Prime Minister of Grenada, Dr Keith Mitchell, is being sued in the United States by a victim of convicted fraudster Eric Resteiner, from whom Mitchell allegedly received $1 million in bribes. According to the financial newsletter, OffshoreAlert, a civil complaint was filed against Mitchell, his wife, Marietta Mitchell, and Resteiner at the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York on June 11, 2007. The plaintiff, Charles Howland, of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, claims he and others were defrauded of more than $30 million by Resteiner in a high-yield investment fraud and that at least $1 million of their money was paid in bribes by Resteiner to Mitchell, who appointed Resteiner to a diplomatic position. Howland is seeking to recover funds allegedly paid to Mitchell, OffshoreAlert reports. The compaint reportedly states, “Defendant Mitchell, while Prime Minister for the Nation of Grenada, received at least US$500,000 in cash on at least two occasions directly from Resteiner for a total of US$1,000,000." According to OffshoreAlert, deposition testimony from US resident Timothy Bass, who was Resteiner’s director of security in 1999-2000, is used in the complaint to support the allegations. “In June of 2000, Bass arranged to surreptitiously video film the transfer of five hundred thousand dollars (US$500,000) in cash from Resteiner to Mitchell during a private meeting at Resteiner's residence in Switzerland,” it is stated in the complaint. “Upon information, Resteiner is in possession of that video film, and the cash transfer from Resteiner to Mitchell was actually made and witnessed by Bass. Bass indicated that such a payment had been made by Resteiner to Mitchell on another occasion, so that the total monies transferred in cash from Resteiner to Mitchell was one million dollars US (US$1,000,000)," the complaint says. An allegation that Mitchell was bribed by Resteiner in return for a diplomatic position was first reported by OffshoreAlert in April 2004. Mitchell has admitted receiving a sum in cash from Resteiner at Resteiner’s home in Switzerland in 2000 but has denied any wrongdoing, claiming it amounted to between US$12,000 and $14,000 as reimbursement for travel expenses, not US$500,000 as alleged. A one-man Commission of Inquiry was established in Grenada in August 2004 to investigate the allegations against Mitchell but, after delays caused by Hurricane Ivan the following month, and subsequent procedural disputes, no report has ever been issued. In Mitchell's most recent public comments on the matter, at a rally last month, he reiterated his claim that he had done nothing wrong and all he did was accept what was his own money. “It's my damn money so what you all worried about,” he said. Resteiner is currently serving an 87-month prison sentence for his role in the investment scam. He showed prosecutors what was said to be the video recording of his alleged bribe to Mitchell in a plea for leniency. An attempt to obtain the recording is currently being made by US oilman Jack Grynberg, who is involved in litigation with Grenada’s Deputy Prime Minister, Gregory Bowen, whose attorneys have reportedly been strenuously resisting the request. Some observers in Grenada have questioned why the release of the videotape has become such an issue if, as Mitchell claims, the amount of cash in question was no more than US$14,000 and not the US$500,000 he is alleged to have received. Reprinted from Caribbean Net News caribbeannetnews.com