Government Minister Clarke Built This House For His Mistress - Using Laundered Money Upon Land His Government Expropriated!
Gline Clarke, former Housing Minister under the BLP Arthur government, is in the paper today advising the current Thompson government on home building schedules.
Now there is something Clarke knows about!
For many months back in 2006, every Friday afternoon Minister Gline Clarke would appear like clockwork at the jobsite of a home he was building for his mistress on land that he had expropriated for “Public Housing”.
He would come straight from his ScotiaBank branch where he always withdrew his Friday wads of cash from his personal account after bypassing other lower customers who had to wait for service. If Clarke only knew what those customers and bank personnel were thinking at the time.
Bye the way, sometimes the money Clarke withdrew had originally been deposited as “campaign donations” to his personal bank account. Prime Minister Owen Arthur may have led the way in this practice of money laundering and converting political donations to personal use, but his friends soon followed the master!
So perhaps the Thompson DLP government should listen to Gline Clarke when he gives advice on scheduling house construction. After all, there was at least one home that the former Minister of Housing was able to complete on time!
Further Reading
Nation: Clarke Cautions On Housing Programme
BFP: Barbados Government Minister Gline Clarke – House and Mercedes On Expropriated Land
Barbados Free Press 
I remember when BFP first broke this story Gline Clarke’s Mercedes was there every night but none of the regular Barbados press had the balls to greet him with a camera crew in the morning.
In the UK the satellite trucks would have started arriving at 3am and the Minister would have had to run a gauntlet of reporters to get into his Mercedes and drive to work.
In my mind I can hear the questions that would have been asked, “Who owns the home, Mr. Minister?” “Was this land expropriated by your government for public housing?” “Why do you pay the workers cash, Mr. Minister? Are you maintaining accounts?”
The news crews would have spent a few days digging up the construction company executives and demanded answers. The Opposition would have called for the Minister to step down and a public enquiry.
Not in Barbados though. We don’t have an independent news media. We don’t have journalists. Mores the pity.
Money laundering? BFP, you have not got a clue, have you?
You receive election funds marked for your campaign and put them into your personal bank account, don’t declare them as either election funds or income and then withdraw the cash to build a house – that IS money laundering. Washing the money to disguise the source and avoid negative consequences.
It is Juris who doesn’t have no clue!
Why would one want to disguise the source of money not obtained by criminal activity?
Really, Equity? You can’t think of a single reason why Gline Clarke would have wanted to hide the source of the money used to build a home?
Are you stupid, partisan or both?
How about:
1/ He wanted to hide the fact that he, not his mistress, was really paying for the home.
2/ He wanted to hide the fact that he as a Minister was taking advantage of a government housing project where not everyone who wanted a building lot was able to receive one.
3/ He wanted to conceal from the voters that he was building a home on land that he as a part of the government expropriated for public housing.
4/ He wanted to conceal from the voters and from the party that he was stealing campaign money for his personal use.
5/ He wanted to conceal the income from the tax man because he didn’t want to pay tax on it.
There are probably more reasons but those will do for a start. Don’t forget, when you convert campaign funds to income and don’t declare it and pay the tax, you are committing an offense.
Any further idiotic questions, Equity?
BFP,
If true, how much different is that from the present Minister, Michael lashley – firing a contractor because he would not build the Minister’ house for free?
Was the $80,000 Lowe communicated in a text to a potential landlord, intended to start his house?
Having promised “integrity’ and “good governance” you would think that if the present government had evidence of corruption, they would lock up “somebody.”
Or, do they now want their fill at the trough?
The DLP promised to clean-up politics, where is the evidence of such? The government changed. All eyes are on the dems!
Why do you think that for the first 6 months, DLP Ministers said that the accommodation for Ministries and Departments was bad and that all of the Ministry vehicles should be change.
Will replacement vehicles come from the company that financed the DLP’s election campaign?
Will rental space be provided by friends of the DLP – as part of its fatted calf doctrine.
Think Barbadians!
Blink has an attitude this morning but he is correct.
Yeah Blink is correct ( even if he has an attitude) and eye95 has conjunctivitus (red eye) even though his kind was cured since Jan 15th this year.
Hey bring,
In its 2008 Manifesto, the DLP said that in the first 100 days, it will remove VAT from building materials on houses valued up to $400,000.
That turned out to be yet another in an apparent never-ending-series of political gimmicks.
Mysteriously, that $400,000 was drastically reduced to $150,000. But, Barbadians need to read the fine print.
