Ex-Premier Andrew A. Fahie found guilty on all charges in Miami trial
Fahie was charged with several counts of drug smuggling, money laundering, and racketeering, after he was arrested at a Miami Airport on April 28, 2022.
He was found guilty of conspiring with then Managing Director of the BVI Ports Authority (BVIPA), Oleanvine Pickering-Maynard, and her son, Kadeem S. Maynard for amounts of cocaine to pass through the VI’s ports as part of a multi-million cocaine deal made with an informant of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), who was posing as a drug trafficker.
On his arrest on April 28, 2022, Fahie was charged by the DEA and while the trial faced several delays since 2023, Fahie’s lawyers formed arguments that the then Premier may have been framed.
Sources told our newsroom that while Mr Fahie has already been remanded to prison, his sentencing date is set for April 29, 2024.
Our News Centre will bring more details as it becomes available. Fahie is now facing possible life imprisonment as a result of the charges brought against him.
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156 Responses to “Ex-Premier Andrew A. Fahie found guilty on all charges in Miami trial”
They a set him up
We are clear on that…
... he fell for it!
Link:
https://stthomassource.com/content/2022/09/16/feds-have-8000-plus-minutes-of-fahie-case-audio/
“When Albion Hodge posted $500,000 to assist in Fahie’s release in June, the USVI and BVI businessman needed to convince the Florida judge that the money was not obtained by some criminal enterprise. Hodge, who runs a ferry service, stated, without further explanation, that he was not now nor had ever been married to Roxanne Sylvester. Hodge also said he was not the brother of Alvin Hodge — explaining to the court that Hodge was simply a very common BVI surname.
Albion and Alvin Hodge were not strangers, however. In 2002, U.S. and BVI authorities started investigating questionable telecommunications contracts in the construction of the Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport.
A new company started by the Hodges, B&A Networking Services, was awarded a telecommunications contract despite the company having no experience or expertise in the field, investigators said. B&A Networking Services used a Banco Popular account in Tortola to collect close to $1.8 million, court records show. It was the same branch in which Sheila Fahie, Andrew Fahie’s wife, worked, investigators said.
Investigators alleged the Road Town branch was a central setting in the scheme.
Andrew Fahie, then the BVI’s 33-year-old Minister of Education and Culture, and his wife allegedly started receiving money from the B&A Network Services account and funneling it to Miami in a way that avoided detection.
Prosecutors said in May 2001, the minister asked B&A Network Services to write a $70,000 check to a company called ADD Services, which was seeking a $50,000 loan. The extra $20,000 was given back to Fahie, according to court documents. ADD Services deposited the check in their Banco Popular account on May 28, 2001, and that same day withdrew $20,000, which was delivered to Fahie, court records show investigators alleged.
A month later, prosecutors said, two more withdrawals of $10,000 came from the ADD Services account and were given to Fahie. In February 2002, he allegedly arranged for Sheila Fahie to give $50,000 to an ADD Services sister company, Crescent, for an investment that benefited an ADD Services official.
While court records don’t explain exactly how the alleged scheme worked, they do show investigators claimed by April 2002, when BVI police started making arrests, that the Fahies were sneaking money to the U.S. mainland.
International travelers to the United States carrying more than $10,000 must list it on their Customs Declaration Form. The Fahies allegedly used couriers to carry $9,000 each, then give it back in Miami. They repeated this in June and also sent themselves money via Western Union, court records show investigators alleged.
In October 2003, the U.S. government started investigating the Fahies for money laundering.
On Jan. 19, 2004, Albion Hodge, Bevis Sylvester, a budget coordinator, Berton Smith, a manager of the BVI government telephone services and Ludwis Allen Wheatley, the BVI’s financial secretary from 1998 until he was suspended from duties in March 2002, were sentenced after they pleaded guilty in a BVI court to deceptive business practices and related crimes. Hodge and Sylvester were sentenced to six months and fined. Wheatley and Smith were sentenced to nine months in prison and fined.
In 2006, Wheatley and associate Wesley Penn lost an appeal to the United Kingdom’s Privy Council of their 2003 corruption convictions related to the airport. Wheatley had awarded contracts to Penn’s P&W Heavy Equipment and Accurate Construction, a company in which Wheatley had an undisclosed interest. It was not clear if P&W was meant to stand for “Penn and Wheatley.”
It was also unclear if the investigation into the Fahies continued, if they were ever arrested before the alleged cocaine-smuggling plot, or if charges were ever leveled against Alvin Hodge, who continued to receive government contracts well after the B&A Network Services incident. A 2008 BVI Auditor General report listed Hodge as being paid $55,871.03 for road paving, fencing, and gut cleaning. The report begins with the motto “Towards Greater Accountability.”
Pickering-Maynard had been the Ports Authority managing director since March 2021 after serving as deputy managing director from 2019. In 2015, she launched her unsuccessful bid to unseat Kedrick Pickering, who represented Tortola’s 7th District. She called herself the candidate for reform and action.
In their evidence against Pickering-Maynard in the alleged cocaine-smuggling plot, U.S. prosecutors quoted an unnamed alleged international drug runner as saying he “owned” her.
In a 2015 campaign post on social media, Pickering-Maynard said what people do behind closed doors represents their authentic selves.
“They say that a person’s true character is expressed in those moments when no one is looking; when they feel comfortable enough to say whatever they want,” she wrote.”
