Former Minister in Barbados Sentenced Two Years in US Prison

Barbados' former minister of Industry and Commerce Donville Inniss has been sentenced to twenty-four months in a United States Federal Prison on money laundering accounts.

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The US Department of Justice said that Inniss was sentenced because of his role in a scheme to launder bribe payments from Barbadian company Insurance Corporation of Barbados through banks in New York.

55-year-old Inniss was found guilty on two counts of money laundering and one count of conspiring to commit money laundering. He was also fined $36 000 -the amount he received in bribes in 2015 and 2016 from high-level executives at the insurance company. 

Evidence showed that Inniss hid the nature of the bribes by receiving them through a dental company and a bank located in Elmont, New York.

“Donville Inniss engaged in a bribery and money laundering scheme to line his own pockets at the expense of the people of Barbados,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicholas L. McQuaid of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division 

“In accepting bribes and laundering the payments through banks on Long Island, Inniss not only abused the public trust that was placed in him by the people of Barbados, but he also stained the U.S. banking system with the proceeds of his corrupt scheme,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Mark J. Lesko, “The defendant’s sentence today reflects the seriousness of his crimes.” 

The Justice Department said that the Insurance company fired the individuals involved in the misconduct, enhanced its compliance program, and voluntarily disclosed the bribes. These bribes helped ICBL win contracts that paid more than $93,000in net profits, which the company agreed to disgorge, prosecutors said.