The latest St.Kitts-Nevis Economic Citizen to pop up on the International Crime Radar is Nigerian OlawaSeun Ogunbambo. Photo: Times Caribbean

In the last month an advisory was issued by the US Treasury Department regarding the programme. The ADVISORY expressed concern about the programmes lax controls and the abuse of the programme by “Illicit Actors”.

Illicit Actors according to Simon Black is another term for Terrorists.  Since the advisory there has been a number of  these “Illicit Actors” popping up all over the International Crime Radar.

We heard of Dr. Arthur Porter who was an Honorary Counsul to the Bahamas from St.Kitts-Nevis and a holder of a SKN passport who sits in a Panama Jail fighting extradition to Canada to face corruption charges In the largest corruption fraud case in the history of Canada. Then there are the three Iranians Mr. Pourya Nayebi and his associates Houshang Hosseinpour and Houshang Farsoudeh,  who are also holders of SKN Passports who the US listed  as Sanction Evaders in April.

In 2013 we heard of the much publicsized incident at the Canadian Border where an Iranian Alireza Moghadham showed up with a diplomatic St.Kitts-Nevis passport and told Canadian Authorities that he was there to see the Prime Minister. He also claimed he paid $1million for the passport.

The Canadian Embassy confirmed that there was no such meeting scheduled with the Canadian PM and the  SKN authorities have yet to confirm whether he actually paid $1million for his diplomatic passport or not. What they did confirm however is that Moghdham was a special envoy to Turkey and Azerbaijhan.

Then just this week we heard of Ex-con Millionaires Roger Ver and Paul Bilzerians bitcoin for passports programme where the SKN Passports can be purchased with Bitcoins. Both Bilzerian and Ver have served at least 3 stints in Prison between them for various charges including fraud.

The latest St.Kitts-Nevis Economic Citizen  to pop up on the International Crime Radar is Nigerian OlawaSeun Ogunbambo.

Ogunbambo  is being pursued by Nigerian Authorities after he left the country while on bail. The Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission told a Lagos High Court that Ogunbambo, an accused person being prosecuted for separate fraud charges, including an alleged N979.6m  fuel subsidy fraud charge had jumped bail and may have escaped to Canada.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned Mr. Ogunbambo on six-count charges of conspiracy, obtaining money by false pretense, forgery and use of false documents. The anti-graft agency alleges that Ogunbambo and his oil company, “with intent to defraud, conspired to fraudulently obtain N976,653,110.28  from the Federal Government of Nigeria through false pretense.”

Ogunbambo  who holds a St.Kitts-Nevis Passport is also standing trial for separate bank and fuel subsidy fraud charges before two other judges of the Lagos High Court.

The anti-graft agency had declared Ogunbambo wanted following the bench warrant issued against him when he repeatedly failed to attend his trial in Nigerian court.

The imposing 6’-5” Ogumbambo was denied bail because of what a Nigerian Judge described as his “crooked history of illicitly obtaining international passports” .

Ogumbambo is alleged to have had at least 4 International Passports two of which had been confiscated by Nigerian Authorities.

Ogumbambo remains on the run.