By Peter Binose, Dublin

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Most Vincentians will be shocked that Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has been put on the new European Union Black List, published internationally on this week Wednesday 17 June 2015. It’s strange really because I was working on this letter at the time that the news was published on EU press releases. It may even be entwined with the information that I lay before you below.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-3128408/EU-launches-tax-action-plan-crack-sweet-deals.html

A few days ago I was looking through recent past political history and came across the name Jeeves. It was on the same page as the name Thierry Nano so you can guess it intrigued me.
June 1995, the Nano-owned Owens Bank had demanded the repayment of loans, with interest, from Parnel R. Campbell, the bank’s former Vincentian lawyer who was attorney general and deputy prime minister of St Vincent at the time. Campbell also had supervisory responsibility over the St Vincent Trust Authority, which regulated banks.
In 1998 there were reports in Parliament that Attorney General Parnel Campbell had compromised the Office of Attorney General by accepting bribes in the form of cash, loans and other gifts from a fugitive offshore banker Thierry Nano and cash from one Brian Jeeves, an offshore bank competitor to Nano.

Most of you will remember the things I wrote about Nano in 2013. There are hundreds of accounts about Nano on the internet, but here is one from two different media houses. Take a look for yourselves you could spend hours researching the antics of Thierry Nano.
http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/topstory-Letter%3A-Offshore-banker-with-SVG-connections-arrested-in-France-14751.html
http://www.iwnsvg.com/2013/02/28/nano-the-offshore-banker-arrested-in-france-letter/

The stories I have written about Nano went viral online and there were lots of written comments attached to those articles. To counter the references by Nano to Ralph Gonsalves, Gonsalves wrote a letter which was published.
http://www.iwnsvg.com/2013/03/14/pm-denies-owing-embattled-banker-thierry-nano/

But enough about Mr Nano for now, I am sure we will return to him again in the future.

As I said I was interested in Mr Jeeves so I searched my databases and also searched the internet, Wow! What a find, and I hadn’t even heard about it before.

