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Kingsland Media Release #2

November 2, 2021

Miami Jury Awards Record RICO Damages after hearing evidence of Endemic & Systemic Corruption in Barbados Courts & Government

MIAMI, Florida - A jury in Miami, Florida found for the plaintiffs in a Civil RICO lawsuit and awarded substantial damages, which were trebled under RICO to a final amount of US$269+ million dollars – a record for this type of lawsuit.

The jury considered and accepted evidence showing an international conspiracy and corrupt activities by persons in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and in Barbados where the conspiracy originated.

An overview of the jury trial and RICO award, plus transcripts and supporting documents, can be found in Kingsland Media Release.

The Kingsland case is a powerful story of corruption in Barbados that counters the advertised narrative that the country is unlike some other small island nations. The Kingsland case has been litigated in the Barbados courts since 1998, and since that time the island’s endemic and systemic corruption has been strategically used to deny justice to Marjorie Knox and her family.

The lead Plaintiff in the Miami case, Kathleen I. Davis, says:

“Barbados corrupt power and money are arrayed against us. They take whatever they want, and they don't have to pay for it. My mother fought them to keep what was rightfully hers.”

Witnesses at the Miami Trial testified and provided evidence of extensive and deep-rooted corruption in Barbados in relation to the Kingsland case, and generally throughout the country. (See Note 1)

Barbados is a small island nation that has a population of less than 300,000 but has the 15th highest population density in the world. With such a small island and high population density, land is particularly valuable. The subject of the Miami trial, Kingsland Estates, is comprised of over 1,000 acres of prime Barbados lands, including ultra-valuable beachfront properties.

Trial evidence showed that government reclassification of agricultural land to residential or commercial use is tightly controlled by powerful government insiders, who make overnight fortunes by purchasing land (often through proxies) and then reclassifying it. Agricultural landowners take what they are offered because they know their land will never be reclassified until government insiders own it.

Corrupt members of the Barbados government, the judiciary and other powerful persons exploited Kingsland Estates for personal profits.

The jury heard evidence that agricultural lands of Kingsland Estates were fraudulently sold for pennies on the dollars - immediately after which the Barbados government re-zoned the land for commercial purposes for the new government-insider owners, resulting in millions of dollars profits overnight. The government also expropriated lands for projects that never happened. At least one government minister ended up building a house and living on fraudulently expropriated Kingsland Estates’ land.

While government insiders offered Plaintiff Marjorie Knox only a few hundred thousand dollars for her shares of 1/7th of Kingsland Estates, the Barbados Government advertised a small portion of the estate to international investors for an US$800 million-dollar tourism project.

Barbados has tax treaties with many nations and is considered an ‘offshore tax haven’ by many, but over the decades every attempt to introduce conflict of interest and anti-corruption laws on the island has failed - defeated by every government no matter which of the two parties were in power.

Evidence showed that some of defendant Iain Deane's co-conspirators were powerful government insiders and prominent island politicians - including former Chief Justice Sir David Anthony Cathcart SIMMONS, who was also Deputy Prime Minister when anti-corruption laws were defeated. (See Note 2)

Other Barbados insiders and corporations named in the racketeering acts described in the evidence included Richard Ivan COX (aka ‘Bluffy Cox’), David SHOREY, Classic Investments Limited, and S.B.G. Development Corporation. (See Note 3)

Knox family members and witnesses living in Barbados were harassed, threatened, fired from employment, and violently assaulted to prevent their testimony in the Kingsland case.

Some online threats against the family were even documented as coming from the Members’ Lounge in the Barbados House of Parliament.

Evidence showed that harassment and violence against witnesses in all types of legal matters in Barbados is a cultural problem. This fact is publicly acknowledged by the Barbados Courts, judges, news media and others - including Canadian University Professor Hans G. Machel and former RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) police officer Richard Goddard who worked together and documented witness intimidation, fears of arson, bodily harm, and job loss by witnesses to a Barbados Coroner’s Inquest into the 2007 ‘Arch Cot’ deaths of a family of five. (See Note 4)

The Miami Kingsland jury saw and heard evidence of Barbados judges publicly stating that the Barbados justice system is being seriously undermined by this culture of threats and violence against witnesses.

