FORTUNE — As the $7 billion financial fraud case against R. Allen Stanford slowly makes its way through the courts, the number of victims continues to pile up.
Depending on whom you believe, the latest ones are either the insurance companies paying his legal bills, the high-priced lawyers representing him, or Stanford himself. Just which can claim the mantle will likely be decided this Thursday when a federal judge will review $6 million in bills for legal work that Stanford says he never received.
U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas, who is tasked with determining whether the insurance companies that provided Stanford with directors and officers insurance must keep footing his legal bills, promised last week that she is “going to get to the bottom of why so much money is being spent in Mr. Stanford’s defense.”
The insurance dispute is only the latest wrinkle in the case, which has seen Stanford churn through law firms nearly as fast as prosecutors say he burned through the cherished savings of his many penny-pinching investors. But it is a crucially important issue to Stanford, who has been charged with a 21-count indictment alleging he concocted a massive investment scheme centering on the sale of fraudulent certificates of deposit from an Antigua bank that he controlled. But the legal sideshow created by Stanford threatens to shift the focus away from the investors who claim to be the real victims in this case.
Insurance companies Lloyds of London and Arch Specialty Insurance Company have long taken a dim view of Stanford’s protestations, arguing in court papers that Stanford and other executives at Stanford Financial Group voided their insurance policies by engaging in money-laundering. They will have to provide evidence of that allegation at a hearing on August 24. But Stanford, who sheepishly represented himself before Judge Atlas, says they’ve already cut him off, and just when he feels he’s finally found a lawyer worth his salt.
It is this proactive move that has opened up Stanford’s defense bills to scrutiny and provided an illuminating view of how quickly legal bills can mount when someone is charged with a high-profile white-collar crime.
Who’s hired, who’s fired
It’s certainly been a tricky case for Stanford’s revolving door of lawyers, who have had to grapple with both lingering doubts over whether they’d ever be paid, or paid fully, and who had sometimes learned of their own abrupt termination in public press releases. Now they face questioning about, as Judge Atlas puts it, their “burn rate” of the insurance money.
The high rate of burn is the one thing that Stanford and the insurance companies seem to agree on. Although Stanford has been quick to praise his currently proposed defense lawyer – Houstonian Bob Bennett – who sat with him at Judge Atlas’s hearing, the defendant held little but scorn for the legal dream teams he’s already discarded, grousing that he thinks “it’s an obscene amount of money that’s been spent on what has been produced.” The insurance companies, meanwhile, have questioned how much of the money “has been wasted.”
The issue is who’s to blame. In legal papers, Stanford has pointed the finger at the insurance companies, saying they have “controlled his defense” and “thwarted his every attempt” to obtain and fund counsel of his choosing. They have, he says, kept him from getting the counsel he needs and have “effectively become” his criminal defense attorneys despite never examining the charges against him “to determine the best way to defend him.”
The insurance companies have responded by calling Stanford’s allegations “an egregious misrepresentation” and noting that their policy does not give Stanford “a blank check to deplete the D&O Policy proceeds.” Despite “the chaos surrounding Stanford’s representation” and Stanford’s “penchant for accumulating attorneys” then firing them without explanation, the underwriters say that they have already paid ten different law firms — all selected by Stanford — more than $6 million. This is split into about $4 million for representation for his criminal case and $2 million for representation in a civil Securities and Exchange action; combined, the amount represents more than has been paid on behalf of all of the other plaintiffs. “Now,” the insurance companies say, “Stanford wants to start all over with a new criminal counsel,” despite having little clarity about “how much of the $4 million dollars [already] paid to Stanford’s [criminal case] lawyers has been wasted.”
Sealing the deal
Although the insurance companies’ legal documents paint Stanford as something of an incarcerated version of the mercurial Donald Trump on The Apprentice, many of Stanford’s lawyers seem to have a Grisham-like quality that leaves them equally tarred. For instance, the companies complain that Stanford suddenly fired his previous lawyers (after seven months and the payment of about $2 million in fees) and brought on the law firm of Bennett-Nguyen Joint Venture due to Bob Bennett’s back-channel cajoling of Stanford’s daughter. Bennett, the insurance companies say, sent her an email that “can only be described as an unabashed pitch of his legal services that openly questions the abilities of Kent Schaffer, Stanford’s attorney at the time.”
