. That service became even more pronounced when he took up a new job with LINMORE in Vieux Fort. The pickup van he drove was the regular mode of transportation for so many commuters and there was never a hint of a grudge from him.  

"UNCOMPROMISINGLY" CHOISEULIAN

Another attribute of Fauch was his uncompromising “Choiseulian-ness”, perhaps to the point of fixation, territoriality and even discrimination. That manifested itself in an unapologetically pro-Choiseulian advocacy which may have come dangerously close to a predisposition for “preferential treatment" and "special priority", which he afforded to Choiseulians who sought better opportunities in the businesses he managed. Perhaps, he understood the indigence, the poverty and vulnerability which his people faced.

JUST OUTSIDE MR FAUCHER'S VILLAGE HOME

By the same token, he unabashedly renounced - and had scant respect for  - his fellow Choiseulians who turned their backs on the village that gave them birth. That was perhaps an expression of the magnitude of his “patriotism” for his “village”.

CHOISEUL: SELF-SUFFICIENT IN TALENT

He was of the general view that Choiseul was not only self-sufficient in food and fish but equally in talent; and given that some of the Choiseul talent in the diaspora would be invested in Choiseul, then (he thought) we would have become a far better community way above and beyond the “plus belle village” concept.

Mr Faucher also subscribed to the view that Choiseul was not being profiled in proportion to its talents and resources; perhaps that explains why he indefatigably took to the talk-show circuit and saw himself as an “ambassador plenipotentiary” for that purpose.  But it may also be more than that: Mr Faucher loved to share information and he did so impulsively and compulsively - as was the case when he took it on his own to prematurely announce Lorne’s candidacy for Choiseul.

THE TALK SHOW CIRCUIT

Before passing away, he shared a story of disappointment with me, involving his favourite talk show host. He told me that he was so overwhelmed by Lorne’s candidacy that he wanted to be the one to break the news on his favorite talk show programme. But he explained that his treatment by the host brought him so much psychosomatic stress that he stopped calling that show for an extended period of time.

That incident somewhat reshaped his perception of some of the presenters who he claimed hid behind a cloak of objective journalism; but he thought they were actually “Trojan Horses” planted on the Talk show circuit to serve political interests.

VORACIOUS FOR NEWS & INTELLECTUAL EXCHANGE

He was voracious for news, and hunting for intellectual exchange; and in this regard, his favourite companion was his 12-band radio which allowed him to listen to a broad spectrum of views locally, regionally and internationally. Living in Choiseul gave him a distinct opportunity to savour news and intellectual discourses from the islands of the Southern Caribbean (St. Vincent, Barbados, Grenada and Trinidad). Hence, he was in an enviably strong position to compare and judge the quality of discourse across those islands with that of our own. He was also a keen subscriber to BBC radio, Voice of America and a number of international radio stations on the shortwave band.

Mr Faucher’s regarded the radio not just as a companion; but also as learning medium, a kind of "open university".

WAS HE A CONUNDRUM?

Some people regarded Mr Faucher as “conundrum”, especially when he made that dramatic political shift from the UWP - the party that he loved and supported all his life – to SLP; a fact that he made no bones about. But it was not just a shift of allegiance; it was the precedence of kinship over politics. Indeed, Mr Faucher had a strong sense of kinship which generally circumscribed his outlook on life. He subscribed to the kweyol philosophy “Né konyen; zyé pléwé".

There was absolutely no doubt he loved his politics; but he was also a tormenter of politicians, especially if that politician was his "adversary".

NOT PERFECT BUT MANY PERFECT ATTRIBUTES

Mr Faucher was not perfect; but he demonstrated many perfect qualities such as frankness, honesty, devotion to his family, a deep sense of humanity and the pursuit of wisdom. These are lasting legacies that he left us!

 

Fauch, we will dearly miss you; we will miss your voice on the radio; we will miss your cliches and idioms; we will miss your analyses; we will miss your love, your advice. But we know the almighty has performed his will. Indeed, "Life is just a pilgrim on earth". May God bless you.

Mr Faucher rest in peace!