A regional entertainment promotion agency recently came in for a surprise, when one major talent booking agency in the United States demanded that they make certain evidential disclosures required by the FBI pertaining to the origin of the funds that were deposited for the intended performance of a popular American R&B artiste. The artiste and a handful of his protégés were being booked for a planned event in The Bahamas, Barbados, Trinidad and Guyana for varying dates during April 2017.
But the “origin of funds” request, which is said to have been listed in the agreement was initially ignored until FBI agents presumably made contact with the US booking agency. It is widely believed that the Feds stepped in after monitored persons who are associated with a New York underground figure made a large cash deposit to the US based booking agency on behalf of the Caribbean linked entertainment agency, which had previously been associated with similar events in The Bahamas, Grenada and Curacao in recent times.
The Feds are believed to have stepped in because they are convinced that a clique of promoters in the Caribbean are acting as money-laundering agents for several Caribbean-linked underworld figures in the United States who would usually make payments to American talent booking entities (on behalf of various Caribbean promoters) using illicitly earned cash, and then cause the promoters of the talent event in the holding country to pay them back the money locally, from a percentage of the revenue earned from the promotion. In that way, the American artiste is unknowingly used as a conduit for the movement of the laundered cash out of the United States, and away from any monitoring by the system.