Former Chief Executive Officer and Senior Vice President of Barbadian Insurance Company Charged with Laundering Bribes to Former Minister of Industry of Barbados

The former chief executive officer and senior vice president of Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited (ICBL), a Barbados-based insurance company, were charged in an indictment unsealed on Jan. 18, with laundering bribes to the former Minister of Industry of Barbados in exchange for his assistance in securing government contracts for ICBL.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Richard P. Donoghue of the Eastern District of New York and Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. of the FBI’s New York Field Office made the announcement.

Ingrid Innes, 63, a citizen of Canada, and Alex Tasker, 58, a citizen of Barbados, were charged with one count of conspiracy to launder money and two counts of money laundering in an indictment returned in Aug. 22, 2018, by a federal grand jury sitting in Brooklyn, New York.  The former Minister of Industry of Barbados, Donville Inniss, 52, a U.S. legal permanent resident who resided in Tampa, Florida, and Barbados, was charged with the same crimes in an indictment unsealed on Aug. 6, 2018, and was also charged as a co-defendant of Innes and Tasker in the superseding indictment.

The indictment alleges that in 2015 and 2016, Innes, then the chief executive officer of ICBL, and Tasker, then a senior vice president of ICBL, took part in a scheme to launder into the United States approximately $36,000 in bribes that they paid to Inniss, who at the time was a member of the Parliament of Barbados and the Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development of Barbados.  In exchange for the bribes, Inniss allegedly leveraged his positon as the Minister of Industry to enable ICBL to obtain two government contracts.  According to the allegations, Inniss arranged to receive the bribes through a U.S. bank account in the name of a dental company with an address in Elmont, New York, in order to conceal the scheme.

The charges in the indictment are merely allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

ICBL voluntarily self-disclosed the case and received a declination under the FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy.  ICBL disgorged $93,940.19 in illicit profits that it earned from the scheme.

The FBI’s New York Field Office and International Corruption Squad is investigating the case.  In 2015, the FBI formed International Corruption Squads across the country to address national and international implications of foreign corruption.

Trial Attorney Gerald M. Moody Jr. of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Sylvia Shweder of the Eastern District of New York are prosecuting the case.  The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs provided significant assistance in this matter.

The Fraud Section is responsible for investigating and prosecuting all Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) matters.  Additional information about the Department’s FCPA enforcement efforts can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal/fraud/fcpa.