Bennett, meanwhile, has been besmirched by his co-counsel, Mike Essmyer, of Essmyer, Tritico & Rainey, who is asking to be released from Stanford’s criminal case, citing “irreconcilable differences” with Bennett. These differences have allegedly included making decisions that the litigator believes are “detrimental to the best interests of the client.” A confident Bennett told Fortune that he would be letting Stanford “respond on Thursday as to what he thinks of me and our representation.”
Although the insurance companies are currently facing $711,983.36 in invoices submitted by Bennett-Nguyen for their most recent month’s work, they say Essmyer’s allegations give them plenty of reason to deny Stanford’s request that they pay for his use of the Bennett firm.
If they are forced to grant the request, it could be an expensive couple of months. The law firm has said in its fee application that ascertaining the “exact budget and costs of the overall criminal defense of Mr. Stanford at this time would be extremely difficult, inaccurate, and unfeasible” but that “our estimation of fees on-going would be consistent with the fact that Lloyds has already paid out approximately $8-9 million for the defense costs thus far in the case for a period of five months.” The criminal defense team is to consist of about 17 attorneys, 7 law clerks, 11 paralegals, a separate group of private investigators and experts, and a team of consultants led by Martin Weinberg and famed OJ Simpson attorney and Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz (himself billing out at $1500 an hour).
Of course, Stanford, 60, can use all the help he can get at this point. He’s lost his fortune, including Sea Eagle, his 112ft yacht. Antigua has rescinded his knighthood. And he’s been in prison awaiting trial for almost a year. While there, Stanford has allegedly been diagnosed with an abnormal liver function, fallen into the “throes of a major depression,” been stuck in solitary confinement for forty days, and reportedly been beaten by another inmate, which cost him much of his sight in his right eye. In other words, as Bennett put it, Stanford has been reduced “to a wreck of a man.”
And worst of all, people seem to assume Stanford’s guilty despite his continued protests to the contrary. He’s repeatedly insisted he never ran a Ponzi scheme and never “ever set out to defraud a person.” As he told Judge Atlas, “I can win this case.”
All he needs is to find one good lawyer who can successfully argue that position in court. To top of page
The authorities in Jamaica are hoping that a massive US$10 million tourism campaign being launched later this week will help them stave off US$350 million in losses that could hit the industry, following the recent violence in the capital late last month.
By Rocky Swift and Yasuhiko Seki
June 2 (Bloomberg) — The yen weakened after Japan’s Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said he would step down less than two months before elections. China’s stocks fell to a 13-month low amid concern fund-raising by banks will dilute shareholder value.
Japan’s currency fell against all of its most-traded counterparts. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index sank 0.7 percent to 111.44 as of 1:18 p.m. in Tokyo. Oil prices fell for a third day, while copper and zinc prices sank as much as 1.4 percent amid concern demand from China and Europe will decline.
Hatoyama’s resignation hurts the yen as political instability damps the appeal of the currency as a refuge from volatility. Bank of China Ltd. plunged the most since October 2008 as the lender began a convertible bond sale, while the nation’s Industrial Bank Co. declined after a rights issue.
“Emerging signs of political instability in Japan will gradually start to negatively impact the status of the yen,†said Masakazu Sato, a foreign-exchange adviser at foreign exchange margin company Gaitameonline Co. “Foreign investors normally dislike political instability.â€
The yen weakened to as much as 91.79 against the dollar in Tokyo from 90.94 yesterday in New York. The Japanese currency depreciated to as low as 112.50 per euro from 111.22. The euro changed hands at $1.2253 from $1.2229 yesterday when it touched $1.2111, the weakest since April 2006.
Two Resignations
Ichiro Ozawa, the ruling Democratic Party of Japan’s top campaign strategist, will step down as secretary-general, Hatoyama said. The resignations come less than two months before mid-term elections, endangering the DPJ’s prospects and hindering its efforts to reduce the public debt and push through legislation to expand the country’s postal system. The government will retain power regardless of the result because of its majority in the lower chamber.