The jury also heard evidence that Barbados judges routinely take years - even 10 or 20 years - to deliver a decision after hearing a case. This is a method of corruption used by powerful insiders who, according to testimony in the Miami trial, “own the courts.” There are no court reporters in Barbados civil courts, and therefore no official transcripts of proceedings in the courts. Accurate transcripts of court proceedings are, of course, a foundation of any real justice system, but are not present in Barbados.

One local Barbados news outlet stated:

"Barbados is a country where a simple condominium dispute or a pedestrian accident can remain before the courts for more than twenty years with no resolution. Ours is a country where court files and government records appear and reappear for the convenience of the elites and to deny evidence to ordinary folks." (See Note 5)

In still ongoing Kingsland litigation in Barbados, the victims have experienced court files disappearing and then re-appearing in events that obstruct their quest for justice.

The Kingsland victims have been waiting for over 10 years for various motion decisions in the Barbados Courts. One recently delivered Barbados Court decision about Kingsland took years, was delivered years after the judge retired, and was ultimately signed by a person who was not a judge at the time of the hearing.

International Money Laundering

The Miami jury also heard evidence that some of the stolen funds were transferred and money-laundered internationally between the United Kingdom, Barbados and other offshore havens. Some of the documentary evidence seized in a 2018 search of a defendant’s home in the United Kingdom shows the participation of banking officials and lawyers in these illicit transfers.

Over the years, many governments and experts have expressed concern about money laundering through Barbados. Recently in May of 2021, the United Kingdom placed Barbados on its list of “high-risk third countries” for money laundering. (See Note 6)

The evidence accepted by the Miami jury in the Kingsland case exposes a culture of corruption in Barbados that is acknowledged locally – but hidden from international attention.

Certified court transcripts of witness testimony and other evidence presented at the jury trial are available at: https://kingslandscoop.com/

NOTES:

(1)

Plaintiff’s lawyer, Opening statement to the jury:

“Mrs. Knox knew in 1998 that taking on Classic Investments and taking on Kingsland and her siblings were not going to be easy. Especially not in Barbados. You will hear testimony from witnesses about the reputation of corruption that there is in the Barbados judicial system.

You'll hear testimony about many incidences of witness intimidation and evidence tampering and a lot of prominent folks in Barbados who have made comments about how difficult it is to bring issues to justice there. So she was prepared for that. What she was not prepared for was that the next 18 to 19 years of her life, she would be the victim of a terror campaign.”

(Trial transcript, June 28, 2021, page 112 – and throughout the witnesses’ testimony. Also, see filed court documents and other references in the folder ‘Kingsland Release 1’ also available at the DropBox link at the end of this media release.)

(2)

Sir David Anthony Cathcart SIMMONS

Sir David Anthony Cathcart Simmons was a professional politician for 25 years. He was Barbados Attorney General for three terms and Deputy Prime Minister when anti-corruption laws were defeated. Simmons’ wife Marie was a judge who became the first woman to be appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court of Barbados.

A few months after David Simmons retired from government in 2001, then Prime Minister Owen Arthur appointed Simmons as Chief Justice of Barbados – in a controversial move that many saw as unethical. One local news media outlet said of Simmons’ appointment:

“Simmons’ appointment in 2002 was a Barbados Labour Party political strategy designed to exercise political control and influence over the Barbados courts. His appointment effectively killed the separation of powers between the government and the judiciary and brought the administration of justice into disrepute. David Simmons personally caused tens of thousands of Bajans to lose faith in the entire judicial system.”

The same news article quoted then Prime Minister David Thompson, who eventually relieved David Simmons as Chief Justice, saying that Simmons’ original appointment had been ‘wrong’.

“Thompson added that he still held the firm belief that Sir David’s original appointment in January 2002 was wrong since it had been made after he was part of the executive or a former Government. “The circumstances of his appointment were wrong, and I don’t think you can cure it because you are a good Chief Justice,” Thompson added.

(Barbados Free Press, Feb 13, 2010: ‘Barbados Prime Minister slams retiring Chief Justice David Simmons over the ethics of Simmons’ appointment.’ The article is included in the DropBox link below.)

