Dominica: Kenneth Rijock sued for 'slanderous comments'

A lawsuit has been filed against a US money launderer-turned-financial consultant after he refused to apologise for comments described as “slanderous”.

The suit against Kenneth Rijock has been be brought by four Dominicans, who are also seeking damages from Matthias Peltier and Q95FM – the radio host and station where Rijock made the controversial comments.

WIC News reported at the end of April that there were plans to take legal action, with the government's senior counsel saying "he doesn’t have a clue about Dominica and he has no idea what facts are" in an exclusive interview.

The lawsuit was filed yesterday at the high court in Roseau after Rijock refused to retract, apologise and pay compensation accusations that the prime minister and officials had sold blank Dominican passports to the Moroccan ambassador.

[caption id="attachment_1147" align="alignleft" width="200"] Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit.[/caption]

The claimants are Roosevelt Skerrit, prime minister of Dominica; Francine Baron, minister of foreign affairs; Rayburn Blackmoore, minister responsible for national security and immigration; and Pellam Jno. Baptiste, a senior police officer in direct charge of immigration and passports.

But Rijock – who served four years in prison for financial crimes  – refused to back down, remaining defiant after receiving the demand letter.

“Please be advised that I will neither retract my articles, nor any of my recorded statements. Florida law recognises my [sic] as a journalist, and any suit you choose to file on behalf of your clients will be turned over the Reporters without Borders, and to the United Nations, and Organization of American States,” he wrote in an email response.

‘Passports for sale’

Rijock is named as the first defendant in the legal documents, with Matthias Peltier and West Indies Communications Enterprises Limited (Q95FM) named as the second and third defendants respectively.

According to the statement of claim filed against Rijock, “on or about the 20th day of April 2017 [Rijock] appeared on Q95FM Radio with the host Mr Matt Peltier via telephone or some other medium and said ‘I think some Dominicans probably know that last year the Moroccan ambassador to all of the east Caribbean states visited Prime Minister Skerrit… and I understand he came back one additional time. At that time stories were… about the fact that the ambassador from Dominica had actually left the country with thousands of blank passport forms from Dominica, passports themselves, legitimate issued passports’”.

The papers allege that “statements or words meant and were understood to mean that the claimants had severally, or jointly colluded, or conspired, or acted alone, or with each other and the ambassador of the sovereign state of Morocco to unlawfully and or corruptly violate the laws of the Commonwealth of Dominica and/or sell and/or had over to the Ambassador some 10,000 blank passport forms and/or passports for sale in Syria among other places in the Middle East where the terror group ISIS and others exist.

“The words were also understood to mean that some 2,000 Dominican passports have already been sold to terrorists in Syria and the Middle East.”

Injunction sought

The four claimants are seeking damages, including aggravated damages, for “slander for the words spoken, uttered, published and or caused to be published and broadcast or disseminated”.

They are also seeking an injunction restraining Rijock, Peltier and Q95 from publishing anything further on these claims, as well as costs.

Rijock, who lives in Florida, will by served via email while Peltier and Q95FM will receive papers by bailiff.

The defendants now have twenty-eight days to file a defence.

Rijock is also at the centre of a lawsuit in the USA, a story broken by WIC News in April. Canadian advisory firm Northland Wealth Management and two of its executives are suing Rijock for “a malicious and relentless campaign of fake news”.

The suit alleges that the US blogger wrote more than 40 blog posts that were "false and defamatory" on his Financial Crime Blog.

WIC News has reached out to Kenneth Rijock and the other defendants for comment.