It order to benefit, the gross family income must be $42,000 or less. “This Government seem to be finding creative ways how not to help Barbadians.”
This is the same DLP, which said that it will not keep any secrets from Barbadians and that it will let them know what it is doing on their behalf. I
t is now clear that all of that was just old talk.
As a strategy to quench its thirst for state power, the DLP told thousands of Barbadians that they could count on it being able to deliver 2,000 housing solutions this year and every year during its first term in office.
Perhaps these are invisible houses, which only Minister Lashley can see.
Blink 169, would you concede that you don’t know squat about money laundering but have recently heard the term used and are guessing as to what it involves? That much is clear from your ranting!
Money laundering is the practice of engaging in financial transactions in order to conceal the identity, source, and/or destination of money, and is a main operation of the underground economy.
In the past, the term “money laundering” was applied only to financial transactions related to organized crime.
Today its definition is often expanded by government regulators (such as the United States Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) to encompass any financial transaction which generates an asset or a value as the result of an illegal act, which may involve actions such as tax evasion or false accounting.
As a result, the illegal activity of money laundering is now recognized as potentially practiced by individuals, small and large businesses, corrupt officials, members of organized crime (such as drug dealers or the Mafia), and even corrupt states, through a complex network of shell companies and trusts based in offshore tax havens. A few examples of money laundering are smurfing or kiting.
The increasing complexity of financial crime, the increasing recognized value of so-called “financial intelligence” (FININT) in combating transnational crime and terrorism, and the speculated impact of capital extracted from the legitimate economy has led to an increased prominence of money laundering in political, economic, and legal debate.
Red Lake Lassie,
Your recent post confirms my utter disappointment and perhaps that of Hants and BFP, that this government seems to be backing away fast – from its Ministers having to disclose their assets.
This government must move quickly to implement the provisions contained at page 223 of the National Strategic Plan 2006-2025, as regards the effective management of new trends in crime and law enforcement.
I tend to agree that Barbados must develop the capacity to effectively deal with new trends and issues in criminal activity, particularly, violent crimes, the use of illegal firearms, “white collar and hig tech crime,” crime against visitors, and transnational crime arising out of regional integration and globalization.
Gossip Gossip Gossip.
If all that you people are saying is true, please ask the P.M to investigate. I’m very concerned about these accusations and would like to see something done about it. Right now you people sound like disgruntled little chidren. Grow up; come with facts and not gossip. Charge somebody Gline Clarke, Muscle Mary, Owen Arthur, somebody anybody, other than that shut up.It is because of this that decent people are shying away from representative politics.
*************
BFP says
But Thompson won’t even charge the PM for depositing a campaign cheque to his personal account.
We will NOT shut up. The system is corrupt and we shall continue to sound the clarion.
’bout time we had an update on Hardwood.
$2m public money and since the election hoo-haa not one word.
With all the evidence in DLP hands what are we waiting for?
Straight talk
November 27, 2008 at 6:21 pm
’bout time we had an update on Hardwood.
$2m public money and since the election hoo-haa not one word.
With all the evidence in DLP hands what are we waiting for?
*******************************
Waiting ’til all the new cells at Dodds are completed……….in order to lock up those BLP crooks .
I get a big charge of the virtuous BLP “born agains”
who are now giving it back to the DLP about insincere election promises and failure to implement ITAL and FOI.
A curse on both their houses. Thank God for the blogs.
As each day passes, it is becoming clearer and clearer that Thompson will not actively chase the wrongdoers and these elected officials come from the same barrel of pork.
No comment from William Duguid ? I thought he was the designated defender of Glyne Clark.
Willie like he doan read BFP nuh moh.
Jerome :
As a fellow St Martins voter, I listened carefully at Rices, I believed what Thompson said, and I voted for change.
The evidence was plain to see, cut and dried.
I didn’t believe Lashley’s threat of a writ against Wood, but now it seems the promises of the PM clean sweep were as empty as his loudly applauded approvals.
Sad, but true.
Government Minister Clarke Built This House For His Mistress – Using Laundered Money Upon Land His Government Expropriated!
He would come straight from his ScotiaBank branch where he always withdrew his Friday wads of cash from his personal account after bypassing other lower customers who had to wait for service.
***********************************************************
What is Libel and Slander?
1. Law.
a. defamation by written or printed words, pictures, or in any form other than by spoken words or gestures.
b. a formal written declaration or statement, as one containing the allegations of a plaintiff or the grounds of a charge.
