WILL ERNEST HILAIRE PUT SAINT LUCIA ON THE BLACKLIST?

The latest scandal, involving his approval of an Eastern European company known to be engaged in organized crime to be a CIP-approved developer (being one in which the CEO was arrested), has focused further attention on ERNEST HILAIRE, Saint Lucia’s Deputy Prime Minister , who has the portfolio for Investment. Hilaire, who has delayed for more than two months to deliver to his constituents details of the thousands of illegally-discounted sales of economic citizenships by Chinese-owned CARIBBEAN GALAXY GROUP, and has lost favor with several influential members of the Saint Lucia Labor Party, in order to mitigate the international political and economic damage that his leadership of the Citizenship by Investment Program (CIP) has caused. It is interesting to note that neither Hilaire nor McClaude were permitted to explain to the press McClaude’s mysterious trip to Washington, DC.

There are well-founded fears that the unfolding CIP scandal will cause the EU & UK to conclude that the Saint Lucia Government has no control over Hilaire’s activities in the Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU), and that Government there will soon decide to cancel SLC’s prized visa-free entry privileges to the EU & United Kingdom. Such an act will render Saint Lucia less competitive in the tough migration investment industry. Additionally, Hilaire’s failure to have the CIU conduct proper due diligence on CIP applicants, and the subsequent placement of unvetted application funds through the Bank of Saint Lucia, and into the corresponding accounts of BOSL’s American financial institution partners threatens De-Risking, account closures, which would devastate a local economy that is dependent access to the American banking system. From inside the CIU, whistleblowers are sharing documents with us, because they fear what he is doing. Hilaire is putting at risk all the other Citizenship by Investment programs in the region, with his conduct.

Hilaire’s repeated dissembling, when asked by local media to respond to critical domestic and international issues, and his arrogance in the face of demands for truth, has alienated him from elements of senior political as well as governmental leadership, due to a loss of confidence in his ability to lead Saint Lucia out of the CIP crisis, which is now under a direct threat to its continued existence. His open allegiance to the Chinese CIP stakeholders, CARIBBEAN GALAXY, and desperate efforts to cover up systemic corruption, money laundering and fraud, can only result in Saint Lucia being blacklisted by international agencies involved in Anti-money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism ( AML/CFT), which will crash the tourism industry, and deter foreign investment.

Whether the country’s Prime Minister, Philip Pierre, has the political will to remove him, and replace him with someone who can reform the CIP, save the corresponding banking relationships, and restore international confidence in the Government of Saint Lucia, we cannot say, but If he fails to act, expect that the fears of his Labor Party leaders for the worst will come to pass. Hilaire is taking the whole country down.