Government is moving ahead with the Rock Hall Housing Development Project, Prime Minister Philip J Pierre said this week, despite the controversy surrounding it.
Bemax LLC, a privately owned construction company from Montenegro, is the developer behind the project.
But this announcement did not sit well with some members of the public as one of the (former) principals of the company-Aleksandar Mijajlovic, was arrested on suspicion of organising cigarette smuggling this year.
According to the prime minister, Dr. Ernest Hilaire who has responsibility for the Citizenship by Investment Programme informed him that “one of the principals in the firm got himself arrested for smuggling cigarettes, that’s what I was told. (It) happened in January and there’s six months for him to be charged and as far as I was told he’s not been charged that means the case has dropped.”
“Before he did that he had already given up his shares in Bemax that’s what I’ve been told so he’s no longer involved in Bemax. What I was told is that the gentleman in the meantime (gave) up his shares when he got himself involved with the law but it’s six months and there has been no case laid against him.”
Ultimately, Prime Minister Pierre said, what’s important to him “is to house the people of Saint Lucia and… when the due diligence of the money that comes has been cleared by the bank. Once money is cleared by the bank I am comfortable with it.”
Although one reporter asked the prime minister whether he has no concerns that the due diligence process “did not unearth anything”, Prime Minister Pierre said that that’s far from the truth.
“At the time when the due diligence process was done… there was nothing on the guy,” he said.
Although the reporter stated that Mijajlovic remains registered in Saint Lucia as the sole director of Bemax Caribbean INC and questioned Prime Minister Pierre about the new director, the prime minister simply stated that “the director has to be somebody else.”
The Housing Project is being funded with funds from the Citizenship by Investment Project (CIP).