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Ex-St.Kitts-Nevis Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas has one hell of a battle on his hands. The battle is not just to make history and defy all the odds and wisdom of political pundits to return to the seat of power but to somehow regain credibility in the eyes of the World particularly the eyes of world powers.
Things began going downhill for Dr. Douglas around 2010 when it was revealed during the Election Campaign then that he co-owned a company called LEX CONSULTING which leaked financial documents of that company showed transactions totaling millions of dollars passing through the accounts. The Lex Consulting was linked to Dr. Denzil Douglas and a K. Woodley who is also the mother of his children. During a press briefing in early 2010 and reported by the Observer Newspaper it was asserted that “LEX CONSULTING was a shell company operated By Dr. Douglas and the mother of two of his children, through which illegitimate funds were being channeled from accounts in numerous countries.The Documents also provided evidence showing that the registered offices of the company, was is in fact the home of the same Kate Alex Woodley, at 3265 Bainbridge Avenue, Apartment B52, Bronx, New York, 10467-3000. The two main accounts for which proof was established, are 000002391182553 and 000779501106365.” Soon after the revelation LEX CONSULTING was closed and one of the principles K. Woodley moved to Dubai where she was appointed Consul-General of the first ever St.Kitts-Nevis Embassy in Dubai.
But the woes did not stop there for Dr. Douglas and his childrens mother. In 2012 The US and Canadian governments began to raise serious concerns regarding Dr. Douglas’ movements, operations and management of the SKN CBI Programme. So concerned were these world powers that several letters were written to and through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs St.Kitts and also directly to Dr. Douglas himself as Prime Minister. They all expressed concerns and dissatisfaction with what they saw as Douglas’ mismanagement of the SKN CBI programme which they felt lacked proper due diligence and oversight and as a result left their countries vulnerable to illicit actors . Compounding this was Douglas’ decision to remove the place of the birth from the SKN Passports. After numerous calls and requests by both the US and Canadian governments for Douglas to significantly revamp and overhaul the management of the programme both countries took a series of drastic steps all of which really were directed at Douglas but had consequences for the entire country. First the US issued the infamous FINCEN Advisory in May of 2014. Almost 6 moths later the Canadians removed the long cherished visa free access to holders of SKN Passports. If this was not enough the US Topped it off in January of 2015 with the revocation of the US Visa of Dr. Douglas himself who was still Prime Minister at the time. Up to this day in 2020 Douglas remains unable to be granted a US Visa.
It seems Internationally there are still the eyes of scrutiny monitoring his movements as the UK Daily Mail reported just recently that Douglas was detained at the UK Border with an undisclosed sum of money. UK Border officerd searched his luggage and found over £70,000 – in sterling, US dollars and eastern Caribbean dollars –on November 16 .When questioned about the undisclosed sum the UK Daily Mail states “ he could not explain why he was attempting to leave the country with the cash.” As a result of the discovery and Dr Douglas’ inability to properly state the source of the cash he is now the subject of a probe by the UK National Crime Agency. Officers were granted the right to hold the cash for a further six months by Crawley Magistrates’ Court on November 19, 2019 .
It boggles the mind how Dr. Douglas could have such issues dangling over his head and remains confident that he can somehow return to office. That would be interesting to say the least as if elected he might very well be the first man in history to be elected leader of a country whilst the subject of a UK Crime Agency Money Laundering Probe and whilst unable to be granted access to the US.