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DE RUEHWN #0429/01 0671613
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P 081613Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY BRIDGETOWN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2070
INFO RUCNCOM/EC CARICOM COLLECTIVE
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RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM J5 MIAMI FL
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C O N F I D E N T I A L BRIDGETOWN 000429 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/28/2016 
TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL CPAS EFIN EINV KCRM OFDP GJ XL
SUBJECT: GRENADA: THE PRIME MINISTER, OFFSHORE BANKS AND 
CORRUPTION 
 
REF: A. BRIDGETOWN 315 
     ¶B. BRIDGETOWN 294 
     ¶C. BRIDGETOWN 239 
 
Classified By: DCM Mary Ellen T. Gilroy for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
¶1. (C) Summary: Keith Mitchell's ten-year tenure as Prime 
Minister of Grenada has been tarnished by numerous 
allegations of corruption, the worst of which involve 
Grenada's once thriving offshore banks and its economic 
citizenship program.  This situation was highlighted in 
February by the conviction in the U.S. on fraud charges of an 
individual who reportedly paid a US$50,000 bribe to the PM in 
exchange for being named a Grenadian Ambassador.  Mitchell 
has also been linked to several offshore banks that defrauded 
investors of millions of dollars before collapsing.  The 
former executives of one Grenada-based bank have been 
indicted in the U.S. for fraud.  While a certain amount of 
corruption is expected in the Caribbean, PM Mitchell has been 
accused of an exceptionally high level of wrongdoing that has 
impacted negatively on his domestic political standing and 
may call into question his reliability as a political 
interlocutor.  End summary. 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
PM Mitchell and a Suitcase Containing $50,000 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) The corrupt practices Grenada Prime Minister Keith 
Mitchell has been accused of range from typical padding of 
public works contracts to the extraordinary charge that in 
2000 Mitchell personally accepted US$50,000 in exchange for 
granting an unsavory figure diplomatic status.  The 
circumstances surrounding this allegation were first revealed 
in 2004 by an offshore banking industry newsletter, which 
reported that during a trip to Switzerland Mitchell was given 
a suitcase containing the cash by German-born businessman 
Eric Resteiner.  In return, Resteiner was named Ambassador at 
Large for Grenada.  Mitchell has denied this charge and said 
that he received US$15,000 from Resteiner as reimbursement 
for expenses incurred during official travel to Europe and 
the Middle East to attract investment to Grenada. 
 
------------------------------------- 
Mitchell Associate Jailed in the U.S. 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶3. (U) Eric Resteiner is suspected of obtaining Grenadian 
diplomatic status as a means to facilitate his corrupt 
business practices and to help him avoid prosecution.  A 
diplomatic passport, however, did not protect Resteiner from 
the USG, which had him extradited from Singapore in June 2004 
to face multiple fraud charges.  On February 10, 2006, 
Resteiner pled guilty in U.S. Federal Court to charges that 
he defrauded more than 50 people of over US$47 million 
through a scam that was purportedly a high-yield 
international bank trading investment program.  Resteiner, 
who is scheduled to be sentenced on May 8, faces up to 20 
years' imprisonment and a multi-million dollar fine. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
How Much Does it Cost to be a Grenadian Diplomat? 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶4. (SBU) When Resteiner was indicted on fraud charges in 
2004, this made him the second Grenada "diplomat" to be 
indicted in the U.S. in less then a year.  Czech-born Viktor 
Kozeny, who obtained a Grenada passport through the country's 
now-defunct economic citizenship program and was subsequently 
named Honorary Consul for Grenada, had been indicted just 
months earlier in New York on charges that he stole US$182 
million from several investment funds.  Another "diplomat," 
the Israeli-born Yoav Rubinstein, obtained Grenada 
citizenship through the economic citizenship program in 1999 
and was immediately given, on paper at least, a diplomatic 
post at the Embassy of Grenada in Washington.  In 2005, the 
Department determined that Rubinstein was not a bona fide 
diplomat and denied the GOG's application to renew his A-2 
diplomatic visa. 
 
----------------------- 
Mitchell Caught on Tape 
----------------------- 
 
¶5. (C) While in U.S. custody, Eric Resteiner revealed to law 
enforcement officials that he possessed a videotape that 
showed PM Mitchell taking the suitcase containing US$50,000. 
Resteiner offered to turn the tape over to the USG in the 
hope that this would help him obtain a more favorable plea 
arrangement.  Federal prosecutors and FBI agents viewed the 
tape and confirmed that it showed Mitchell accepting the cash 
and unsuccessfully attempting to stuff it into his pockets. 
They did not, however, accept the tape as part of a plea 
because Mitchell could not be indicted as a co-conspirator by 
law enforcement officials without their first receiving 
high-level approval from within the USG. 
 
------------------------------- 
PM Attempts to Muzzle the Press 
------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (U) The allegation that Keith Mitchell took US$50,000 from 
Resteiner was first publicly reported in 2004 by Offshore 
Alert, an offshore banking industry newsletter that covers 
unscrupulous activity in this often shady industry.  Once the 
story broke, the PM attempted to subvert the efforts of the 
Grenada press to report on the story.  The GOG said it would 
sue local media outlets that reprinted the article from 
Offshore Alert, and Mitchell personally threatened a Grenada 
journalist who reported on the story.  The journalist, Leroy 
Noel, was also detained by the Grenada police for questioning 
about his sources.  These incidents brought criticism from 
several international NGOs dedicated to protecting the rights 
of journalists and were included in the Department's 2004 
Human Rights Report for Grenada. 
 
