Inniss maintains innocence on return home

Back on Barbados soil after completing a two-year prison term in the United States for money laundering, former government minister Donville Inniss on Friday night maintained his innocence and insisted he had been persecuted and jailed for an imaginary crime.
Accompanied by a police officer, Inniss exited the arrivals hall at the Grantley Adams International Airport with a broad smile and a thumbs up to jubilant supporters who rushed to embrace him.
For several minutes, there were only loud calls for “Donville” as men and women who had been awaiting his return hugged and cheered the former Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce, and Small Business Development who was convicted in January 2020 on one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and two counts of money laundering before being jailed on April 27, 2021, for two years.
Inniss returned all the affection and declared, “it is great to be home”. This prompted the celebratory crowd to declare “free at last, free at last” to which the former politician asked, “Am I to think that Barbados has not been free?”
Declaring his innocence of charges levelled by the US Justice Department that he took part in a scheme to launder some $36 000 in bribes received from executives of the Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited (ICBL) to help the company secure two government contracts, Inniss said that despite all the trials and tribulations suffered over the last four and half years, “these five minutes of being back here in Barbados among family and friends erased all of what I have gone through”.
US authorities said that Inniss, who lived in Tampa, Florida, concealed the nature of the bribes by receiving them through a dental company and a bank located in Elmont, New York, between 2015 and 2016.
“There is nothing that can really explain in great detail the level at which one feels happy to be home after being prosecuted, and persecuted for a crime that did not occur,” Inniss, surrounded by supporters who carried a ‘Welcome Home Donville’ sign.
“Let me make it pellucid. Nobody ever offered me a bribe as a minister, nobody asked me to do any favours that resulted in my receiving money. But the United States of America government, aided and abetted by a few pale face individuals and house n******, decided that I should be prosecuted and persecuted.”
Declaring he had faith, Inniss said all that he learnt as a youngster in St Catherine School and St Catherine Church kept him going during the period.
“But I am very happy to be able to return to the land of my birth, Barbados. As a matter of fact, every officer that I met over the last 24 hours as I started my journey back to Barbados said to me they want to come to Barbados,” he said.
Reiterating that he was simply happy to be home, the former St James South MP said the warm reception he received could only be topped by a “little pudding and souse tomorrow and little rum”.
He served notice to anyone who thought he had been silenced, to think again.
“I may have only had laryngitis but that too shall pass,” Inniss said to loud agreement from the crowd.
US prosecutors had said that while overseeing the Barbados Investment and Development Corporation (BIDC) which maintained a portfolio of government-owned property, the former minister accepted the bribe payments so ICBL could get insurance contracts to insure over US$100 million worth of government property.
Inniss had unsuccessfully appealed his conviction.
(SD)