What I discovered was that Bryan Jeeves now gonged with a CMG and an OBE from Queen Elizabeth, is still, unlike Nano very active in SVG. He has a number of financial type firms here and his directors and administrator of them are two ladies, one a well Vincentian known lady “Ms Camille Crichton”. For those of you who need reminding who Camille is, she owns a firm called FS Management Services. But here are a few of the firms that she directs for the Jeeves Group.
Jeeves Holdings: http://www.jeeves-group.com/about-us/group/
Jeeves Group
St. Vincent Trust Service Ltd.,
St. Vincent Trust Company Ltd.,
Windward Isles Trust Co.,
Javelin Ltd.
These are all St. Vincent entities, using the following address
Trust House, 112 Bonadie Street, Kingstown, St. Vincent. VC0100
Their principal places of business are described as St. Vincent and Liechtenstein. But there are many other companies which are located in other Caribbean Islands and even other continents.
Lexadmin Trust Reg [Liechtenstein].,
Selbourne Trust Company Ltd. [Saint Lucia].,
Pelican Trust Company Ltd [St. Kitts].
Jeeves Group (Asia) Ltd. [Hong Kong].,
And that’s not all of them; it’s some of what I could find in the time I set for that section of research.
What is rather curious is that Thierry Nano claimed that he helped the SVG government with creating and drafting their offshore legislation. Jeeves also claims to have assisted the SVG government by creating and drafting some of their legislation. Quite amazing really, like asking two schoolboy chocoholics’ to look after your candy store whilst you go off for the day. Can you just imagine being able to draft your own legislation to suit your own business and your own circumstances. Of course there is the possibility that those statements by two separate persons are untrue.
Just to give you an idea of who Mr Jeeves is and what he is about, his credentials, his pedigree.
Bryan Jeeves CMG OBE, Chairman, Jeeves Group of Companies
Bryan Jeeves was employed in London, Germany and France and came to Liechtenstein during 1962. He is the founder and chairman of the Jeeves Group with a Head Office at Bahnhofstrasse 7, Schaan, Liechtenstein and further offices in Europe, the Caribbean, as well as the Middle and Far East.
The family tradition of transport (Foster Biggs & Sons est. 1875) is continued via the Liechtenstein company SLT Speditions Establishment (1984), active in the field of freight forwarding, customs services, international road haulage and courier services.
Bryan Jeeves admitted as a translator by the Liechtenstein Government since 1979, published in 1992 the first ever English version of Liechtenstein Company Law.
He has been a member of the BSCC-British Swiss Chamber of Commerce since 1964, is their longest serving Councillor, was Vice President from 1988 to 1991 and President from 1991 to 1993.
In July 2004 at the BSCC AGM at Geneva, he received from the Swiss Federal Councillor Micheline Calmy-Rey the rare award of Honorary Life Membership of the BSCC in recognition.
During 1994 he was elected as Vice President of COBCOE – Council of British Chambers of Commerce in Europe and was President from 1995 to 2001. He was awarded the title of Honorary Chairman in recognition.
During 1992 he was appointed as British Honorary Consul to the Principality of Liechtenstein, which was the first time the UK had a resident representative in Liechtenstein.
During 2003 he published the book “Modern Liechtenstein”, which was the result of years of research by the author David Beattie CMG, the former British Ambassador to Liechtenstein and Switzerland.
During 2005 he was instrumental in the formation of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Liechtenstein at Westminster. The regular resulting bilateral visits have benefitted both countries.
In HM Queen Elizabeth II’s Birthday Honours List of June 1993 he was appointed as an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) and in HM Queen Elizabeth II’s New Years Honours List he was appointed Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG).
On the 6 February 2007 HSH Sovereign Prince of Liechtenstein, Hans Adam II, bestowed on Bryan Jeeves CMG OBE the Commanders Cross of the Princely Liechtenstein Order of Merit (Komturkreuz) for services rendered to Liechtenstein.
In 2007 he was honoured by the Archbishop of Vaduz with the Golden Service Medal Pro Meritis.
He is married since 1965 to Hanni Jeeves-Ritter from Liechtenstein; he has one son and four grandchildren and resides in Schaan.
And to crown it all he was appointed from 2010 an Ambassador by the Government of St. Vincent & the Grenadines, diplomatic Vincentian passport and diplomatic bags and all the trimmings.
Now that is what you call a fantastic background check, beats Thierry Nano and William Wise into a cocked hat.
But wait, I dug a little deeper than what was posted on the SVG website of the Jeeves Group, because that is where I found all that wonderful background material on Mr Jeeves, on their own website.
So would you believe that he and all the SVG companies that I listed were taken to court in the US for operating a US$1 billion Ponzy scheme. Well they did and lots more besides that, Nano and Wise are like little boys compared to Mr. Jeeves.

2:07-cv-00593-DCN Date Filed 02/28/2007 Entry Number 1 Page 1 of 90
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF SOUTH CAROLINA (CHARLESTON DIVISION)

ALAN M. GRAYSON and the AMG TRUST,
Plaintiffs,

v.

Defendents
CHARLES CATHCART; EVELYN CATHCART; SCOTT CATHCART;
SCOTT AND WHITNEY CATHCART FAMILY TRUST;
YURIJ DEBEVC;
CHARLES HSIN;
DERIVIUM CAPITAL (USA), INC.;
VERIDIA SOLUTIONS LLC;
SHENANDOAH HOLDINGS LTD.;
VERI STEEL, INC.;
PTS INTERTECH, INC.;
AQUILIUS, INC.;
OPTECH LIMITED;
PAUL ANTHONY JARVIS;
NIGEL HARLEY WOOD;
COLIN BOWEN;
BANCROFT VENTURES LTD.; [???Jeeves]
BANCROFT VENTURES (UK) LTD.; [???Jeeves]
SPENCER PARTNERS, LIMITED;
ISLE OF MAN ASSURANCE LTD.;
DMITRY BOURIAK;
VISION INTERNATIONAL Civ. Action No.
PEOPLE GROUP, P.L.;
TOTAL ECLIPSE INTERNATIONAL LTD.;
KRISTINA PHELAN;
JAVELIN LTD.; [????]
BRYAN JEEVES; [Jeeves]
ALEXANDER JEEVES; [Jeeves]
JEEVES HOLDINGS LTD.; [Jeeves]
THE JEEVES GROUP; [Jeeves]
JEEVES GROUP (ASIA) LTD.; [Jeeves]
LEXADMIN TRUST REG.; [Jeeves]
ST. VINCENT TRUST SERVICE LTD.; [Jeeves]
ST. VINCENT TRUST COMPANY LTD.; [Jeeves]
WINDWARD ISLES TRUST COMPANY LTD.; [????]
SELBOURNE TRUST COMPANY LTD.; Saint Lucia [Jeeves]
PELICAN TRUST COMPANY LTD.; Saint Kitts [Jeeves]
WACHOVIA SECURITIES, INC.;
and JOHN DOES i through 10.
[details in these brackets above are my addition, where ? appears there may be some doubt]

