Mitchell responds to US briefcase exposure

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Parent Category: Sept 2011

Category: Week ending Sept 17th, 2011

Published on Tuesday, 20 September 2011 08:18

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Former Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell continues to plead his innocence on allegations that he accepted US$500, 000.00 in bribery payment in mid-2000 from imprisoned fraudster, German-born businessman, Eric Resteiner in exchange for a diplomatic posting.

His latest denial came against the backdrop of leaked documents from the U.S government in which former Ambassador to Bridgetown, Mary Kramer said that a videotape exist showing Mitchell collecting the huge cash payments in Switzerland.

According to the damaging report from Ambassador Kramer, U.S. Federal prosecutors and FBI agents viewed the tape and confirmed “it showed Mitchell accepting the cash and unsuccessfully attempting to stuff it into his pockets”.

Former Chief of Security for Resteiner, Timothy Bass swore in an affidavit filed in a U.S court that he was the one whom Resteiner instructed to secretly videotape the transaction, which took place at a luxury villa in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

In the affidavit, Bass is quoted as saying that Resteiner informed him that he had made an earlier payment of another US$500, 000.00 to Mitchell as part of the deal to land him an ambassadorial job with his New National Party (NNP) regime.

Despite the most credible piece of evidence from the U.S government, the former Grenadian leader told a local TV station that

he is not moved by the revelations of Kramer, which came through the wikileaks reports.

Grenadians first heard about the allegation against their then leader in 2004 when an offshore banking industry newsletter operated by David Marchant in Miami reported on the Switzerland affair.

When the news broke, Mitchell claimed that he received “approximately US$15,000.00” from Resteiner as reimbursement for expenses incurred during an official travel to Europe and the Middle East to attract investment to Grenada.

Mitchell’s assertion has once again been brought into question by the statements attributed to Ambassador Kramer who said that Resteiner offered, “to turn the tape over to the USG (U.S. Government) in the hope that this would help him obtain a more favourable plea arrangement”.

She said the U.S. officials did not, however, accept the tape as part of a plea “because Mitchell could not be indicted as a co-conspirator by law enforcement officials without their first receiving high-level approval from within the USG”.

In an appearance on Meaningful Television (MTV) on Monday night, the former Grenada Prime Minister sought to brush aside the report from Ambassador Kramer as not being the stated position of the US Government.

While not himself stating what was the U.S position on the briefcase issue, Mitchell referred to the report as merely “a private conversation”.

“My friend, anyone can make a statement anytime. What I can say is that... they’ve not seen a stated US Government position on any matter... that is, a private conversation, are private for what they are”, he said.

“You don’t expect me to comment on what somebody said about me. We only comment on facts and I gave the facts, and therefore I have nothing more to say”, Mitchell told MTV.

The current Grenada Opposition Leader did not drop any hints on whether he planned to institute legal action against Ambassador Kramer on the videotape matter. In 2004, he announced that he had filed a lawsuit against Marchant who broke the news about the Switzerland affair.

Marchant has maintained that he is yet to be served with the legal papers from anyone acting on behalf of Mitchell. The Opposition Leader told his interviewer that as far as he is concerned the Mary Kramer report verifies what he has been saying all along that there was no bribe.

“I can’t stop people, most of those things are reports...came from opposition people who went to their people and told them certain things. They are not facts, so why should I be concerned ...”, he said.

 “...But ... people write all kinds of things, I’m still standing while others are falling”, Mitchell told MTV. 

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