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Business Crimes Hotline
Former Barbados Government Official Convicted on U.S. Money Laundering Charges Following Insurance Company of Barbados FCPA Settlement
On Jan. 16, 2020, a federal jury in Brooklyn, NY, convicted a former member of Barbados' Parliament, Donville Inniss, 54, on two counts of money laundering and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection with a scheme to accept approximately $36,000 in bribes from the Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited (ICBL). Inniss, 54, is a U.S. permanent resident with homes in both Barbados and in Tampa, FL, where he was arrested in August 2018.
As the Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce, and Small Business Development in Barbados, Inniss exercised authority over several government agencies, including the Barbados Investment & Development Corporation (BIDC). According to prosecutors, between August 2015 and April 2016, Inniss used his role to secure $36,000 in bribes from ICBL executives in exchange for BIDC renewal of two government insurance contracts with the company. The contracts in question related to insurance for over $100 million worth of government property.
At trial, prosecutors argued that the bribes paid were in violation of the Barbados Prevention of Corruption Act, with the money then illegally laundered through various U.S. bank accounts connected with Inniss. In order to conceal the bribes, Inniss first arranged with two ICBL executives to receive payment via a U.S. bank account located in Long Island, NY and held in the name of a friend's dental company: "Crystal Dental Labs." The same friend then assisted in transferring portions of the bribes to a bank account in Inniss' name located in Tampa, FL. Jurors were shown a number of bank records, invoices, wire transfers and checks outlining the money's path from an ICBL Bermuda-based shareholder to Crystal Dental Labs and then into Inniss' U.S. account.
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