It might take 7 years to get property possession in SKN under CBI, indicates Minister Grant

St Kitts and Nevis’ high court has again refused the appeal of Minister Lindsay Grant and Jonel Powell to set aside the default judgement for breach of trust, breach of fiduciary duty and failure to account or misappropriation of US $460,000 of the CBI applicant.

Using the mode of airwaves, Minister Grant and Powell said: “We are confident that we have done nothing wrong and we are confident that court at the end will make a note of that in future.” Lindsay Grant mentioned that Tanzania Tobing Tanzil had received the condominium as well as the citizenship of St Kitts and Nevis for which he has paid the money. “These things take time, and it is not our fault.”

Notably, Tanzil applied for citizenship in 2013 through Lindsay Grant under the CBI’s real estate option and paid a total sum of US $460,000. He received his property and citizenship after more than 7 years of application submission.

In usual cases of CBI real estate option, the ideal time to get possession of property and citizenship of St Kitts and Nevis is 3 months, for which it took 7 years for Tanzania Tobing Tanzil as allegedly his money was misappropriated.

Minister Grant openly alleged not only his client of a political ploy, but he also claimed his council of being politically biased to frame him in fiduciary case of money embezzlement.

“Sum of US $45,000 extra was paid in case of Taznil,” said Minister on an interview at Freedom FM. But the question raises here is why did he pay more money than that he collected from his client! Surprisingly, the statement of Government Minister contradicts his own words.

In the process, the money is deposited in an Escrow account of the lawyer, which is considered to be the mediator, after which the total sum is paid to the developer. In this case, the point of concern is whether the money was present in Lindsay’s escrow account for the past 7 years or not. A simple account statement can clarify that easily.

According to information, the money was not withheld in the account, but it was used for personal expenses. Even Tanzil’s council also alleged Lindsay grant of using government powers to suppress the matter as he transferred the investigating officer of this case.

Moreover, the high court also made a judgement against both Jonel Powell and Lindsay Grant in this matter and asked them to immediately pay back the money collected from the client during the year 2013. If there was nothing wrong, despite being seasoned lawyers, Grant and Powell failed to convince the court in their favour.

Unexpectedly, citizenship acquired by using the Citizenship by Investment Real Estate option has taken a long path of 7 years by paying a hefty amount of money.