The man at the centre of the briefcase saga with Grenada¹s Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Mitchell has been sentenced to 87 months in prison in the United States.

Eric Resteiner, the former Grenada diplomat with the ruling New National Party (NNP) government was sentenced on May 16 by Justice Valerie O¹Hara in the United States District Court for the District of Massachussetts.

The ex-Grenada envoy has been held in custody for nearly three years on charges of defrauding clients mainly in the United States of close to US$35 million in a massive wire and mail fraud scheme. In handing down sentence, Justice O¹Hara informed the accused that he had been engaged in a very "serious variety of mail fraud than I typically see...".

"This was an abuse of trust. This was an extraordinary abuse of trust. This is a case in which there is no pretense of investment, there was no pretense of a business", she said.

According to Justice O¹Hara, the accused was engaged in blatantly taking money from people and "putting it into his pocket so that he could have a castle in Switzerland formerly owned by the Shah of Iran".

The female judge told Resteiner that she initially wnated to sedn him to prison for eight years but decided to reduce it by one year in light of his co operation with U.S law enforcement officials. She said: "I was about to come out here (in court) and say 96 months, but I will not. I think, in deference to the fact that Mr. Resteiner co-operated to a degree ..... in a way that made it easier for the (US) government actually to find out not only about other people but also to find out about the victims..... that has to count for something.

"When he (Resteiner was caught, he helped them figure out who the victims are, but I will sentence him to 87 months", she added. The judge¹s reference to "other people" is believed to be Resteiner¹s spilling the beam on Grenada¹s Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell whom he gave a substantial sum in cash at his luxury villa in Switzerland in June 2000.

In pleading to the court for a lighter sentence, Resteiner¹s attorney John Amabile indicated that his client provided the U.S FBI with a video-tape depicting the bribery payment to the Grenada Prime Minister.

Dr. Mitchell has consistently denied accepting a bribe from the international con-man. Following is an edited version of the Sentence that was imposed by Justice O¹Hara on Resteiner:

So, Mr. Resteiner, would you please stand. I¹m going to sentence you to 87 months which is to be on each count of conviction to be served concurrently.

I recommend that the Bureau of Prison grant you credit for all the periods of your official detention including the period in Singapore, it was from the date of your arrest on February 10th, 2004.

 Upon your release from imprisonment, I¹m going to place you on supervised release for two years on each count to run concurrently.  
When you¹re released, there will be an immigration detainer on you. The odds are that you won¹t be released to the street, but if you are, you report immediately to probation in the district to which you¹ve been released.

You¹re to make restitution to the victims listed in the chart that will be attached to the judgment in the amount of $33,949,762. Interest will be waived.

Payment shall be made to the Clerk of the U.S. District Court for transfer to the various victims in the amounts specified by the chart.
I endorse the U.S. Attorney¹s efforts to get the proceeds from the SEC action applied to this case, and to the extent that there¹s anything that this court can do to effectuate that, I will do. Any payment made that is not payment in full shall be divided proportionately among the victims named. The restitution shall be paid immediately. Any balance remaining upon the defendant¹s release from incarceration shall be paid according to a repayment schedule.

Should you change your mailing or residence address, this really assumes you¹ll get out, but, as I said, you¹re likely (to be) deported, if your mailing address changes, you have to let the U.S. Attorney¹s office know while any portion of restitution remains unpaid.

I will not impose a fine because you¹re not able to pay a fine, and a fine would take away from the money due the victims in this case. If you wind up on supervised release, while on supervised release, you are not to commit another federal, state or local crime. I will not require DNA collection at all. The issue is pending in court, and I agree with Judge Keeton that we shouldn¹t be collecting DNA.

You¹re to comply with the standard conditions, and in addition, you¹re prohibited from possessing a firearm or other dangerous weapon.

If ordered deported, you¹re to leave the U.S and not return without the prior permission of the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

As I said, you¹re to pay the balance of the restitution. You¹re prohibited from incurring new credit charges without the approval of probation while any financial obligation remains outstanding, and you¹re to give probation access to financial information which may be shared with the financial litigation unit of the U.S. Attorney¹s office. There¹s a special assessment of $700 which shall be due immediately.

So it is a higher sentence than the parties have jointly recommended, but it is a sentence that I think, under the circumstances adequately reflects the purposes of punishment.
As I said, I couldn¹t envision mail fraud that wreaked more havoc on people¹s lives without any imaginable reason than this, and it seems to me that you needed to be sentenced in a way that reflected that.