Some companies that Bryan Jeeves and his son Alexander Jeeves operated were involved in a US$1 Billion Ponzi scheme this scheme deprived ALAN M. GRAYSON and the AMG TRUST of US$29 million, According to the court papers the Defendants bilked almost 1000 “stock loan” customers out of approximately $1 billion in collateral.
The Court document is 90 pages so it is too big to include here, so look it up for yourselves.
http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/news/documents/2011/03/01/grayson_lawsuit_full.pdf
see also
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2005/1017/058.html
and
http://www.smh.com.au/business/flader-link-to-father-and-son-in-1b-scam-20110124-1a2v0.html
even the book
https://books.google.be/books?id=pOdvLS954qsC&pg=RA3-PA1967&lpg=RA3-PA1967&dq=Jeeves+in+money+laundering+scheme&source=bl&ots=IUgnssyqhI&sig=AFFBeoSPGM6XU5ze8ANQIhJDII0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDQQ6AEwA2oVChMItpPYtP6UxgIVg9UUCh3RHwAf#v=onepage&q=Jeeves%20in%20money%20laundering%20scheme&f=false

If you remember the first paragraph of this letter which is where I was first alerted about Bryan Jeeves, remember how attorney Parnel Campbell is mentioned there accused in Parliament of taking money from Jeeves. Well after looking into the names of the SVG registered I discovered from the FSA that Windward Isles Trust Company Ltd is named as a defendant in the above court case, is it the same company operated by him in SVG of the same name? I do not know who owns that firm. Perhaps Mr Campbell can enlighten us.

There are other matters as well; an article in the Guardian newspaper in 2002 said the following:
Britain’s former Honorary Consul in Liechtenstein is being investigated over his role in a timeshare misselling scandal.
Bryan Jeeves OBE, the UK’s trade representative in the principality until earlier this year, runs Casterbridge Properties, an offshore company which holds much of the £7 million wrongly taken from timeshare customers, according to the Department of Trade and Industry.
Jeeves, a London-born financier who has lived in Liechtenstein since the Sixties, denies wrongdoing. He says Casterbridge’s money was honestly earned in ‘perfectly legitimate’ property sales to Hever, a timeshare firm which was placed in compulsory liquidation two years ago following complaints by customers.
He is refusing to be interviewed by Britain’s Official Receiver, who has also wound up Casterbridge and is attempting to seize its worldwide assets.
Jeeves, 62, claims he cannot give evidence because to do so would break his pledge of confidentiality to Casterbridge and its unnamed owners.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2002/oct/27/theobserver.observerbusiness9

Here is another case, again its many pages to I have just posted the first couple of pages, take a look yourself at:-
http://www.offshorealert.com/forums.aspx?g=posts&t=38200

King v Tune and others.
Cite: BLD 2806042816; [2004] EWHC 1505 (Comm).
Court: Commercial Court.
Judge: David Steel J.
Hearing Date: 25 June 2004.
Representation: Thomas Ivory QC (instructed by Mariott Harrison) for the claimant. David Chivers QC (instructed by Druces and Attlee) for the eighth and ninth defendants.
Annotations: Johnson v Gore Wood and Co (a firm) BLD 1512002950.
Summary: Practice and procedure—Striking out—Tort of deceit—Arguable case.
Practice and procedure—Stay of proceedings—Application—Effect of arbitration clause.

