Grenada Prime Minister Keith Mitchell, who has been sued in the United States by a victim of convicted fraudster Eric Resteiner, from whom Mitchell allegedly accepted at least $1 million in bribes, has asked the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York to dismiss the lawsuit. The civil complaint was filed against Mitchell, his wife, Marietta Mitchell, and Resteiner in June by Charles C. Howland of Massachusetts, who 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 with the government of Grenada. Howland is seeking to recover the funds allegedly paid to Mitchell. He apparently chose New York as the jurisdiction for the action because, according to the complaint, Mitchell and his wife, both of whom are described in the complaint as holding US citizenship, own real estate there. In pleadings filed last week, Mitchell’s attorneys argue that the lawsuit is “bogus” and, as a matter of law, should be dismissed for five reasons. First, Mitchell claims that, as prime minister of Grenada, he and his wife are entitled to “head of state immunity” from such actions in the United States. Second, Mitchell claims that, notwithstanding their alleged ownership of property in New York at 483 Linden Boulevard in Brooklyn, the court in New York lacks personal jurisdiction over the Mitchells, there being no assertion by the plaintiff that the property in question has any connection with the alleged payment to Mitchell or was purchased out of any such payment. Third, it is claimed by Mitchell that the court lacks “subject-matter jurisdiction,” which was asserted in the complaint on the basis of diversity of citizenship. Both Mitchell and his wife are described as US citizens in the complaint and conspicuous by its absence in Mitchell’s response is any denial of such assertion. Fourth, the plaintiff’s sole cause of action, “fraudulent transfer,” fails to disclose a valid claim, given that the alleged payment to Mitchell took place in Switzerland, where there is no such cause of action. Fifth, it is claimed that Mrs Mitchell cannot be held liable simply by association with her husband: “the marital relationship does not magically impose on a wife liability for her husband’s torts.” Accordingly, the pleading states, the Court should dismiss the action for fraudulent transfer asserted against Prime Minister and Mrs Mitchell. Whatever the merits of the other grounds for dismissal, leading international attorney Anthony Hall, of Hall Consulting LLP, has poured cold water on the idea that the court in New York has no personal jurisdiction over the Mitchells: “Any first-year law student knows that the court would have jurisdiction even if Mitchell's only contact with New York was passing through Kennedy airport!” he remarked. “In fact, Mitchell’s claims smack of a textbook-defence strategy to avoid litigating the merits of this case -- at all costs. But it behooves Grenadian citizens -- who I suspect will be footing the bill for this lawsuit – to appreciate that Mitchell will end up paying his white-shoe American attorneys far more than the $1 million he is alleged to have taken in bribes,” Hall added. According to the “Hall of Shame” published by Miami-based financial newsletter OffshoreAlert, since Mitchell became Prime Minister of Grenada in 1995, the word 'Grenada' has become synonymous with white-collar crime. His government licensed more than 40 offshore banks, virtually none of which had any real capital and virtually all of which were involved in crude criminal activity that collectively defrauded thousands of investors around the world out of many hundreds of millions of dollars. All had collapsed by the early 2000s. Mitchell's tolerance of the First International Bank of Grenada (FIBG) for more than two years after it was exposed by OffshoreAlert, and nearly two years after he was informed in 1999 by its auditor that it was a scam, was at best incompetence and recklessness on a scale that is scarcely believable and, at worst, indicative that he was influenced by other factors. Under Mitchell's reign, Grenada opened its doors to fraudsters and money launderers and allowed them to operate free of regulation and the rule of law. FIBG contributed large sums of money - believed to be approximately EC$8 million (US$3 million) to Mitchell's political party and only a proper investigation -- one that is unlikely ever to be carried out -- would determine whether additional payments were made to individual politicians and regulators, as many people suspect. Reasons for the Grenada Government's support for such a crude fraud can be found in a March 28, 2000 email from FIBG CEO Van Brink, which alluded to the bank making loans to prominent Grenadians - an illegal act if for no other reason than, as an offshore bank, FIBG was prohibited from accepting locals as clients. In a June 8, 2000 email, FIBG's interim CEO Lawrence Victor Jones boasted that he had managed to thwart an FBI raid on FIBG's offices with the assistance of Grenada's then Director of Public Prosecutions Hugh Wildman. "Mr Wildman is expensive but he has the ear of the Prime Minister and is therefore invaluable to us," commented Jones. In one of the most extraordinarily shameless and dim-witted decisions in the history of offshore finance, Mitchell's government actually granted a new license to the First International Bank of Grenada 2000 Ltd. after the first one had failed with an estimated $200 million missing. Apart from encouraging FIBG, other bizarre decisions by Mitchell include appointing Resteiner and Czech Republic national Viktor 'Pirate of Prague' Kozeny to diplomatic positions. Both were subsequently indicted for investment fraud-related offences in the United States. Resteiner's former Director of Security alleged in an April 28, 2003 affidavit that Resteiner had paid Mitchell $500,000 in cash handed to him inside a Louis Vuitton briefcase at a meeting in Switzerland on June 25, 2000 as partial payment for the appointment. It is this alleged payment to Mitchell that is now the subject of the lawsuit in New York. Earlier this year, OffshoreAlert reported that Resteiner wanted $5 million before he would turn over a video that allegedly shows him bribing Mitchell. Details are contained in a deposition by Boston-based attorney Edward Sharkansky dated June 13, 2007 that was filed at the US District Court in Massachusetts, where Sharkansky’s client, US-based oilman Jack Grynberg, is suing Grenada’s deputy prime minister, Gregory Bowen, for damages concerning a failed business deal and is attempting to strengthen his case by proving that corruption is rampant within the Grenada government. Reprinted from Caribbean Net News caribbeannetnews.com