THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 1, 1996 TAG: 9601010058
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
The list of countries that give the United States serious grief doesn't usually include Seychelles, a tiny nation of 73,000 people scattered on remote islands in the Indian Ocean.
But the government there got Washington's attention big time in December by enacting an investment law that officials here describe as a ``Welcome, Criminals'' act.
The law says that anyone who invests $10 million or more in Seychelles - no questions asked as to the source - is entitled to protection from extradition and from seizure of assets and to any other ``concessions and incentives . . . commensurate with the investment.''
U.S. officials said they regard this as an open invitation to money launderers and other international criminals to set up shop with impunity. Under the statute, they said, the Seychelles government could grant diplomatic passports and other protections to such people, shielding them from international law-enforcement agencies.
``This is a law that would have made Meyer Lansky proud,'' said Jonathan M. Winer, deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of International Narcotics and Crime, referring to the gangster's claim to have ``bought Cuba'' as a refuge.
One U.S. official, citing intelligence reports, said the first potential beneficiary is a white South African ``who made his fortune as a sanctions-buster'' in the days of international economic sanctions against the apartheid regime there and ``is no longer under the protection of the (South African) government.''
Officials said the United States, Britain and France have made strong protests to France-Albert Rene, president of Seychelles since 1977, who under the law would run an economic development board responsible for approving proposed investment projects and negotiating the concessions to be granted to the investors.
In response, the Seychelles foreign ministry distributed a memo defending the act. According to this document, made available by Seychelles Ambassador to the United States Marc Marengo, the investment law ``does NOT provide a haven for criminals in Seychelles nor a haven for fugitives from justice from anywhere in the world.''
The economic development board to be headed by Rene ``will screen any potential investor prior to any incentives or concessions granted to him/her. This will eliminate the possibility'' that Seychelles would become ``a haven for criminals,'' the memo says.
But U.S. officials said that whatever Rene's intentions, the act as adopted gives the appearance of offering shelter to unsavory characters. It offers ``immunity from prosecution for all criminal proceedings whatsoever'' except those committed in Seychelles. by CNB