Would the BVI have convicted Fahie?
Some officials have questioned whether the BVI would have charged or even convicted the disgraced former Premier Andrew Fahie if local law enforcement learned of his reported crimes.
Earlier this week, Fahie was sentenced in a Miami Court to serve just over 11 years in prison after being convicted in February on drug and money laundering charges. The former Premier maintained his innocence throughout and promised to appeal his conviction.
Deputy Premier Lorna Smith recently raised the issue of Fahie’s conviction as she debated the Services Commissions Act in the House of Assembly (HOA), a law some legislators described as invasive.
Smith, who is also the Financial Services Minister, said the BVI continues to face intense scrutiny, particularly from the international press, which constantly sends questions and publishes stories about the territory.
“One of the leading papers globally wanted answers to the fact that the BVI is so corrupt that they would not have convicted one particular outstanding person,” Smith said without naming Fahie.
She continued: “They wanted a response – of course, everything is tied up with our financial services – but they go around the bush and they talk about how dishonest we are and how much we are engaging in money laundering and so on.”
Although Smith declined to name Fahie outright, Opposition Leader Ronnie Skelton said that Smith was explicitly referring to the circumstances of the territory’s former leader.
“She’s afraid to call the name,” Skelton said. “It was the Andrew Fahie case in the United States and the article is saying he had to be tried in United States because he couldn’t be convicted in the courts in the Virgin Islands.”
Skelton said this was because no jury would have found him guilty.
Smith stressed that it is essential that legislators do whatever is necessary for the BVI to get past its current situation. The territory has been placed under a UK Order in Council ever since the arrest of Fahie coincided with the release of the Commission of Inquiry (COI) report.
That Order in Council could see the BVI moving to direct UK rule if it does not implement dozens of critical governance reforms by the latest extended deadline of August 31.
The BVI does not grant immunity from prosecution to Premiers or other elected officials under the Virgin Islands Constitution Order 2007, which does not explicitly provide immunity from prosecution for any public officeholder.
While parliamentary privilege allows members of the HOA to speak freely during debates without legal action for defamation, within parliamentary proceedings, elected officials, including the Premier, can be prosecuted for criminal offences.
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Lol ROTFL……is this really a question? The BV who??
… the DPP in the BVI is so hopeless and there is not need for corruption.
Free the drew lock up collins
Imagine a traglodyte demon trying to tell you bout honesty and reform LOL!
even if the bvi had the balls he would of gotten off quite easy with our weak DPP
BVIs refused to extradite Fat Hog Bob way back when despite a 1 year long DEA investigation with videos and everything. Why would it have been different had Fahie been caught red-handed here? He’d have been vexed to share some of the spoils, but that would have been that.
The BVI has a secure spot on the media’s black list for corruption. BVI financial services will continue to suffer regardless of it’s financial listings as black, red, grey or white.
Yes
They would have first had to charge him. To this day, no charges were ever filed against him despite all the evidence out there.
Therein lies a serious problem here in the BVI. We are failing to hold our own accountable for their wrongdoings which is leading to a larger problem of people getting away with criminal activity.
There are people in this country who are aware of crimes that have been committed by others, who have decided to play deaf and blind.
They look the other way either because they are friends with these people or involved in crimes themselves, or afraid to speak out.
Certainly, there are those who don’t want to get involved for whatever reason such as lack of trust in the police, or fear for their own lives.
It all amounts to a culture of acceptance of criminal activity that imo is not good for the country. In short a culture of no “snitching”.
Making matters worse even if a person was accused of a crime, charged and put on trial, there is a higher than normal probability that they would get off due to our familiar relationships to each other, the no snitching mindset among some, and a week imo DPP office.
I believe the U.K. understood this issue within our society, and decided it was best to get the U.S. involved if they were ever going get a conviction against the former disgraced Premier.
Now, the U.K. will never acknowledge their collaboration with the US in taking Head Coach down, there is no way the DEA could have operated here without their approval.
IMO, given the realities on the local front, the U.K. made the right call.
Local folks here in the BVI have to start holding our own to account. Stop making excuses for them. Stop trying to cover for them. If they are wrong they are wrong. If they are a criminal say so.
There is no way the former disgraced Premier was some lone wolf acting on his own without the knowledge of others. The BVI is simply too small for someone to do anything of significance without someone knowing.
For God’s sake, if you passed gas somewhere West End, and you live up East, before you get to your house up East, before you can get home, someone already knows you passed gas down West and awful is smelled.
