Editorial
The bribery court case involving Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture and Energy, Gregory Bowen should be followed closely by Grenadians interested in the welfare of their little island.
GRENADA TODAY has brought to the attention of the public some of the court documents filed by the complainant, U.S oilman Jack Grynberg against Minister Bowen and his Russian oil and gas exploration associates.
The documents provide further proof of the kinds of con-men and convicts that were allowed to enter the country as businessmen by the New National Party (NNP) regime.
There is a particular section of the document which caught our eyes as it relates to the operations of the Grenada Call Center at Seamoon in which our taxpayers lost millions of dollars in another ill-conceived NNP project.
This newspaper could remember statements made by Minister Bowen and others in the current administration of the reactivation of the Call Center under a Russian saviour by the name of Lev Model.
The evidence now surfacing is that Model was a convicted criminal in the United States who came to Grenada within a matter of days of being released from prison.
Both Prime Minister Mitchell and Minister Bowen need to explain to the nation the kind of due diligence that was done on this convict from a U.S jail that ended up with a State entity that was initially funded by our taxpayers.
This is what is contained in documents filed in a New York court on February 25, 2008 listed as "Civil Action No. 06 Civ. 11512 (EJW) involving Grynberg and Minister Bowen and his Russian associates:
"In December of 2003, Lev Model formally created a Grenadian company called Global Petroleum Group. The incorporation documents were prepared by a Grenadian attorney with close ties to Prime Minister Mitchell and the ruling party.
Other directors of Global Petroleum Group include Defendant Lev Korchagin and Eduaro Vasilev, who on information and belief is a Russian national.
On information and belief, Mr. Model is the same "Lev Model" that is a convicted criminal. (It happened) back in 1991, when Mr. Model was a resident of Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
In a nutshell, Model was given millions of dollars by a Soviet oil company, and was supposed to provide household appliances for the company to sell to its workers. Instead, Model stole and pocketed most of the money.
Mr. Model served 28 months in federal prison. On information and belief, his enormous and brazen theft from a Russian oil company made him a well-known thief in Russian petroleum circles.
And this is the individual who defendant Fridman, Blavatnik, and TNK-BP selected to lead their efforts in Grenada, to organise Global Petroleum Group and to transfer millions of dollars to Grenadian officials in criminal violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the 1997 OECD Convention on Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions.
Additional documentation discovered after the filing of the initial complaint (against Gregory Bowen and others) indicate that there is an agreement between Global Petroleum Group and Grenada covering legal expenses to be employed against RSM, and that Lev Model purported to personally advance the first $2.5 million in October of 2005 of money to cover Grenada's legal expenses.
This led to RSM's investigation of Mr. Model and uncovering of his apparent criminal conviction and a separate civil judgement.
On information and belief, based in part on garnishment proceedings involving Mr. Model in New Jersey, Mr. Model had no ability to pay this money personally, but was acting as a front person for Defendants Blavatnik, Fridman, TNK-BP and BP.
RSM has also recently learned that Lev Model paid the college tuition of Gregory Bowen's daughter. This was learned through Michaele Rose, a woman who worked for the Call Centres of Grenada, who heard both Mr. Model and Mr. Bowen's daughter confirm the same.
CCG was (the) Call Centre owned by the Grenadian Government and run by Mr. Model. Michaele Rose was the number two person at CCG".
What a traversty of justice!!!
The developments stated above must also be viewed in the context of the number of untruth told by Prime Minister Mitchell on the Call Centre arrangement.
During the debate involving Political Leaders in the 2003 election campaign, Dr. Francis Alexis of People's Labour Movement (PLM) made a remark about the Prime Minister and his family and their involvement in the same Call Center.
Dr. Mitchell quickly denied that any member of his family was engaged in the use of state funds for that particular project.
It appeared that the Prime Minister had lost his memory once again.
He apparently forgot that there is in existence a video and audio recording of a sitting in Parliament in which Prime Minister Mitchell admitted under pressure from then Opposition Leader, Michael Baptiste that his family members were a big player in the Call Centre fiasco.
Dr. Mitchell even gave a specific date when his family members would repay their share of the millions owed as part of the loan portfolio with Call Centre.
It never happened. The NNP with one stroke of the pen got the State to purchase the lost-making interest of the Mitchell family Syndicate and to absolve them of any responsibility.
Is it any wonder that crooks and conmen from Russia were later brought in to take over the already failed Call Centre project?
The real deal was our oil and gas resources that the vultures in NNP were bent on selling to the Russians for personal monetary gains similar to the Briefcase scenario.
Those who misbehaved in public office must be made to account to our law courts "all in the fullness of time".
