NEW YORK – Former Barbados government minister Donville Inniss will be sentenced on Nov. 11 in the United States after he lost an appeal against his conviction on a charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering and two counts of substantive money laundering.
“Inniss, Donville”Inniss, who served as the minister of international business, commerce and small business in the last Democratic Labor Party (DLP) government, had been found guilty on Jan. 16 in a New York court.
U.S. District judge Kiyo Matsumoto threw out the appeal after Inniss challenged the sufficiency of the evidence on all three counts of conviction regarding whether he was part of a scheme to induce a bribe and whether the payments to him were corrupt or represented payments for a favorable vote.
The judge said both grounds essentially argue that there was insufficient evidence at trial for the jury to conclude that Inniss intended to promote a violation of the Prevention of Corruption Act of Barbados.
DENIED
The court also found that there was sufficient evidence for a jury to convict him beyond a reasonable doubt and Matsumoto said “consequently, the court respectfully denies Mr. Inniss’ motion for a judgment of acquittal.
“Although defense counsel acknowledges “there were text messages and emails … and clear evidence of the money transfers from Barbados to a third party in the United States and back into Donville Inniss’ bank account,” defense counsel contends that “there was no trial testimony upon which the jury could properly infer that the conduct of Donville Inniss was part of a scheme to induce a bribe, an essential element of each count,” the judge said.
He said the government presented substantial evidence at trial that both bribe payments to Inniss were made to secure the Insurance Corporation of Barbados Ltd.’s (ICBL) contracts with the Barbados Investment and Development Corporation (BIDC), a Barbadian government agency that Inniss oversaw in his position as the former minister of industry and a member of the Barbados Parliament.
