The Opposition United Workers’ Party (UWP) says it will continue to push for answers from the government regarding the governance of the island’s Citizenship by Investment Programme (CIP), despite the withdrawal of a lawsuit in the United States against the Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU).
The UWP’s first deputy leader, Guy Joseph insists there are still unanswered questions.
Despite threatening to expose evidence of corruption within CIPs in the region, Philippe Martinez, a developer based in St. Kitts, dropped the lawsuit filed in the U.S. federal court in which he alleged misconduct on the part of the Unit and named its CEO Mc Claude Emmanuel as a respondent. Reacting to that development, the Citizenship by Investment Board earlier this week said there had been a “failed attempt to threaten, embarrass, and extort” it, alleging that there had been last-minute attempts for a financial settlement, which it rejected.
Joseph says the UWP will continue pursuing the matter until the party gets definitive answers.
“There is a lot more that will be revealed in the new year,” he declared as he suggested there was more amiss in Martinez’s withdrawal of the lawsuit.
“I agree with Mr. Martinez. That’s not his case to fight. This is a case for Saint Lucia to fight and it is the commitment of this United Workers’ Party that we will do what is necessary to find where this money is.”
UWP Public Relations Officer, Lenard Spider Montoute, said the Opposition wanted to know where monies earned from CIP citizenship sales go. It is demanding full transparency from the government.
Montoute called for details of the CIP contract signed with Galaxy.
“We want direct, definitive answers from our government,” he insisted.
The UWP official said the party was willing to take legal action to get those answers: “If it has to be that the matter has to go to court for us to get answers, then so be it. But I am saying as a citizen of this country, I should not have to take my government to court for them to account to me.”