Barbados Free Press had declared in an earlier article…

“It is the very presence of a career politician, former Attorney General and former Acting Prime Minister as Chief Justice that warns ordinary people that they haven’t a hope of seeing justice in Barbados.”

(Barbados Free Press, Jan 3, 2010: ‘Barbados Labour Party finally loses control of Supreme Court – Chief Justice Simmons’ term not extended’ Article included in DropBox link below.)

Also see…

(Trial transcript June 28, 2021: Page 137 Line 15 to page 138 Line 10,)

(Trial Exhibit, March 15, 2015 Sworn Affidavit of Donald Best: Page FF005098-164, -251, -255)

(3)

Co-conspirators’ Names - References:

Trial transcript June 28, 2021: Page 23 Lines 8-16, Page 102 Lines 13-22, Page 139 Line 20 thru page 140 Line 13, Page 201 Lines 1-22, Page 220 Lines 3-24,

Trial transcript June 29, 2021: Page 253 Lines 15-25, Page 258 Lines 12-15, Page 261 Line 12, Page 290 Lines 6-12, Page 306 Line 25, Page 360 Line 14, Page 389 Line 6

Trial Exhibit, March 15, 2015 Sworn Affidavit of Donald Best: Page FF005098-38, -40, -75.

(4)

Arch Cot Deaths

The 2007 Arch Cot tragedy happened when an apartment building was constructed over a known large cave – when a covenant preventing construction mysteriously vanished from the land records and the permissions to build on the surrounding property were changed after powerful government insiders purchased the land. The cave collapsed in the middle of the night, killing a family of five.

Records show that the current Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, and members of her family were involved with a Barbados Registered Company ‘MRD’ that purchased the surrounding land in 1999 for about $90,000 after the existing owner had been denied permission to change the use of the land.

MRD then quickly obtained government permission to change the land use to commercial property and resold the land for $275,000 – tripling the value virtually overnight. At the time the land permissions were quickly changed, Mia Mottley was Minister of Education in the government of then Prime Minister Owen Arthur.

Now in 2021, fourteen years after the deaths, the civil court case is still stuck in the Barbados courts while the sole surviving child lives in poverty with her grandmother.

A series of news articles and Barbados government documents detailing the Arch Cot tragedy is available for download at the link below, in the folder ‘Arch Cot Tragedy’. An index to the documents is also supplied in the folder.

(5)

The January 3, 2012 Barbados Free Press article ‘Arch Cot Justice will be delayed another 20 years is included in the ‘Arch Cot Tragedy’ folder and details several examples of corruption and delays in Barbados courts. Quotes from this local Barbados news source include:

“Justice in Barbados: A decades-long process that often never ends.”

“Barbados has a system where there are no court reporters in the civil courts. How does anyone remember or know what really happened in the course of a few hours in court with no records being kept? You may well ask that question... not that you’ll receive a satisfactory answer.”

“Just last week our Barbados Court of Appeal issued a decision in the 1993 road accident case of Edward Roach. That’s almost 19 years after Mr. Roach was injured, and he still hasn’t been paid a dollar.”

“Our guess of the time it will take the Barbados courts to reach a decision in the Arch Cot Disaster case: 22 years at a minimum.”

(6)

Money Laundering

See the included May 13, 2021, Barbados Today article ‘UK places Barbados on new list citing money laundering concerns. (Located in the folder ‘Kingsland Release 2 – Barbados Corruption’ at the Dropbox link below)

Supporting Documentation, Witness Testimony – Available for Downloading

Full transcripts of the trial, exhibits, photos and additional supporting materials are available to journalists and the public for online downloading by clicking here.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fzoq3i6t93fqj9t/AADawQZp-qfyBqZ0DdSxC3Yfa?dl=0

An overview of the jury trial and RICO award, plus transcripts and supporting documents, can be found in the folder ‘Kingsland Release 1’.

Documents specific to this media release ‘Miami Jury Awards Record RICO Damages after hearing evidence of Endemic & Systemic Corruption in Barbados Courts & Government’ can be found in the folder ‘Kingsland Release 2 – Barbados Corruption’.

For further information and to contact the plaintiffs and other sources, journalists can contact info@kingslandscoop.com