---------------------------------- 
Official Investigation Goes Slowly 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶7. (U) An official investigation into the allegations against 
PM Mitchell has moved slowly, leading to charges that the GOG 
is failing to pursue the case aggressively.  In August 2004, 
the Governor General of Grenada appointed Barbados lawyer 
Richard Cheltenham to undertake an investigation of the 
suitcase bribery case, which was delayed after Hurricane Ivan 
devastated the country in September.  Since getting underway 
in June 2005, the Commission of Inquiry has held only a 
handful of hearings, much to the consternation of the 
political opposition which has long held that PM Mitchell is 
corrupt.  The Commission has denied the opposition's repeated 
requests to be involved in the investigation.  There is 
presently no indication as to how long the investigation 
might take and many Grenadians appear to believe it will be a 
whitewash. 
 
---------------------- 
Offshore Hall of Shame 
---------------------- 
 
¶8. (U) While the suitcase bribery incident is the most 
damning allegation against Keith Mitchell, it is not by any 
means the only one.  The PM has also been accused of 
accepting payoffs to allow a number of unscrupulous offshore 
banks to operate in Grenada before they collapsed in 2000. 
This legacy led Mitchell to be inducted into Offshore Alert's 
Hall of Shame for making Grenada "synonymous with 
white-collar crime."  Grenada's former regulator of the 
offshore sector, Michael Creft, is also in the Hall of Shame 
as the "village idiot of offshore regulators" for having 
allowed more than 40 banks to operate fraudulent activities 
from the country before they collapsed and investors lost 
their money (see 
http://offshorebusiness.com/hall of shame.asp). 
 
------------------ 
Another Indictment 
------------------ 
 
¶9. (U) Among the questionable figures Mitchell is suspected 
of colluding with is Gilbert Allen Ziegler, alias Van Arthur 
Brink, founder and CEO of the First International Bank of 
Grenada (FIBG), a now defunct offshore bank that defrauded 
investors of millions of dollars.  During the years FIBG 
operated, Ziegler publicly thanked Mitchell on several 
occasions for his support of the bank including when the FBI 
was investigating FIBG.  Ziegler and others involved in the 
bank were indicted in January 2004 in a Federal Court in 
Portland, Oregon for fraud and money laundering.  (Note: 
Ziegler was extradited to the U.S. from Uganda in June 2004 
and died of heart failure in December 2005.  The trial of the 
other indicted FIBG executives is scheduled to begin later 
this year.  End note.)  In Grenada, meanwhile, the political 
opposition has accused the PM of using GOG legal adviser Hugh 
Wildman to frustrate USG efforts to extradite and interview 
witnesses who could tie Mitchell to the defunct bank. 
 
¶10. (C) Note: On February 25, 2006, PO Grenada received a 
call from an attorney representing a defendant in the FIBG 
case, who explained that he was part of a legal team that was 
in Grenada to talk to witnesses who might be able to help 
their client.  The attorney was worried by the negative 
reaction of some witnesses to the lawyers' visit, as well as 
what he said was the interest taken in their activities by 
police officers who are part of PM Mitchell's personal 
security detail.  The attorney believed that the legal team 
was being misconstrued as an FBI effort to secure evidence in 
a case against the PM.  LEGATT Bridgetown reported that on 
February 26 the Grenada police force's Special Branch 
inquired about FBI agents who were supposedly in Grenada. 
End note. 
 
----------------------------------- 
Just How Corrupt is Keith Mitchell? 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶11. (C) Comment: Keith Mitchell's corruption may not reach 
the heights of the Bird family, which ran Antigua as its 
personal fiefdom for decades.  (Note:  It is LEGATT 
Bridgetown's opinion that Mitchell, who created Grenada's 
offshore banking industry largely for his own enrichment and 
did nothing to reign it in, could be considered more corrupt 
than former Antigua Prime Minister Lester Bird.  End note.) 
But, neither do Mitchell's activities appear to be on the 
lower level of Prime Ministers in the region who accept 
campaign donations in exchange for favors.  In the recent 
case, for example, of Dominica, its Prime Minister was 
accused of accepting campaign donations from wealthy 
expatriates who were given diplomatic status.  The money, 
however, was used to fund the ruling party's 2005 re-election 
campaign and is not believed to have gone into the PM's own 
pocket (ref C).  Keith Mitchell, on the other hand, has 
reportedly been videotaped literally pocketing money given to 
him by an individual who is now a convicted felon.  Such 
apparently unscrupulous activity should call into question 
the PM's veracity when he deals with international 
interlocutors.  Moreover, this demonstrated lack of judgment 
and self-serving attitude may help explain why Mitchell 
regularly attempts to discredit the political opposition with 
wild claims that Grenada is on the verge of a coup despite 
the damage this might do to his country (refs A and B).  End 
comment. 
KRAMER