Skerrit denies knowledge of UK offshore companies

By TDN Wire Staff - The Dominican

PM Roosevelt Skerrit.

Roseau, Dominica (TDN) Prime minister of Dominica Roosevelt Skerrit has strenuously denied that he has anything to do with a number of offshore companies registered in the United Kingdom in which the mother of his first son Yvette Laurent has been listed as Director.

News of the offshore companies was reported in a January 4, 2016 article appearing in the Caribbean News Now Network titled ‘From rags to riches? in search of Roosevelt Skerrit’s millions’ in which Clint Lowe is quoted as saying that “Over the years, millions of dollars have been collected from the sale of Dominica's diplomatic passports and its citizenship by the Roosevelt Skerrit government, with untold amounts having never been deposited in the National Treasury. Crooks and criminals the world over possess our passports and have paid for them but Mr. Skerrit refuses to give an accounting of all the proceeds.”

“Pursuing leads in the United Kingdom, we've discovered that Ms Laurent, residing in Dominica, currently sits on and in some cases once sat on the boards of at least nine British companies, all of which appear to be front companies…. Ms Laurent is listed as being the sole owner of all the shares while, in others, she is listed as the sole operating director and, on others, she was both the sole owner and director for certain periods of time in the life of the corresponding company.

“We were unable to get financial information from most, so far, but we were able to get balance sheets from the filings of a few. The balance sheets reveal vast amounts of money coming into and leaving these shell companies throughout the years they were operational for which they filed. Nowhere did any of those companies list any physical asset; all declared assets are cash,” the article stated.

However Skerrit was quick to deny involvement telling the local media in Dominica that “I know of no such companies, I know of no such transactions, and I’m no shareholder, either nominee or beneficiary of any such companies.” Skerrit noted.

Skerrit also said the release of the information in the public domain threatens to undermine Dominica’s offshore sector. “They are saying that there is no confidentiality in the offshore sector in Dominica and that an investors’ private information can be easily ferreted across the globe as part of politics in Dominica,” he added.

The prime minister also accused unknown opposition operatives to be behind the most recent report. In the report several documents revealing the signatures of the Directors of the various companies were revealed. The author noted that the documents were all obtained from publicly available sources from Her majesty’s Revenue Department in London.