There’s that “B&A” Company name again:
Link:
https://vg.vlex.com/vid/alvin-gregory-hodge-v-793323865
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Mr. Hodge told the Court that he was and still is ‘part of a trucking company called Tattoo's Trucking’ but he emphasized that he was not a shareholder; that between his mechanical work and his trucking he earned an average of $5,000.00 per month. He was also ‘part of another Company, B & A which does not produce any dividends.’
Government Official 1 for example.
DEA, and The UK: Please, don't stop - There's a lot more crooks like Fahie in g*********t that need to be washed out!
It might be a little too late for that " Free Drew" protest. Your boy is going down. He might be there for awhile too.
People must learn to take accountability for their actions. Yes, we all make mistakes. The grass seemed greener on the other side but we must remember, we have to look out for mud, too!
Drew my boy, my thoughts and prayers are with you!
Well pasty lake and friends will just have to cover that 10mil for him ezy
Once them don't send my tax money to help
#WestBanksss
#patsylakeee
He could use the COVID grants he gives friends them to pay them fees
Do not mess with John Bull and Uncle Sam they will eat you alive.
A lil hungry but im good
They were in a rush to get it finished. Know this wherever he is placed he shall rise and will shine in a different light. Things may look dark now but he still has life and a different mind set he can still rise above this challenge.
Keep him in our prayers because prayer changes things in the midst of storms. This is a storm for the territory and his family.
People don't rejoyce over Andrew downfalls. God don't like that at all . Those without sin cast the first stone.
He had believed in those Arabs. Putting them on our Boards, when we have perfectly knowledgeable people here that can serve. They helped to cook his goose. Poor fellow. Had such good potential. Wish he had done right.
Because you can't prosecute them a the international criminal court either they are not subjected to the law, only black people. But drugs is not a good idea.
2nd after creating this relationship with UK he should've have known he was despised and when devils despise you thats big trouble.
3rd you telling me you accept a deal that originated with BLACKA who isn't the sharpest knife in the cupboard. I don't care if his mother brought it to you WHO IN THE HELL GOING TO APPROACH BLACKA WITH THIS SIZE AND SCOPE OF A DEAL? ARE YOU DUMB?
Last but not least you should have had less arrogant talk in those recorded meetings and refuse to accept any money until the alleged deal went through. YOU GOT CONVICTED DUE TO PURE GREED AND I FEEL SAD FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY EVEN THOUGH YOU WOULDN'T HAVE PISSED ON ME IF I WAS ON FIRE.
Unless he makes a deal and identify the other local players in this ,including the identity of murderers, he deserves life behind bars on US soil.
Tattoo he named and that was no secret, Andrew must have knowledge of this BVI drug dealings from beginning v till currently.
If he sincerely cares for these his VI,he will expose all inorder that we can go forward on a new slate.
Moreover, former Premier of the [British) Virgin Islands (VI) Andrew A. Fahie was found guilty by a Florida jury on all counts for involvement in an illegal drug scheme. It was a calamitous and disgraceful fall from grace for the former premier. He let down himself, his family, friends, a nation/territory., etc. He has fallen quickly due to greed from the mountain top down to the depth of the valley. It was about greed, avarice, for he did not grow up poor; he had a comfortable life. My friend “Turo” must be tossing violently, disappointedly , ashamedly in his resting place. The former Premier’s fall is a lesson for other politicians and others, for the old people say every day bucket go in well and one day it will bust way. Further, they also say 6 days for those that do wrong and 1day for the Police/law enforcement. Here is a tip because you get away with wrong does not mean the police is not onto you; you may given enough rope to hang yourselves. Nuff ah dat. May God be and protect the former Premier and his family.
Some politicians wrongly or rightly are tagged as living in a cesspool of deceit, vice, treachery, betrayal, etc., Our politicians must operate outside of this cesspool in which they are lumped. Polls show politcians ranking low among most professions, ie, below used car sales people. They are viewed as scoundrels. One can live in a cesspool but don’t have to take on the characteristics of living in a cesspool, I’m out. Thus is a red/black letter time for the VI, but we work collectively to pull ourselves up and out of it.
Died a timely death
not no bvi justice were case lost or laws changed in time to save family or friend and things get covered up.
real fair hard justice.
W's in chat for the Bvi we finally win one!
They will probably use her to "nab" other people when the time is ripe. The problem with those people is they all roll on each other thats why you dont get into things because someone will tell and people arent who they seem to be.
Andrew is learning this the hard way.
It takes a special type of person to not talk on your comrade and most gangsters arent that honorable, want to be murderers but they will talk. Modern people hold no value in honor, it is only talked about in drafting men to war.
Materialistic people will sell out their own for jealousy, time & money every chance. People who believe in a greater cause will not sell out.
At the other end of despite the crimes it is endearing to see he had people willing to support him through bail and those are real honorable people in my opinion as that was what a true friend would do. It is not all bad there's many lessons to be learned.
And no this is not more damaging than Irma that was traumatic for the whole island, flora & fauna.
This spoke volumes to his character, he thought he was God, above everyone and answers to no one, and sadly some of his constituents idolized him. It's like they're under a spell of some kind.
The mere fact this man MAINTAINED his innocence, me, and that he is a STONE COLD CRIMINAL!! HE was fully aware of what he was doing and had no intentions of stopping. I have ZERO sympathy for him, he is where he is because of the decisions HE made.
"oh they set him up!" RUBBISH!! They can only try, it was him who made their attempt successful..
On a side note, now I know who was Jigga's Virgin Island Connect. He never mentioned your name, respect.