The U.S. should not have had to come in here to clean up our mess. We have to fix ourselves, and say to all those who are committing crimes that you will be held accountable. The day we start doing so, will be the day we begin to return to the peaceful and lawful society we once had.
There are over 100 unsolved murders over many years in this tiny little place. How is that possible?
It’s possible because we have failed as a society to hold our own to account for their wrongdoings.
We ought to do better. Our children, grandchildren, and future generations deserves better.
EXACTLY. Well written & explained.
I could not have said this better. I have many enemies because I stand on integrity and refuse to tow the corridors of compromise. When you stand you a victimized for not following the script. Not me. I fear God!
You are right when you say, “they would have first had to charge him. To this day, no charges were ever filed against him despite all the evidence out there.”
Remember his picture is still mounted on the walls of the House of Assembly. This speaks VOLUMES of who we are as a people, especially when the tone is set by the highest people in the land. That alone answers the Editor’s question, but good article.
I agree his picture should be removed from the House of Assembly wall where it is right now.
Place it on some other world not visible to the public. While we cannot erase the fact that he was the Premier of this country, his picture in it’s current position reminds us of one thing: Corruption.
If we are going to turn the page on corruption in this country, a symbolic move of removing a convicted corrupted former leader from the walls of the House of Assembly is a good place to start.
The irony in all of this for me is the former disgraced Premier once accused the NDP government of being the most corrupt. Turns out he was speaking of himself. Remove his picture from the walls of the House of Assembly already.
When young people look at that wall, they need to see upstanding leaders of integrity not a convicted criminal.
If you lack the integrity to charge and the skills to prosecute.
How many licks does it take to get to the center of the tootsie pop?
Convicted him…..of course not, they would have re-elected him. Are you telling me that no one in his district knew what was going on and had been for some time.
When a recently retired Chief Inspector of the CID writes a testimonial to a sentencing judge in Miami on behalf of a convicted drug-trafficker, pleading for leniency, then you know we are in a bad place.
There is no way Head Coach would have been even charged here in the VI, far less to be brought to trial. The premier alluded to the “…perception of corruption…” recently. I say it is not just perception; corruption is a way of life in these parts; it is endemic.
There is no way Head Coach was planning an operation of this magnitude in isolation; he had to have persons well connected in high places to pull this off. $56M for four months work?! And once he had gotten on the back of this tiger, how was he planning to get off?
the short answer is no
F**k he, hope he be with God now
The BVI would have never even charged him. So corrupt
shout out to the risk takers the reason the bvi climb so high on the charts IBC to the world
Ha, ha of course not. Look what happeneed with the Bob extradition fiasco.
Has anyone ever wondered how Bob got killed?
The Government can still act by terminating his pension. Why should he continue to receibe tax payers monies, through the payment of a pension, when he has disgraced this country so bad. Public officers may lose their pension on conviction by any court, the disgraced Premier should be subject to the same. This is one way that the government to act to demonstrate they are capable of holding government officials accountable.
He would not have gone to trial!!
I am ,sadly,scornful of Fahie and his decades old
shameful behaviour. More than anyone else, members of his district were aware but their participation involved the handouts .He was shamelessly cruel in denyiin aid and relief to the neediest of VIP
supporters in his district, many of those elderly.
Many murders and violence his evilness has caused
suffering and mourning unabated for mothers.
We walk among perpetrators of killings that are unsolved. And yes, who murdered Bob Hodge? uffering
I think you meant and I do agree
” denied aid and relief to the neediest of NDP supporters in his district….”
The bvi does do anything at all? , that’s why people move away from here .
We are still uncertain about HOW ❓️■ can you please shed some light on the first known drug lord of the WEST – ( departed this life ) ), or if he was just a FRONT for the real one
The article full of crap if it exist. I don’t know if they are aware that Andrew did not want to run at large because he knew the majority of people would not elect him to office if he did. Fahie was safe in the 1st district. The jurors would have included many people including people that were not born in the BVI. Not all belongers have BVI roots and some belongers are Americans and UK nationals. Additionally why are they saying that people of the BVI lack morality based off of the very small percentage of people that are elected as government members. Only 13 people are elected every 4 years. If we base it on the last 100 years which we have not been voting for that long it would be a max of 325 elected members. If all 325 were corrupt, that’s a very small percentage of the more than 40,000 people that are from and reside in the BVI in the last 100 years.
