In a dramatic, incredulous twist to the IHI corruption saga, Vere Browne, Antigua & Barbuda's Police Commissioner, issued the following statement earlier this week:

"Sometime between last night (sic - 19 December 2011) and the early hours of this morning, some person or persons unknown broke and illegally entered the building of the High Court of Justice and committed a criminal act.

Upon gaining entry, the intruder or intruders forced open the office that housed the police detective, who are currently investigating the IHI case and entered the cabinet in the said office by prying open the safe.

They removed several sensitive files, which contain very important documents from the said cabinet. All of these documents pertain to the current IHI inquiry.

Some of those documents are as follows: the IHI interview file, the IHI commission of inquiry folder, the IHI commission of inquiry document which contains several correspondence.

They also took a folder, containing copies of the IHI debit payments, account statements and statements from other important witnesses.

Also taken from the cabinet, (was) the IHI commission of inquiry transcript of proceedings. They also took envelopes containing registration information for Bellwood services.

The intruders also made way with some files and folders which pertain to a separate inquiry normal slice soft. They moved all the files for that inquiry and also the computer which related to the slice soft investigation.

I should let you know that the slice soft criminal investigation case is scheduled to be tried before the high court in a few weeks. Ladies and gentlemen, the police view this a brazen, wanton and deliberate criminal act, as a consequence, a special investigation team has been set up, to trace, locate, and try to identify the culprit or culprits in this matter.

The perpetrators, when caught, will be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law. Currently, we have stepped up security around all the courts as a result of this. I thank you."

This announcement was fine-tuned the following day: " Informed sources said the intruders did not break into the building, as the door had been left unlocked. The sources added that the only "break-in" was when the intruders used an implement to pry open the filing cabinet." There was no further mention of a safe.

The IHI affair has been moved from back to front burner and back again several times during the eight years since the UPP administration won the elections of 2004. It involved a corrupt scheme of self-enrichment by members of the previous ALP government through the services of the late banker, broker and sometime diplomat, Bruce Rappaport. The claim against Rappaport, Lester Bird, Asot Michael, his mother, Josette C. Michael, the Bellwood Services S.A. and a number of other individuals and corporations, was filed by the Government of Antigua in two jurisdictions, Antigua (in 2006) and Miami (in 200 .

The allegations and the resulting debt imposed on the public treasury was so significant that it appeared in the IMF Annual Country Reports. The Anti-Corruption Committee of the International Bar Association also reported the filing of the case in its first newsletter dated April 2009, as evidence of Antigua's effort to curb and prosecute corruption.

The description of the case and its progress was presented by the Antigua's Attorney General, Justin Simon, in a statement delivered 10 February 2009, as follows:

"Shortly after this Administration took office, I informed you by way of a Press Statement that the government had commissioned a financial forensic investigation and had secured the services of Mr Robert Lindquist who had himself led like-investigations in Trinidad and Tobago where over Seven Million US Dollars of illegal payments to public officials had been recovered, and that he was instrumental in the arrest and prosecutions of persons involved in the Piarco International Airport scandal in Trinidad.

It has been long in coming, but I can now advise you, the patient citizens and residents, that I now have in hand Mr Lindquist's complete and comprehensive report on the IHI Debt Repayment Scheme. The Report traces the payment by government from December 1996 of the monthly sum of US$403,334 out of the consumption tax revenue paid by West Indies Oil Company to the various persons in receipt of these monies, with details of the companies through which the monies were sent, to what bank accounts, in which countries and how these monies were finally disbursed. These monthly sums were paid out of government funds pursuant to an irrevocable letter of instructions right up until February 20206, when I obtained an Injunction from the High Court in Antigua and Barbuda stopping the continuance of the payments, and freezing the bank account here in Antigua of an associated Florida company called Debt Settlement Administrators LLC.

It was a gigantic conspiracy engineered and effected by persons in high places to rob this country of millions of dollars right up to the year 2021, a burden that would be carried by your children and your children's children/ Consider this. These monthly payments were, by an Agreement dated September 11, 1997, to be made over a period of 25 years beginning December 31, 1996 (retrospectively nine (9) months before the Agreement was signed) and would have amounted to an aggregate payment of US $121,000 200. Out of that monthly sum of US $403,334 coming out of the Government Treasury, only US$199,740.25 would be legitimately paid to IHI Japan amounting to an aggregate sum of US $59,922,075 over the 25 years. In simple arithmetical terms, US $61,078,125 in excess of the total sum due IHI Japan would have been misappropriated out of the Treasury and gone "ahagwasa" over that 25 year period.