1. anything that is defamatory or that maliciously or damagingly misrepresents.
Defense:
Your only defense to an action for defamation is “truth” prove it, our shut up!
Time Will Tell
Truth about Gline Clarke?
Start with the photo of his Mercedes in the driveway.
Then when Dr. Duguid tried to defend him on this blog and confirmed that Clarke lived there in writing and said it was his “special friend” who “owns” the home.
Then move on to the fact that the land was expropriated by the BLP Cabinet of which Clarke is part.
Cabinet Minister lives on land that he expropriated.
There, that is the foundation and everything else follows, but in a real country with a real set of conflict of interest laws, Clarke would already have been facing a judicial inquiry or better.
Clarke’s situation and how the press, the opposition and the government all ignored the above shows how corrupt the system is and how the DLP and BLP are the same. Hardwood Housing confirms it further.
By all means let the people see an open lible or slander trial! Start by subpoenaing the bank records of Mr. Clarke and the bank records of the contractor. Do a real investigation.
Do what you like. I see Clarke’s Mercedes every night him living at a home built on land he expropriated. I see his “special friend” getting a piece of public expropriated land when so many others couldn’t. She is Mrs. Clarke in reality even if they don’t have the marriage papers.
It stinks like a pile of pig dung.
truth about clarke he push his way to the front of the bank like bigshot always smiling say sorry late for big meeting always same story never want to wait like little peoples.
1. The house ain’t finished.
2. Bajan men don’t build houses for their mistresses, because Bajan men are too d*mn cheap.
3. A BLP big shot tried that moving to the head of the bank line stunt with me. I told her plainly “Madam, I believe that I was here before you” She apologized and waited her turn.
What’s the actual jobless rate when the people who stop looking for jobs are not actually counted as unemployed?
4. Even if Clarke paid for the construction, once the house is in the woman’s name it is hers NOT HIS.
5. When she gets sick and tired of him, she will put him out. Bajan women don’t make sport (especially with ex-big shots)
6. Surely all the men of this blog know these things.
7. Anybody want to take any bets on how soon he will be put out?
8. Anybody who is so foolish as to build a house (cash!!! you got to be making sport) on another person”s land deserves whatever they get.
9. But very likely they will be robbed blind.
10. People so foolish in truth???????
Where is the $45m Home Ownership Revolving Fund, which was promised, appointed public servants with 5 years service who are first time home owners?
Will the Government and the Minister of Housing show Barbadians at least one of the new 500 lots of land, which it promised to make available within five months.
Lots that were already known to the NHC, do not count.
BFP.. money laundering is the process which one uses to try conceal the source of money obtained from criminal acitivity. Misusing funds isn’t criminal activity, it’s unethical. There is a difference. Make sure you use correct terminology, especially when speaking about someone in such a fashion. You should have asked the bank he was withdrawing from what is the correct definition for money laundering.
sa
November 28, 2008 at 3:30 am
truth about clarke he push his way to the front of the bank like bigshot always smiling say sorry late for big meeting always same story never want to wait like little peoples. <— Rubbish! Never seen him push his way anywhere. He waits in line like everyone else … a “different line” but he waits nonetheless.
Interesting how a country that boasts 98% literacy can have so many people lacking in basic common sense and relying on hearsay and unverified information.
BTW, Elvis is NOT dead, 9-11 never happened, and aliens live on the FAR side of the moon. That is why we have never seen them. Stupes!
MoS says…
“BFP.. money laundering is the process which one uses to try conceal the source of money obtained from criminal acitivity.”
Wrong buddy: Concealment of the source often becomes the offense, making “unethical” money truly dirty. For instance, unreported income becomes criminal or an offense.
You are wrong.
The other point is that “unethical” activities in Barbados are usually criminal in other nations. The BLP and the DLP have failed to criminalize a politician receiving money from (for instance) a land developer – unless the payment can be proved to have been directly for some specific favour.
Let me make this clear: In Barbados, a land developer can give a million dollars to a politician “because they are friends” and the politician can then approve land use changes and there is no offense in law (because the laws to prohibit this don’t exist.)
If, however, the land developer says “here is a million dollars if you give me land permission changes” then there is an offense.
What a joke!
akabozik, you are in error like all the others, mere concealment of the source of money is not money laundering unless the source of the money is criminal activity. And tax evasion is not a criminal act for this purpose.
**********************
BFP says,
Of course you are referring to the old very tightly defined Barbados legal definition of “money laundering”. The rest of the world has moved on to reality and expanded the definition in understanding if not in law.
