ERIC RESTEINER - the man at the centre of the $500, 000.00 bribery allegation is now in the hands of U.S Feds. Former Grenada diplomat and fugitive from justice, Eric Resteiner was expected Wednesday to be brought back on U.S soil to face criminal charges.

Authoritative sources told GRENADA TODAY that american law enforcement officials have laid hands on Resteiner in Singapore and were due to fly him back to Massachusetts for trial with a number of other alleged fraudsters. Resteiner is the second major figure with connection to Grenada's ruling New National Party (NNP) government of Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell to be arrested in recent weeks by U.S officials.

The first was Van Brink, the President of the collapsed First International Bank (FIBG), who was caught in Uganda and brought back to the U.S to be criminally indicted. Hundreds of American and Canadian investors lost millions of dollars when the offshore bank went into bankruptcy.

FIBG is also suspected of heavily bankrolling the 1999 election campaign of Mitchell's NNP which won all fifteen seats at the poll. One well-placed source said that the arrest of Resteiner who once served as a diplomat under Mitchell government is of particular interest to the Miami-based Offshore Alert and its publisher, David Marchant.

Last month, Marchant carried a report about an alleged $500, 000 U.S bribe that was paid in June 2002 in Switzerland by Resteiner to the Grenada Prime Minister for a diplomatic appointment. Marchant's article was based on an affadavit filed in U.S court by Resteiner's former Chief of Bodyguard who alleged that he was directed by the former Grenada diplomat to video-tape the transfer of funds in a briefcase.

Dr. Mitchell has denied the allegation and announced that he had instructed lawyers to file a libel suit against the U.S-based publisher. He admitted to meeting Resteiner but said that the German trickster gave him "approximately $15, 000 U.S" to cover the expenses of a Grenada delegation on a trip to Europe and Kuwait.

According to well-placed sources, it is widely expected that the influential Marchant would seek to get U.S law enforcement officials to quiz the arrested Resteiner who is a German national on the alleged bribery pay-off.

Following is the full text of a release from the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission on the litigation matter involving Resteiner and the other co-accused:

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Litigation Release No. 16963/April 16, 2001

Sec v. ERIC E. RESTEINER, ET AL., Civil Action No. 01-10637 (PBS) (D Mass.) (U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts - Filed April 16, 2001)

SEC FILES EMERGENCY ENFORCEMENT ACTION TO HALT FRAUDULENT TRADING SCHEME THAT TARGETED MANY CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today (April 16, 2001 that it filed an emergency civil fraud action against four individuals and two Massachusetts-based companies involved in a fraudulent trading scheme that raised approximately $22 million from at least 50 investors, many of whom were members of the Christian Science Church.

The Commission has asked the court to enter an immediate temporary restraining order against Voldemar A. VonStrasdas of Nassau, the Bahamas, Charles G. Dyer of Manchester, Massachusetts, and two Danvers, Massachusetts-based companies controlled by Dyer, Resource F, LLC and Bunker Hill Aviation, LLC, to prohibit them from engaging in further fraudulent activity or continuing to accept or deposit additional investor funds.

The Commission's complaint also charge two other individuals, Eric E. Resteiner, most recently of Nassau, the Bahamas, and Miles M. Harbur of Jupiter, Florida, immediately freeze the assets of all the Defendants.

According to the complaint, the Defendants fraudulently offered and sold securities in the international bank-related financial instrument trading program that was completely fictitious.

The Defendants promoted their trading programme under various names, including Swiss Asset Management, Wall Street South, and Resource F. The Commission alleged that Resteiner, Habur, VonStradas, and Dyer solicited investors using misrepresentations typical of "Prime Bank" -type investment frauds, including that the investment involved high-quality debt instruments of very large international banks, that the investors' principal was never at risk and could be returned after one year, and that investors would receive profits of approximately 4-5% every month (or 48-60% annually).

The Commission further alleged that Dyer and Resource F funneled investor funds to bank accounts in the Bahamas controlled by one or more of the Defendants, and Bunker Hill Aviation received payments for administering the investment scheme.

In addition, the Commission alleged that Dyer misappropriated at least $795,000 of investor funds,and used those funds to, among other things, buy a golf course in Georgia, finance the purchase of an airplane by one of his creditors, and purchase an interest in a restaurant in Boston, Massachusetts.

During the initial stages of the fraud, investors received monthly payments that the Defendants represented were "profits" on their investment.

However, monthly payments to Resource F investors ceased around May 2000. To date, although requested, no investors are known to have received the return of their investment, as promised by the Defendants.
Furthermore, since the cessation of monthly payments, VonStrasdas has regularly sent lulling letters to investors making excuses for the cessation of payments, and making the false statement that he expected trading and monthly payments to investors to resume soon.

More recently, VonStrasdas and Dyer have each solicited investors to contribute money to purported legal efforts to obtain the return of investors_ funds. According to the complaint, Resteiner, Harbur, Vonstrasdas, Dyer, Resource F, and Bunker Hill Aviation, variously, violated the antifraud, securities registration, and broker registration provisions of the federal securities laws, including Section 5 (a), 5 (b) and 17 (a) of the Securities Act of 1933, and 10b-5 thereunder.

The Commission seeks a temporary restraining order against Defendants VonStrasdas, Dyer, Resource F and Bunker Hill Aviation, to prohibit them from engaging in further fraudulent activity or continuing to accept or deposit additional investor funds.

The Commission further seeks to freeze assets of each of the Defendants to ensure that they will be preserved to pay investors their lost principal, to enjoin each of the Defendants from continuing to violate relevant provisions of the federal securities laws, repatriation of investor funds funneled to foreign bank accounts, disgorgement of monies fraudulently received by the Defendants, plus prejudgment interest, and civil monetary penalties from each of the Defendants