You will recall that in March 2006 I had advised by way of Press Statement that as Attorney General I had, on behalf of the Government, filed in the High Court of Antigua and Barbuda a civil claim in respect of the IHI matter for special damages in the sum of US $14,414,904 plus interest, as well as general damages and exemplary damages for fraudulent misrepresentation and misfeasance in public office. The substantive Defendants in the claim are: Lester Bryant Bird, Asot Michael MP, Bellwood Services S.A. a Panamanian company, Patrick A. Michael Co. Ltd, an Antigua and Barbuda company, Bruce Rappaport, IHI Debt Settlement Company Ltd. a Hong Kong company, and Debt Settlement Administrators LLC of Florida.

This morning I have caused to be served on all the defendants, through their respective local Counsel, a Notice of Discontinuance which will be filed in the High Court in respect of two of the defendants: Bruce Rappaport and his Hong Kong company, IHI Debt Settlement Company Ltd. The effect of this notice is to inform the court and seek the court's permission to discontinue the civil claim against these two defendants only; the claim will continue to proceed against the other six substantial defendants and we expect that process to move speedily towards a hearing date from here on.

The reason for discontinuing the civil action against Bruce Rappaport and his company IHI Debt Settlement Company Ltd. is simply this: after months of hard negotiations based on the information provided by Mr Lindquist in his report, Mr Rappaport, through his lawyers, has agreed to settle the claim against himself and his company by paying to the government the sum of US$12,000,000 in respect of our civil claim. I am pleased to advise that the government is in receipt of the payment. I will be advising our Counsel in Miami to take similar steps in respect of the pending Miami case whose status, as you know from my recent Statement to Parliament, is due for review in late May 2009.

You will no doubt recognize the importance and significance of this recent development as this Administration seeks to recover through a number of civil actions the various monies and parcels of land which we allege were fraudulently appropriated by certain members of the former administration for their own personal gain and enrichment and to the detriment and financial pain of the people of this country.

This is an historic day for Antigua & Barbuda., EC$32 million has been recovered that rightfully belong to the people's government.

Now the perpetrators of this great crime can be brought to justice."

It is instructive to note that although "certain member of the former administration" caused "financial pain to the people of this country", the recovery of the misappropriated funds "rightfully belong to the people's government". It is also curious that the list of named Defendants in the claims filed in both jurisdictions does not include the individual acting as Attorney General at the time of "the gigantic conspiracy" and the signing of the Agreement by the Government of Antigua.

Little was said about this matter until July 2009, when Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer made a sudden announcement, advising that on behalf of the Government of Antigua and Barbuda he had commissioned a full public inquiry in the IHI matter. Spencer advised that Australian Chief Justice James Jacob Spigelman had accepted the role as sole commissioner of this Commission of Inquiry, with UK Barrister, Kirsty Brimelow serving as counsel to the Commission.

The date set for the opening of the Commission of Inquiry was 6 August 2009 and its findings would be presented to the Governor-General by December 2009.

Of course, questions were raised as to the need for yet another Inquiry, since the Lindquist Report had already laid the basis for two legal actions, one in Antigua and the other in Miami.

PM Spencer responded by a special address to the nation, in which he stated:

"Others of you will ask why my Government is choosing, at this time, to pursue the inquiry. There are other pressing matters facing us, you will say. Well, in a country whose livelihood is heavily dependent, whether in tourism or finance, on public image, how much longer should be wait? How much longer dare we wait? We must now search our souls and ask ourselves whether there is ever a wrong time to do the right thing."

For several weeks thereafter, the Antiguan news reported on the various Defendants named in the case (including those not mentioned by AG Simon), who scattered to various courts and succeeded in getting a temporary injunction against this latest Inquiry, based on the fact that a legal action was already filed against them.

However, it went unnoticed for quite some time that on 16 October 2009, AG Simon filed a Notice of Discontinuance of case #06-03560CA25 in the Miami Court against the remaining Defendants. The rationale subsequently offered for this decision was that there was a similar claim filed in Antigua and these Defendants would still have to answer for their actions.

That was the case finally making its way towards a hearing - until this week's events at the High Court caused the disappearance of critical "substantive" evidence.

It is unlikely that these documents will ever reappear - not even on Wikileaks! The slow wheels of Antiguan justice have ground to a halt.

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