The Nikkei 225 Stock Average erased gains after Hatoyama’s announcement, falling 0.6 percent. China’s Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.6 percent to the lowest in 13 months.
Bank of China plunged 6.1 percent as the lender began a 40 billion yuan ($5.9 billion) convertible bond sale. Industrial Bank slid 7.1 percent.
“Investors are concerned about fundraising, which increases the number of shares outstanding and dilutes earnings,†said Wang Zheng, a fund manager at Jingxi Investment Management Co. in Shanghai.
Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.2 percent. The index fell 1.7 percent yesterday after Agence France-Presse said Lebanon’s military fired at Israeli warplanes and amid concern stricter regulations following the BP Plc oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico will crimp energy company earnings.
Drilling Moratorium
Oil for July delivery dropped 37 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $72.21 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices have swung between gains of 0.5 percent and losses of as much as 1.1 percent today.
Energy companies slumped in Asian trading after U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department is investigating whether any criminal or civil laws were violated in the BP oil spill.
Mitsui & Co., which owns a stake in oil and gas fields in the Gulf of Mexico, sank 7.3 percent in Tokyo. Inpex Corp., Japan’s largest energy explorer, dropped 1.6 percent. BHP Billiton Ltd., Australia’s largest oil and gas producer, declined 0.6 percent. The company said it was studying the impact of a U.S. moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
“Regulations on drilling for crude oil may tighten after the oil leak,†said Hiroichi Nishi, an equities manager in Tokyo at Nikko Cordial Securities Inc. “That may spur concerns that the earnings environment for resources-related companies, including major trading firms, will worsen.â€
Metals Fall
Copper dropped for a third day, extending a decline to the lowest price in more than a week, on concern that demand will fall as manufacturing growth slows in China and Europe. Three- month delivery copper dropped as much as 1.4 percent on the London Metal Exchange to $6,655 a metric ton, the lowest level since May 21.
The contract was 1.2 percent down at $6,670 a ton in Shanghai, after adding as much as 0.4 percent earlier. Nickel slumped 2.9 percent to $19,900 a ton, the lowest price since Feb. 18.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Despite the sharp fall in BP’s share price following the company’s inability to cap a leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico, most analysts say the selloff is overdone.
BP shares sank nearly 15% Tuesday after the company’s latest attempt to seal the leaking Gulf oil well failed over the weekend. The selloff accelerated just before the closing bell, when U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced a criminal probe into the spill.
Since the accident happened April 20, which resulted in 11 deaths and an oil leak of up to 19,000 barrels per day, BP shares have fallen nearly 40%, wiping out nearly $70 billion in shareholder value. Before the accident the company had a market capitalization of nearly $183 billion. Now it’s just below $115 billion.
Investors are concerned the clean up costs, lawsuits, and added restrictions from the spill, the worst in U.S. history, will sap BP’s earnings potential.
Plus, like most big oil projects, BP is self-insured for the operation, so all of the costs of the cleanup and damages will fall on its shoulders.
No one knows how much the spill will eventually cost BP. Estimates have ranged from $3 billion to $25 billion – many fall somewhere in the middle. As of Tuesday BP said it has spent just shy of $1 billion on the accident.
0:00 /4:20Analyst: Oil spill could cost up to $30Bn
But whatever the price tag, it will likely be paid out over a period of years. For a company that made nearly $17 billion in profit last year and is expected to top $20 billion this year, most analysts say the stock hit is unjustified.
“They’ve got a balance sheet you could slap $20 billion of debt on and not miss a beat,” said Mark Gilman, an oil and gas analyst with the Benchmark Co., a boutique broker-dealer. “We think the financial hit has been excessive.”
Indeed, so do the majority of analysts.
In England, where BP (BP) is based, 38 analysts have a buy rating on the stock and eight have it as a hold. Only three recommend selling it, said Douglas Youngson, an oil analyst at Arbuthnot Securities, a London-based investment bank.
Beyond the clean up costs and lawsuits, there’s also possible damage to BP’s reputation. This is, after all, the company that branded itself an environmentally friendly oil firm, buying wind farms and solar arrays and adopting the slogan “Beyond Petroleum.”
Will there there be a major public backlash?
