February 2010 Standard U.S
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PRESORTED FEBRUARY 2010 STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE PAID MIAMI, FL PERMIT NO. 7315 Tel: (305) 238-2868 1-800-605-7516 [email protected] [email protected] Vol. 21 No. 3 Jamaica: 655-1479 Feb2010.qxd 2/11/10 2:16 PM Page 2 2 CARIBBEAN TODAY February 2010 www.caribcbeantoday.com NEWS Buju Banton’s lawyer cries entrapment Court to decide on Antiguan’s extradition to U.S. for links to $7B Stanford scheme in entertainer’s Florida drug case ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC - the Ponzi scheme by ensuring Chief Magistrate Ivan Walters that the FSRC conducted TAMPA, Florida - The lawyer Banton on a flight from government to disclose the will on Mar. 25 rule whether sham audits and examinations representing Jamaican dance- Madrid, Spain to Miami, identity and location of the or not Leroy of Stanford International hall artiste Buju Banton is confidential informant who King, the for- Bank Limited’s (SIBL’s) books arguing that the United States was an eyewitness and partici- mer head of and records. It also alleges government entrapped his pant in the events, which are the Financial that in exchange for bribes client in a drug deal. the subject of both counts of Services paid to him over several years, The singer, whose real the indictment”. Regulatory King made sure that the FSRC name is Mark Anthony Myrie, Commission did not examine SIBL’s invest- is being detained in a Florida ACTIVE (FSRC), ment portfolio. King was also jail after he was arrested late He argued that the should be said to have provided the last year on charges of con- informant “was clearly an extradited to King investor with access to the spiring to distribute cocaine active participant in the entire the United FSRC’s confidential regulatory and aiding and abetting his co- chain of events” and that “the States. files on him, including the defendants in possessing a facts and circumstances of the King is wanted in the U.S. SEC’s requests for information firearm during the course of confidential sources’ contacts on charges related to his alleged from FSRC in its investigation. the cocaine distribution. with Mr. Myrie display a involvement in a $7 billion Ponzi The SEC said that King The Grammy nominated deliberate effort by a paid scheme of disgraced Texan fin- went so far as to allow entertainer pleaded not guilty informant to ensnare a perfect ancier Sir Allen Stanford. Stanford to essentially dictate to the charges and is being stranger…into committing a King is accused of 10 the FSRC’s responses to the held without bail. Buju Banton crime…” counts of conspiracy to commit SEC on those information According to the docu- mail fraud, seven counts of con- requests. INFORMANT Florida on July 26, 2009 by ment filed in the court: “The spiracy to commit wire fraud, King remains under house In court documents filed “sheer chance, bad luck or informant was clearly an conspiracy to launder illegal arrest and will continue to on Jan. 26, attorney David other reason to which the active participant in the entire proceeds and conspiracy to report to the St. John’s police Markus claimed that the U.S. defendant is unaware.” chain of events”. obstruct the U.S. Securities and station twice daily, accompa- government used a paid According to the lawyer, the Banton, whose latest Exchange Commission (SEC). nied by one of his two sureties. informant to convince his police informant spent the album “Rasta Got Soul” was The SEC’s complaint client to buy cocaine and is next several months trying to nominated for a Grammy, is alleges that King facilitated ® pushing to have the infor- convince the Jamaican singer due to return to court next mant’s identity revealed. to purchase cocaine. month. Markus claimed that the The lawyer filed a motion ® Jamaican educator Rex Nettleford informant first met Buju for an order “compelling the dies in Washington D.C. hospital cclaimed Caribbean Nettleford was regarded as one academic Professor of the Caribbean’s leading intel- ARalston Milton “Rex” lectuals and was bestowed with Nettleford died in a United the Order of States hospital early this the Caribbean month, on the eve of his 77th Community in birthday. 