The claimant, when aged 27, had £4.5m to invest. She was introduced to the first defendant, who purported to be a financial adviser. She told him that she wanted safe, long-term investments for her future. The first defendant advised the claimant that if she paid money into an annuity, she would be able to control the investments while at the same time deferring tax. To do that, she would have to establish a Liechtenstein foundation through the Jeeves Group which was run by the eighth defendant. Pursuant to that advice, the Caterham Family Foundation (the foundation) was formed on 4 April 1997 in Liechtenstein. It was managed by the foundation council whose members included the eighth defendant and his son, the ninth defendant. Under the bylaws the claimant was the principal beneficiary, solely entitled to the foundation’s net assets and income during her life time. The agreement made between the claimant and the eighth and ninth defendants was contained in a Contract of Mandate dated 24 March 1997. Article VI of that contract provided that ‘Excluding recourse to the courts of law a Court of Arbitration shall be competent for disputes that may arise from this contract’. On 3 April 1997, the claimant paid a premium of £2.5m for the first of a number of annuities taken out with a company called Centurion Insurance Ltd (Centurion). The claimant was led by the first defendant to believe that Centurion was a major established insurance company specialised in annuities. In fact, it was one of a number of St Vincent and the Grenadines companies owned or controlled by the first defendant and managed by Jeeves. The money paid into the annuities was then available for investment on the claimant’s behalf. In late 1998 and early 1999, on the first defendant’s advice, the claimant recommended, or according to Jeeves, instructed them to invest about half the funds by way of two share subscriptions in a company called Isosafe Ltd. Those investments were made in the name of Lemur, another St Vincent and Grenadines company owned by the foundation and managed by Jeeves. Most of the remaining money also ended up in Isosafe in early 2000 by a series of four unsecured loans made on the first defendant’s advice to a Dutch company, which in turn lent the money on to Isosafe. Isosafe was a private limited company which had been set up by the first defendant in 1997. Isosafe went into liquidation as being insolvent and the Dutch company defaulted on the loans. The claimant brought an action, inter alia, for damages for fraud by way of the tort of deceit against the first defendant. She claimed damages as against the eighth and ninth defendants as joint tortfeasors in the first defendant’s fraud or deceit. The basis of that cause of action was that they had made the arrangements to implement the investments which the first defendant had fraudulently advised the claimant to make knowing full well that the advice had been dishonest. The claimant was granted permission to serve the claim form on the eighth and ninth defendants out of the jurisdiction. Later further and better particulars of the claim against the eighth and ninth defendants were served for clarification purposes. The eighth and ninth defendants consented to those amendments.
To continue reading this court case:
http://www.offshorealert.com/forums.aspx?g=posts&t=38200

There are many cases that I could list here unfortunately we do not have the space to do so. What I would like to know is this. Most of these cases have been in the public domain for a number of years. Certainly long enough for our Offshore Finance Authority to know about all that is allegedly going on. I ask the question, if all the allegations and charges are true, why have they allowed Bryan Jeeves and his companies to continue to operate out of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines?

I have written about Nano, I wrote numerous warnings about William Wise and I have written lots about Harlequin, all of whom have done serious damage to SVG with regards to investment and international credibility. The ULP government could have avoided much of that if they had acted early and saved international investors from losing their life savings.
http://www.iwnsvg.com/2015/02/18/william-wise-jailed-any-vincentians-next/
http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/headline-Former-St-Vincent-bank-operator-sentenced-to-22-years-in-prison-in-US-24854.html

On October 29, 2003 the Offshore Finance Authority [OFA] of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines launched its new name – the International Financial Services Authority [IFSA] – with a one-day seminar at the Cotton House, Mustique. The seminar was co-sponsored by the Mustique Company. Among the speakers Brian Jeeves, president of Saint Vincent Trust Services, the seminar examined the new financial environment in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the region.
The Changing Dynamics of the International Finance Industry: Focus on Market Demand and Expectations
Bryan Jeeves, President of St. Vincent Trust Services
http://svgfsa.com/news_archive.html

Remember when I wrote about the HSBC Swiss scandal. Just to remind you a Swiss whistle blower took a computer disk with clients names and bank account balances on it. Each country has subsequently been notified via their Financial Authorities details of their citizens, companies and organizations that have money stashed in HSBC Switzerland. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines depositors have US$48.7 million deposited, by 16 clients all of whom are companies or organizations. The question I ask once more is did our Financial Services Authority [FSA] receive notification from the US government about who was on the HSBC list of account owners for SVG? If they did, did they pass it on to the Minister of Finance, Prime Minister Ralph E. Gonsalves? If all those notifications took place has any action taken place? And what action? Were any of the Jeeves Group or associated companies on the list of HSBC depositors for SVG?
http://www.iwnsvg.com/2015/02/15/who-are-the-vincentians-with-millions-stashed-away-in-switzerland/
http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/topstory-Bank-leak-reveals-billions-from-Caribbean-stashed-in-Switzerland-24772.html
This article had over 250,000 reads.