“‘Here in America we tend to have pretty short memories,” said Ken Carol, an oil analyst at Johnson Rice & Co. “There was a big boycott after the Exxon Valdez, and they seem to be doing just fine now.”
Satirists cash in on oil spill
Carrol also didn’t think the spill would impact too heavily on BP’s relationship with other oil companies. Because of the high up front costs to develop an oil field, many partners are often required on a project. In this case, BP had partnered with Anadarko (APC, Fortune 500) and the Japanese firm Matsui.
Many subcontractors are also brought in to work on an oil well. The primary subcontracts in this case were Halliburton (HAL, Fortune 500) and Transocean (RIG).
Might it be harder for BP to find partners in the wake of this disaster?
“BP has been a good partner before,” said Carrol. “I don’t think people will turn their backs on them.”
Carrol said the selloff in BP’s share price was likely overdone, but said he didn’t expect it to get any better until BP can fix the problem.
As long as the well is leaking, the costs are adding up, he said.
Dissenting opinion
When BP will fix the problem is anyone’s guess. The company is trying to put a new dome over the leak this week, but with several previous attempts to cap the well failing, that procedure looks like a long shot.
The company is saying it may not be able to stop the leak until August, when a relief well being drilled into the failed well’s base is completed.
“That’s two months of horrible images and horrific headlines,” said Youngson, the analyst at Arbuthnot Securities.
Youngson is one of the few analysts that are recommending people sell BP’s stock.
He thinks that in addition to the massive cleanup and liability cots, BP will face serious regulatory pressure going forward. That may mean a loss of leases in the Gulf of Mexico, and a loss of confidence from their peers.
“Anything BP does in the future will be under the microscope, and that will drive costs higher,” he said.
Youngson also brought up another possibility that most other analysts have not openly talked about to date: That BP stock could get so cheap it might be the subject of a takeover.
He thinks if the stock falls much below $30 a share, BP will become a target. Shares traded around $38 Tuesday afternoon.
‘If the share price continues to fall,” he said, “other companies may see this for the bargain it will be.” To top of page
TAMPA, Florida – Reggae star Buju Banton’s drug trial in Florida has been delayed again.
The Jamaican singer is accused of being involved in a conspiracy to traffic more than five kilograms of cocaine.
He had originally been scheduled to stand trial in Tampa on April 19. Days before trial was set to begin, United States District Judge James Moody rescheduled it for June 21.
On Friday, Moody moved the case to the September trial calendar. A trial date will be set at a hearing in August.
Banton’s attorney filed an objection, saying the change violates the federal Speedy Trial Act. That generally requires trial to begin within 70 days after a defendant is charged or makes a first court appearance.
Banton, born Mark Myrie, has been in federal custody since December.
MEXICO CITY, Mexico — The mayor of Cancun was charged with drug trafficking ties today, forcing him to end his campaign for governor in a scandal that has shaken Mexico’s upcoming state elections.
A federal judge indicted Gregorio Sanchez on charges of organised crime and money laundering a week after he was arrested in Mexico’s most important tourist resort. Prosecutors say he protected two of Mexico’s most brutal drug gangs and lived beyond his means.
The formal charges bar Sanchez from participating in politics, ending his run for governor of the coastal state of Quintana Roo.
Officials have said they cannot remember another Mexican election candidate ever being charged with drug ties in the middle of a campaign, and leaders of Sanchez’s party say the allegations are politically motivated.
The July 4 elections in 10 Mexican states have already been marred by attacks and threats against candidates, fueling fears that Mexico’s powerful drug cartels are increasingly infiltrating politics through bribes and intimidation. One candidate for mayor of a northern town near the border with Texas was shot dead inside his business after ignoring warnings to drop out of the race.
Judge Carlos Elorza said prosecutors have submitted testimony and documents indicating that Sanchez was using illegally obtained funds and had ties to the Beltran Leyva and Zetas cartels.
The Attorney General’s Office has said the evidence includes several protected witnesses and documents from the Finance Department showing that Sanchez made bank withdrawals amounting to more than $2 million, a sum that does not correspond to his declared income.
Sanchez’s Democratic Revolutionary Party says the mayor has a real estate business that explains his wealth. It has compared the case to last year’s arrest of 12 mayors in the western state of Michoacan on drug charges just two months before state and congressional elections.