2008. He was Nettleford, who at the also the recipi- time of his passing was the ent of vice-chancellor emeritus of Jamaica’s third the University of the West highest honor, Indies (UWI), collapsed in the the Order of United States late last month Merit and was and had to be admitted to the a cultural advi- intensive care unit of the sor to Prime Nettleford George Washington Hospital Minister Bruce in Washington D.C. after suf- Golding. fering what was reported to be The founder of the inter- a massive heart attack. nationally acclaimed National He had previously served Dance Theatre Company, as the vice-chancellor of the Nettleford also authored sev- UWI’s Mona campus in eral publications. Jamaica from 1996 to 2004. Born on Feb. 3, 1933, ® Jamaican jailed in Virginia for immigration fraud NORFOLK, Va., Weds. Feb. found guilty by a federal jury 3, 2010: A Jamaican woman in October of conspiring with will spend the next 45 months the Viktar Krus organization in jail in Virginia on an immi- in Virginia Beach to commit gration fraud conviction. worker visa fraud and laun- Clover May Robinson- dering the unlawful proceeds. Gordon, 44, of Montego Bay Viktar Krus and 21 other was sentenced early this foreign nationals and U.S. citi- month in United States zens were indicted in Jan. 2009 District Court in Norfolk for as part of the massive immi- conspiracy and money laun- gration-related fraud case. dering in connection with immigration fraud. CaribWorldNews Robinson-Gordon was ® Feb2010.qxd 2/11/10 2:16 PM Page 3 February 2010 CARIBBEAN TODAY 3 Feb2010.qxd 2/11/10 2:16 PM Page 4 4 CARIBBEAN TODAY February 2010 www.caribcbeantoday.com NEWS Haitians in U.S. wade through hope, despair of earthquake devastation DAWN A. DAVIS U.S. who lost relatives and week after the tragedy. “She’s Prince three days after the ling the disease through a friends in their homeland’s gone, but she died in the place tragedy. Her mother Ghislaine totally organic lifestyle. But atrick Abouna remem- most devastating natural she loved the most. She died Martin was on the last flight even such a serious health bers the computer video tragedy, must begin the jour- in Haiti.” out of the capital’s airport on condition has taken a back- Pconversation with his Jan. 12 less than seat to more pressing matters. mother Dominique Richez. two hours before “Right now it’s phase It was Jan. 12. Richez, a the quake struck. two,” her daughter said. “We French citizen who had for “When we have to figure out when we many years made Haiti her first heard the are going to Haiti to get my home, was in the country’s news, we were ter- father and what to do with the capital of Port-au-Prince, talk- rified because it’s a property.” ing to her son and grandson. large house and it’s The home that has been a Abouna, a Fort Lauderdale, on the side of a refuge for Rowe’s parents has Florida resident, was in the mountain,” said also been a summer retreat United States. Rowe. “We were for her daughter who has Suddenly Richez’s image worried that homes spent her summers with her started to shake. Her earpiece above could have grandparents since she was fell. She vanished from the fallen on it.” five years old. screen. The three- “I have a lot of friends “I was speaking to my storey dwelling was there,” said 12-year-old mom on SKYPE when the the only one left Christina Rowe. earthquake hit,” Abouna, said standing in the “Last summer we hung last month after the earth- neighborhood out a lot, but I don’t know queak which has claimed called Pacquot. what happened to them. I thousands of lives on the Rowe believes it want to go back this summer. French-speaking Caribbean withstood the And if I go, I will help. island. “…Then everything earthquake Usually at summer camp in went black.” because of the Haiti we do charity work like Five days passed before U.S.-manufactured repair and paint school build- materials used to ings.” Abouna learned what had hap- Carla Rowe shows a photograph of her parents house in earthquake-ravaged Haiti. pened to his mother. She was build it and the Yet the Martins have not confirmed dead, among the vic- given up on Haiti. tims of the earthquake which ney to recovery. The pieces, “It’s their retirement measured 7.0 in intensity. literally and figuratively, must BLESSING home, their dream home,” Richez was an active be picked up. However, not all the news Rowe said of her parents. dancer and teacher, president For most, the process will was bad for Haitians living in “They put everything they of the National Dance be strikingly similar. Abouna Florida, a U.S. state with a had into it and have been liv- Teacher Association of Haiti and his family - his brothers huge Haitian American popu- ing there about five years. So, and vice president of the who live in France and the lation. Some clutched desper- yes, they want to go back National Dance Council. On United Kingdom - will visit ately to any silver lining someday. My mother, who is a the fateful day, she was at the Haiti to retrieve their moth- remaining, no matter how vibrant 75, lives a healthier Club Bellevue Hotel in the er’s remains.