Extradition appeal to be heard in April

Alex Tasker will have his extradition appeal heard on April 14.

The former senior executive is wanted in the United States for his alleged role in a money laundering scheme, that led to the conviction of a former Barbados government minister, Donville Inniss.

In September last year, Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes ruled that Tasker, a former executive with the Insurance Corporation of Barbados Ltd. (ICBL) who is linked to the Donville Inniss cash-for-coverage scandal, be turned over to United States authorities to stand trial.

In April last year, Innis, a former minister of industry and an elected member of Parliament of Barbados was sentenced to two years in prison for his role in a scheme to launder bribe payments from the Barbados-based insurance company through bank accounts in New York.

Inniss,  a USl permanent resident who resided in Tampa, Florida, and Barbados, was convicted by a federal jury of two counts of money laundering and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering on January 16, 2020.

According to the evidence presented at trial, in 2015 and 2016, Inniss took part in a scheme to launder into the United States approximately US$36,000 in bribes that he had received from high-level executives of the ICBL.

Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes in granting Tasker’s extradition said, “the entire series of transactions as submitted before me in the bundle and the other information satisfies this court that Mr Alex Tasker should be committed for surrender to United States authorities.”

But when the appeal against his ruling came up on Thursday, the adjournment to April 14 was granted when the extradition appeal came up before Chief Justice Sir Patterson Cheltenham and Justices of Appeal Francis Belle and Margaret Reifer.

When the matter resume sin April, oral submissions will be made before a panel of Court of Appeal judges including the Chief Justice.

US federal authorities want the businessman to be tried for his alleged role in the money laundering scheme with the prosecutors allege that between August 2015 and April 2016 Tasker conspired with others to launder money in the US from outside the country in violation of US law.

During Thursday’s virtual sitting of the Court of appeal it was revealed that Tasker’s attorneys Andrew Pilgrim Q.C., Neville Reid and Lani Daisley had filed two modes of appeal: one under the Magistrates’ Court Act and a notice of an application for leave to appeal.

“Not being familiar with any learning that said it was inappropriate to come under the Magistrates’ Court Act, I thought it prudent to file both rather than be caught out as having not filed one or the other. So I filed both,” Pilgrim said when questioned by the Chief Justice on the filings.

Conferring with the other justices, Sir Patterson said that the court would need submissions on “whether there is merit on the two-prong appeal taken by the appellants [and] whether each one is viable”.

The Chief Justice ordered that Pilgrim and his team file and serve written submissions on or before March 4 on whether the appeal procedure under the Magistrates’ Court Act is applicable in the extradition matter or whether the appeal is governed by the Extradition Act Cap 189.

Counsel for the respondents – the Commissioner of Police – Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Alliston Seale and Senior Crown Counsel Oliver Thomas are to file written submissions in reply on or before March 29.

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