All but two have since been released for lack of evidence, feeding allegations that their arrests had been a political maneuvere to bolster the government’s tough image ahead of elections, though none of those mayors was a candidate.
Corruption scandals are nothing new in Cancun, whose white-sand beaches and raucous nightclubs make it a popular spring break destination for American teenagers.
Former Quintana Roo Governor Mario Villanueva was extradited last month to the United States to face charges of conspiring to import hundreds of tons of cocaine through Cancun.
Last year, Sanchez’s police chief and other close collaborators were arrested for allegedly protecting cartels. The police chief was also questioned in the slaying of an army general hired to root out police corruption in the city, although he was never charged with that crime.
The Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act was signed into law on March 18, 2010. The centerpiece of the Act is the creation of tax breaks for businesses hiring new workers and extending higher expensing limits for small businesses that make capital investments.
To pay for these $18 billion tax breaks, however, the Act incorporates provisions of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of 2009, which has far-reaching implications for Bermuda trusts with US beneficiaries and foreign financial institutions that may have US clients.
A summary of some of the provisions is set forth below:
Foreign Trust Provisions
The provisions regarding foreign trusts have been amended to broaden the US grantor trust rules as applied to a US grantor of a foreign trust, tax US beneficiaries on uncompensated use of trust property, and tighten the foreign trust reporting rules applicable to US grantors and beneficiaries alike.
The US Internal Revenue Code (the Code) is now reconciled with Treasury regulations, which provide that a foreign trust created by a US person is deemed to have a US beneficiary (even when the interest of a US person is contingent on a future event) unless for that taxable year there is a specified class among whom discretionary distributions may be made, none of whom is a US person.
There is now a rebuttable presumption that every foreign trust created by a US person has US beneficiaries. There is now a requirement that a US grantor provide information requested by the IRS with respect to the foreign trust, in addition to ensuring the foreign trust files an annual information report.
Uncompensated Use of Trust Property by US Beneficiaries
This new rule is likely to have a major effect on US beneficiaries of a Bermuda trust that owns the residence in which they live. Effective March 18, 2010 the new law treats the use of real or tangible property held in a foreign trust as a trust distribution to a US beneficiary, US grantor or related person if fair market rent is not paid. So if you are a US beneficiary living in a home that is owned by a foreign trust you now have to either immediately pay fair market value rent to the trust, or be deemed to have received a distribution from the foreign trust equal to the fair market rental value of the property.
This new law will also affect US beneficiaries of foreign trusts that have purchased vacation homes in the United States that are occasionally used by US beneficiaries.
This provision will result in many US beneficiaries having to file a Form 3520 in 2010 to report such deemed distributions. Failure to report transfers to, or distributions from, foreign trusts, will now carry a minimum penalty of $10,000 and a maximum penalty that could be greater than the value of the transfer or distribution.
Foreign Financial Accounts
Every foreign financial institution is encouraged to enter into an agreement with the United States that would require it to:
• Obtain information regarding each holder of each account to determine if the account is a US account.
• Comply with verification and due diligence procedures set by the United States.
• For every US account, annually report to the IRS information regarding account holder, balances, income and withdrawals.
• Withhold 30 percent on all payments to recalcitrant account holders and to other foreign financial institutions that have not entered into such an agreement.
• Provide any other information regarding the account requested by the United States.
• Insist that the owners of US accounts waive local bank secrecy laws, and close the accounts of those who refuse to do so.
Foreign financial institutions that refuse to enter into such an agreement are subject to withholding of 30 percent on all payments to them of US source dividends, interest and similar investment income, and on the gross proceeds of all sales of US securities and other assets that produce interest or dividends.
US citizens are now going to have to be more prudent in the reporting of interest income from foreign banks as well as filing Form TD F 90-22.1, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts.
While many foreign banks do not provide year-end statements as to interest income received by an account holder, this information is usually reported on monthly or quarterly bank statements.
And if your foreign financial institution complies with the law and lets the US Treasury know the balances in your accounts and the amount of interest income paid to you, the US Treasury will likely program this information in their computers and will be looking for a match when you file your tax return.
New Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts Filing Requirement
In addition to the annual filing of filing Form TD F 90-22.1, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, the new law will now require a US person to disclose on their 2010 Form 1040 specified foreign financial assets that exceed $50,000.
Specified foreign financial assets include foreign depository or custodial accounts, foreign stock or securities, financial instruments or contracts issued by or having a counterparty who is not a US person, and any interest in a foreign entity. Failure to make this disclosure in your 2010 tax return will result in a new accuracy-related penalty of $10,000 and a 40 percent penalty will apply to any actual underpayment of taxes attributable to undisclosed foreign financial assets, and the statute of limitations has been extended to six years in certain cases.
Passive Foreign Investment Company (PFIC)
A US shareholder with an interest in a Passive Foreign Investment Company (PFIC) must now file an annual information return, regardless of whether a taxable event has taken place in that year.
Pursuant to the requirements relating to practice before the Internal Revenue Service, any tax advice in this communication is not intended to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties imposed under the US Internal Revenue Code, or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another person any tax related manner.
The tax advice given by this column is, by necessity, general in nature. You should, of course, check with your own US tax consultant as to how specific transactions affect you since tax advice varies with individual circumstances.
BY Darcus Howe
There is a complete absence, official or unofficial, of the numbers of us who have migrated from the Caribbean to the cities of North America, the UK, France and Holland post the Second World War.
Yet there is a discernible economic and social impact on the tiny islands of the Caribbean from which we have come through remittances sent ‘home’ from abroad. The poor and disposed of these tiny Caribbean islands cannot survive without the regular transfer of cash through Western Union outlets on our high streets.
Barrels of clothing, food and domestic necessities roll across the seas to sustain those who live below the poverty line.
A new lexicon has been woven into the language of Caribbeans at home; For example the term ‘barrel children’.
The internet has made it possible to communicate with our homelands with amazing rapidity and in precise detail.
The expansion of air travel makes feasible the transport of returnees on holidays and increasingly permanently.
The cheap telephone call card ensures that voices relate events as they occur. I was awake through the night on Monday May 24 tracking the results of the Trinidad and Tobago election.
For a few minutes I am on the phone to my mates in Trinidad and Tobago. In another, I am speaking to friends in Jamaica who detailed the explosion of violence which threatened the capital city, Kingston. Not forgetting the intense debates which occupy Caribbean communities here in the UK as events in Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica unfold.
Dudus, a ‘bad bwoy’ from Tivoli Gardens in downtown Kingston has long been part of the normal discourse in the Jamaican community here in England. Black Brits in Brixton, for example, speak of him with ease, and familiarity and sometimes affection.
I am sure that stacks of cocaine and weed have landed here and more so in the USA by sea and air trafficked by Dudus and his organization. We are all aware that Mr. Dudus is intimately woven in the fabric of Jamaican politics.
US lawmen and women have been tracking this young man over the years as he pursued his career in illegality. Jamaican sensimillia has long been a much sought after commodity in the cities of the world.
Dudus is also able to deliver votes in Jamaica’s local and national elections as his domination of the Prime Minister’s constituency illustrates.
The extradition warrant for the ‘Jesse James’ of the Caribbean challenges the ruling Jamaica Labour Party at its very base. Prime Minister Golding ducked and dived before he signed the warrant.
The entire population of Tivoli went into insurrectionary mode. Arms aplenty and Dudus’ soldiers drew a ring of steel around this bandido. All hell broke loose. At time of my writing, a reported 50 citizens lay dead.
The official army is engaged. In this ‘civil war’ citizens are ready to give up their lives for their local hero.
The livelihood of members of the downtown community depends on Dudus and his organizations. Government jobs are filtered through the Don of Tivoli.
Across to Trinidad where the murder rate is already in three figures and we are not yet in mid year.
The current government has only hours ago been swept aside, yet instability is the order of the day and just beneath the surface is concealed passions which flow from poverty and injustice.
Uncertainty reigns in every single Caribbean country. Many Duduses are at large.
Some years ago, I was in conversation with the late CLR James, that fine historian and political thinker.
He spoke as follows about the Caribbean: “If you want to know where these tiny Caribbean islands are headed, take a look at Haitiâ€.
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GFBC WORLD NEWS