You are one of the elites who rob us blind and then say “no law was broken” – because you have made the laws to be a porous as a screen window is to the rain.
Tax evasion is not a criminal act for building a house?
Let me have your accountant’s name, Juris.
I’ll build half a dozen for starters.
Straight talk, read over what you have written. It makes no sense.
So unearned income, not reported, is a legitimate source of funds
It is the source of the income that is in question, not whether it is earned or unearned. Money from a will, a legacy, is unearned income. That does not make it illegal.
********************
BFP says,
Juris, you are such a crooked judge. No wonder you have to stand up every few months and admonish the lawyers not to be such crooks!
Yes, we can guess who you are sweetheart!
I note that you are sticking to what you are good at, BFP. Insults under the cover of anonymity. Good for you! Happy Independence! And by the way, you are hopelessly in error.
you guys s are all idiots learn the facts.
Happy Independence to my fellow Bajans everywhere. I am forever proud my people including those who oppose my views on this blog.
As a person who benefitted from secondary school education in Barbados, I am grateful to have been born in Barbados and to have leaders who have led us from a plantocracy to” almost “developed country status.
You can be sure of one thing – Glyne Clarke’s house does not flood when it rains.
Hants,
What has happened to the promised: “Rent Control Act?”
Is that yet another in a never-ending-series of promises, which the DLP, of so-called: “integrity,” “good governance” and “freedom of information” – will not honour?
@ Eye95,
I already instituted rent control and I didn’t even promise it.
My tenant is pleased and so should you.
Eyes95
You’re right. It seems to have been another DLP “flash-in-the-pan”project that wasn’t carefully thought out. When questions like who would control the rents charged in a house in Fort George Heights and Sandy Lane, I don’t think trhis party had factor in this equation so the whole deal was left hanging
Well Hants,
What say ye about the government offering the Barbados Turf Club a $19 million golden parachute – the same month it was gloating of having collected $160,000 in rent from poor people in NHC Units?
On a slightly different note, I see that it is going to cost more money to finish the Crab Hill Police Station. It is already costing over BDS $1 million.
My question is, doesn’t anyone here in Barbados find that the cost of these buildings to be exteme????
If anyone is a contractor here, maybe they can give some figures.
How big is the Police Station, how may rooms, how many toilets, what is the flooring, what is the roof, etc, etc, etc. Surely a house in comparison to the Police Station would not cost that amount and I would think that the finishes on a house would be more and better than a police station.
Or is the cost of these buildings bumped up, to line someone pockets?????????? And yet not a word on the cost to US!
Hants, what about the Prison at Dodds?
Prime Minister Thompson called the fact that the prison at Dodds was built under the Build Operate Lease Transfer (BOLT) arrangement – “a national security calamity.” According to him, that facility does not belong to Barbadians.
Is the building which Cable & Wireless operates from at Upton, its building? Does that put the company or its telephones at risk?
Does Sheraton Centre or the building where Courts operates from at Haggatt Hall – belong to Courts? Does that put the furniture and appliances at risk?
Does the building which BNB bank operates from at Wildey belong to the BNB? Does it put the money at risk?
Does the building where the Public Library will operate from belong to Government? Does that put the books at risk?
Will someone be able to put the prison at Dodds on a plane or a boat and take it out of the country?
Do you see why the recent Cabinet reshuffle was a joke but why 67% of the population welcome it?
The point is, even after electing the DLP – the people of this country are still crying out for real “Change!” and leadership that knowns what it is doing!
Change, hmmm…
From 6 to half dozen!
A true change that! REALLY!
Gotta love the capacity for human greed!
Just give everyone in the world a house, a car, decent education, food for their lives,a decent job, and an iPod; and they’ll be in heaven!
At least I would be anyways!
Eye 95 we should all vote for you! stupse!
Hello BFP,
Over 6,000 Barbadians journeyed to Marchfield, St. Philip on 7th March, 2010 to witness the handing over of keys to homes built by this DLP administration……in UNDER 2 years.
To Donald Duck Esq…….
I want Donald Duck Esq. to explain to Barbadians how come in 14 years of BLP rule…when there was no recession around….WHY the BLP could not finish :
* Bulkeley Meadows ?
* Country Park Towers ?
* Deanestown ?
* Coverley PHASE 1 ?
* And Al Barrack ended up being owed $ 70 million ?
As RPB declared….under DLP rule Something (positive) is Happening in BIM .