Has the Minster of Legal Affairs, Ralph E. Gonsalves considered acting or even enquiring into the organizations who have those sums of money deposited in Switzerland HSBC? Has the Minister of National Security, Ralph E Gonsalves asked his SSU military police to raid any offices in Kingstown for investigation of the HSBC deposits matter? We must keep in mind that offices have been raided by armed SSU officers carrying automatic rifles in Kingstown in the past for much lesser reasons.
http://www.iwnsvg.com/2013/07/16/reject-st-vincents-gestapo-style-mongoose-gang/
http://www.iwnsvg.com/2013/07/28/scum-always-rises-to-the-top/

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Finance Minister is Prime Minister Ralph E Gonsalves who is in overall charge of everything to do with finance and the law; he is minister of just about everything.

I must ask this question because others will be asking themselves, has the NDP Party ever received funding from the Jeeves Group or any of its companies or directors?

Finally, perhaps nothing to do with this matter, can we now be told where the US$1 million in cash came from, which was hiked around Kingstown by a leading ULP government member? With no apparent action by the police or the FSA.

I am led to believe the Prime Ministers wife Eloise Gonsalves makes use of the Jeeves Director Ms Camille Crichton for business advice, I don’t know if Eloise uses any of the Jeeves companies, or if she uses Ms Crichton for anything else.

Camille H. Crichton is a Director of the Jeeves Group, St. Vincent, SVG. Camille Crichton was born in 1960 and received her primary and secondary education in St. Vincent. Further education involved studies at the University of West Indies, University of Cambridge and Farmington University, USA. Her business career in professional consultancy includes advising in various capacities the Commonwealth Secretariat, the OECS coordination meeting facilities and the OECS Environment Policy Committee, the Caribbean Community for sustainable management energy resources, as well as various consultancies in connection with the SVG Government. She is also Managing Director her own consultancy company and FS Management Services [also Professional Secretarial & Consultancy Services Inc.]
She is also involved in voluntary organisations and has been the Honorary Consul for the Kingdom of Netherlands since 2003. Ms. Crichton joined the board of St. Vincent Trust Company Ltd [a Jeeves owned company] in 2013 and is also on the boards of that company’s subsidiaries.

Giselle Millington BSc (Hons) Director Jeeves Group St. Vincent
Giselle Millington was born in 1972, and received her primary and secondary education at the Lodge Village Government School, and the St. Joseph‘s Convent Secondary School.
She successfully completed a two-year Secretarial Program at the St. Vincent Technical College, and during that time successfully completed a number of work attachments which were a prerequisite for the completion of the Secretarial Program.
Upon completion of the St. Vincent Technical College, she was chosen to work with a newly established affiliate of the Banana Growers Association, Windward Island Crop Insurance Company Limited, and was employed with the company from July 1991 to June 1999, and worked with the Sl. Lucia and Dominica offices as well to assist in the aftermath of storms during the hurricane season. In 2002, Giselle successfully completed her Certificate in Business Administration with the University of the West Indies, through distance learning. She recently graduated from a 10-week Personal Finance and Investment Programme offered jointly by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, The Eastern Caribbean Institute of Banking and Financial Services, and the University of the West Indies. In 2010, Giselle successfully completed her course of study with the University of the West Indies, Open Campus, earning her Degree of B.Sc ( Management Studies ).
Giselle joined the staff of the St. Vincent Trust Service Limited in June of 1999, and has held the post of Manager since 2006. stvtrust@ vincysurf.com

The above people information came from the Jeeves Group website.
http://www.jeeves-group.com/about-us/people/camille-h-crichton/

We need a lot of answers, from a lot of people, perhaps most of all from the Financial Services Authority [FSA], the Minister of Finance, Minister of Security, and the Prime Minister all of whom are the same person, Prime Minister Ralph E. Gonsalves.

Because I have my doubts about this matter and those involved I am also submitting this to a number of outside authorities in the US and in Europe.

DISCLAIMER: The opinion, belief and viewpoint expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinion, belief and viewpoint of iNews Cayman/ieyenews.com or official policies of iNews Cayman/ieyenews.com.

END

IMAGE: Bryan Jeeves www.slt.li