N come out blue stay hiding next up c u when we c u
No. No. No. Never. The case won’t even reach to court. Why isn’t the BVI Police arrested the other Port lady, she was clearly part of the conspiracy that started in the BVI. The only reason why she wasn’t or shouldn’t be arrested is if she is part of the informant team,
If Andrew should return now to the BVI – they will give him a hero welcome
They do not see wrong doing they support famiky in wrong
The BVI culture does the following:
1Get upset with you when they are caught doing wrong .So of course instead of condemning what Andrew they are vex with the people who help to get him caught
2. Thry do not eant to be told when they are wrong . They blame others
3. Never take responsibility for wrong doing
4. Keep silent about wrong and injustice
5. Hold you in mind for doing the right thing and squeeze you for it when they get the chance
6. Never condemn their love ones for doing wrong and are mum about it
7. Afraid to stand up for what is right because a family member woul chastise them for speaking out
8. See something say nothing policy
Do you understand why the murders go unpunished.
Of Course The COUNTRY WOULD HAVE NEVER CONDEMNED Andrew Fahie
They would have all talk behind closed doors and say nothing in
Public. He would have walked scotch FREE. It would have been trumped up charges and conspiracy theory
The man is corrupt. He got a light sentence. He should have gotten 50 years. The DPP is a joke. She always have an excuse as to why she can’t take a matter forward. Unless they find a way to replace her nothing will change.
Of course not!
And, that’s why, the White English man, will always have to be the ones, to lead the charges against corruption, in this place!
We are too inept at it..Simpletons, to say the least!
well you have broken it down very gently and even the message is as clear as crystal ,( nuff respect to you ) for telling like it is / those fake holy hypocrites is a typical example
We would have convicted the person who came here to set traps for locals to fall into.
He would have ridden into Road Town on the back of a donkey and we would throw palm leaves in the street for him and proclaimed him the best thing since sliced bread.
You are so right because I remember hearing one of his staunch supporter saying he was “jesus” one time at a district meeting early in his political career.
Its Really sad to listen how people love to kill their own. Why you think the court give the man a light sentence because they saw that it was the undercover DEA is who had the drugs, not Andrew. They only had his voice of cooperation but he wasin’t the one that organize anything. I assure you that he would win his appeal. Just wait and see. I am not saying that Andrew is innocent, I am saying that he was entrapped by the Uk and the DEA of the USA. The money he received wasin’t from any drug lord. It was the undercover DEA. They are the ones that needs to be investigated. What about the BVI Hesbollah that they say are present here. How come you don’t look for them?
No. What is sad is your post trying to defend the indefensible. The DEA nor the UK did not put a gun to Head Coach’s head and say take this money.
They did not put a gun to his head when he pulled out a calculator to calculate his share of the proceeds.
They did not put a gun to his head to travel from his hotel in Miami to Opa Locka Airport in Florida to inspect what he thought was payment for his part of deal.
He did all those things on his own entrapment or not.
No one can be entrapped in a criminal scheme if they do not partake in it.
He could have walked away and said NO, and reported the matter to law enforcement. Rather, he willingly went along, thus the conspiracy charge.
He got the 11 years because that was what the law prescribed. It’s 1 year over the mandatory minimum for his conviction by law.
There are sentencing guidelines judges follow. As a first time offender, that was the punishment written in the law in Florida Criminal Statues. Look it up for yourself. He was never going to get life imprisonment as a first time offender.
No one get’s life for these kind of charges short of a murder having been committed as part of the overall conviction.
Now, I understand that you have your feelings about this, but don’t let your feelings blind you to the truth about this man.
He committed a crime of his own volition at the end of the day, and he is paying the price for it.
Stop condoning his wrong; stop making excuses for him. Face reality of what he is and the crime he committed, and the damage he has done to the reputation of our country.
I understand that it’s hard to face the reality of people we look up to or have feelings for in some way, but imo, you can love and still care for them and still say they did wrong. Take the blinders off and see Head Coach for who he is and what he did.
His lawyers has filed an appeal of which he is entitled to do. If the appeal process rule in his favor, then the legal system would have ran its’ course.
I expect that one like you would assist the police in solving all those unsolved murders in the B.V.I.
If you are suggesting that I would not assist law enforcement with solving any of the 100 plus unsolved murders in this county, you clearly don’t understand whom you are dealing with.
You are an A Square Such….why do you feel the “DEA had the money” if not to allow Fahie to continue his illegal doings. Admit it – the ex-Premier has disgraced the country and should be stripped of all ‘honors’ or power – including the removal of any photos in official capacities!! Do you not realize how serious this mudder phucker has devastated this tiny country????
No! No jury would have convicted Fahie in BVI. Just like no convictions for murders or drug smuggling for belongers only convictions for non belongers convicted.