CANADIAN FRAUDSTER NABBED IN PANAMA ON ST. KITTS AND NEVIS PASSPORT

...Governor Godswill Akpabio Linked With His Activities

Dr. Arthur Porter, Canada’s former national security intelligence watchdog and alleged culprit of Canada’s biggest corruption fraud in history, was supposedly traveling on a St. Kitts and Nevis passport when he was detained in Panama, where he now awaits extradition.

Porter was appointed as head of Canada’s spy review agency by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2008 but was forced to resign after the revelation of shady relationships he held with international lobbyists, politicians, and arms dealers.

The fact that Porter was traveling on a St. Kitts and Nevis passport is not surprising, given the growing list of questionable individuals who have purchased passports from the tiny Caribbean nation, which includes:

–         Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, son of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea. He faces corruption charges in the United States and France.

–         Rustem Tursunbayev, wanted for embezzlement in Kazakhstan.

–         Godswill Obot Akpabio, governor of Akwa Ibom state in Nigeria, accused of organizing secret killings, assassinations, and unprecedented abuses of power.

–         Oluwaseun Ogunbambo, who is facing trial in Nigeria for obtaining money by false pretenses, forgery, using false documents and conspiring to fraudulently obtain money from the Nigerian government.

–         Pourya Nayebi, Houshang Hosseinpour, and Hushang Farsoudeh, all at the center of a U.S. Treasury Department investigation for evading U.S. sanctions against Iran.

St. Kitts and Nevis has a citizenship through investment program that offers citizenship to wealthy foreigners for as low as US$250,000. According to St. Kitts and Nevis’ prime minister, the program brings in US$100 million in revenue per year.

However, the program’s relative ease and popularity may be back firing. In May 2014 the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued an advisory warning foreign financial institutions that individuals are abusing St. Kitts and Nevis’ citizenship through investment program for illicit purposes.