BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS – The Team Unity Government in St. Kitts and Nevis has revoked the passports of several persons it granted citizenship under the St. Kitts and Nevis Citizenship by Investment Programme.
The disclosure has come from Leader of the Opposition, the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas.
“Since Timothy Harris has been in government I can say without a shadow of a doubt, that several passports have been recalled and he has issued new citizenships to persons, who after the United States Government has said to him are criminals and have to be removed from the programme,” said Dr. Douglas during Tuesday’s “Ask the Leader” on Kyss 102.5 FM.
Dr, Douglas reiterated Tuesday that the negatives paddled about the St. Kitts and Nevis Programme by the then opposition Team Unity coalition was being done for political reasons and now they are sitting in the hot seat and they realise that there is very little that they can do to thwart some of these individuals.
On May 27th 2016, 15 months after Dr. Harris took office, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it has filed fraud charges against an attorney and Nevada resident David Kaplan based on an allegedly fraudulent scheme that raised $15.8 million, out of which approximately $385,000 was sent to St. Kitts and Nevis, and of which at least $79,394 was wired to a St .Kitts law firm to obtain passports and /or St Kitts and Nevis citizenship for Kaplan and his wife.
The SEC complaint file on May 19, 2016, in the US District Court for the District of Nevada-Reno, charged Kaplan and three entities, Synchronized Organizational Solutions International Ltd, Synchronized Organizational Solutions LLC, and Manna International Enterprises Ltd.
According to one of the complaint, Kaplan used at least $2.3 million for his personal benefit, including approximately $385,000 sent to St Kitts and Nevis between June 2015 to March 2016, of which at least $79,394 was wired to a St. Kitts law firm to obtain passports and/or St. Kitts and Nevis citizenship for Kaplan and his wife.
The Government of St. Kitts and Nevis which promised transparency and freedom of information has not divulged information when Prime Minister and Minister of National Security, Dr the Hon Timothy Harris, who took office in February 2015, signed the Certificates of Citizenship for the Kaplans and how the investment was made to qualify for citizenship.
The Office of the Prime Minister was also tight-lipped on the date the St. Kitts and Nevis passports were issued to the Kaplans and the local law firm which processed the documents for citizenship and the passports.
The SEC accused Kaplan of repeatedly lying to prospective investors by stating that their funds would be invested in a low-risk, private offshore trading program that would be provide estimated monthly profits of 10 percent. The complaint alleged that Kaplan did not use investor funds as promised but instead: sent $1.1 million to his wife, Lisa Kaplan, a purported charitable foundation, and a corporation that Kaplan controlled; invested at least $360,000 in an allegedly fraudulent scheme at the centre of a federal criminal indictment in Ohio; and made approximately $1.8 million in Ponzi-like payments to other investors.
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