St. Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris met on three occasions with British property tycoon Peter Virdee, Leader of the Opposition, the Right Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas disclosed Tuesday night.
Virdee and his business partner, Dieter Trutschler, have been accused of bribing Dr. Harris and Caribbean politicians. Antigua and Barbuda’s Cabinet Minister, Hon. Asot Michael, who has been named like Harris in a judgment in a British High Court, has resigned his ministerial post.
“I am saying this now to the citizens of St. Kitts and Nevis and it has been confirmed. He had three meetings with Peter Virdee. Three meetings our prime minister had with Peter Virdee. The prime minister must not lie. He must come as I have said earlier, there has to be full disclosure. He had three meetings with Virdee,” Dr. Douglas said during his “Ask the Leader” call-in programme on Kyss 102.5 FM on Tuesday night.
Dr. Douglas said that in one of those three meetings, the Federation’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, Sen. the Hon. Vincent “Juicy” Byron was present.
“In others, ministers were present. There might have been other meetings, but these are the three meetings reported when others were present with him and Peter Virdee,” stressed opposition leader Douglas.
“The Prime Minister cannot lie his way out of this. The prime minister must have full disclosure of his association and his connection with Peter Virdee and he must stop attempting to mislead the people of St. Kitts and Nevis over this matter,” said Dr. Douglas.
Secretly taped telephone calls emerged the judgment in the British Court on May 11, 2018, in which Virdee is accused of bribing Harris and Caribbean politicians.
In one of the transcripts Prime Minister Harris begs a watch and a pair of shoes. In another transcript reference is made to a request for $2 million by “our friend” for a St. Kitts energy deal.
The transcripts were produced from surveillance recordings made by German police after they suspected Peter Virdee of being involved in tax fraud. The German tapes were handed over to the National Crime Agency (NCA) in the UK who began their own criminal investigation into the allegations of Bribery of Timothy Harris and other Caribbean politicians.
The National Crime Agency in the UK alleges Virdee and his partner conspired to bribe corrupt officials.
Two judges in London, were presented with transcripts of a conversation on 12th March, 2016, in which Peter Virdee allegedly told his business partner, Dieter Trutschler that the Prime Minister of St Kitts, Timothy Harris was in London he was taking Harris and his entourage out for dinner that evening and then have an after-party, “so be ready for a big bill.”
Virdee also told his business partner that Harris told he would like a nice watch.
‘I said ‘okay.’ And then he (Dr. Harris) called me this morning (Saturday 12th March, 2016) and he said ‘Have you got my watch?’ I said ‘Oh I have got to pick your watch up’…. I spoke to him last Saturday, last Sunday at the airport hotel when he was in transit to Dubai and he said ‘Look, I am in favour of this, I will send my minister down.’
Mr. Virdee continued his telephone conversation by saying: ‘I had a very stiff conversation with him, to the point. I said ‘Listen, you have got another 3, 3 and a half years. In 2 years’ time you are going to start your election campaign, you are going to come to me and say ‘Peter Virdee, I need some election funding’ and I am going to say ‘PM I can’t help you, if I have not earned anything from this country’ and then you are going to get upset and then we are going to fall out, so it is your call, how do you want to do this?’
“I am going to have a very frank conversation with him (Dr. Harris), I mean as frank as I can get, and today’s conversation is going to be ‘Yes we are going to be in St. Kitts’ or ‘No, we are not going to be in that region’, simple, because I have not got time to go and entertain and go and meet him at airports and take him out for lunches and take eight of them out for dinner, and buy him a watch and buy him (Dr. Harris) this and buy him shoes. I haven’t got time for that. Now, I don’t mind nurturing a relationship, the guy is in power today…”
The British judges have ruled that the matter now goes to a full trial in London.