Thomas Carroll’s revelations
Editorial
Stabroek News
August 19, 2002
Former US consular officer Thomas Carroll has been sentenced to 22 years for his part in the massive visa sales racket which was uncovered here by the American authorities several years ago. Justice was swiftly meted out to him by the American legal system and the US government clearly faces a challenge in ensuring the incorruptibility of its consular officers here.
It is not only the US government that faces a big challenge but also the Guyana Government though it is impossible to tell by its reaction to the Thomas Carroll affair. In March 2000, Carroll was interviewed by the Office of Inspector General, US Department of State in which he made shocking revelations. The statements provided the basis for the plea bargain agreement that eventually followed. Carroll essentially sold visas out of the US embassy between September 1998 to March/April 1999 and then again for a week in August 1999. Hundreds of visas were sold for prices ranging up to US$15,000 each. So lucrative was the practice that after he was moved from the position, Carroll attempted to recruit another officer to sate his greed. Under the offer, the officer would sell 250 visas in six weeks. At the end of the period the officer would get US$1M, Carroll a similar amount and the visa broker Halim Khan the remainder. This offer resulted in an investigation and the unravelling of the scam.
When Mr Carroll made the statements to State Department investigators he knew that the game was up and he was gambling for as light a sentence as possible. The truthfulness of his statements were therefore never tested in a court of law because of his plea bargain but if even only a fraction of what he claimed was true then the slithering tentacles of corruption penetrated very deeply and it is inexplicable that the government did not show keener interest in investigating the scam.
Carroll’s dealings and their threats to public order fall into several categories. The best known of these is his claim that members of the police Target Special Squad (TSS) were used as enforcers in his visa scheme. Several prominent names came up in his statement yet the government has not seen it fit to mount a formal inquiry into these charges. The embattled TSS faces the twin dilemma of extra-judicial killings and taking on a band of nefarious criminals who have gone after policemen with deadly force. It doesn’t help their credibility at all and the public’s confidence in them as crime fighters to have these allegations hanging over their heads.
Not only the TSS was named but others in the administration of the police force and the army and others with affiliation in the legal system were also fingered as procuring visa clients for Carroll and taking a cut. Some of these persons held responsible positions and if the statements uttered by Carroll were true then they betrayed the public’s trust and should be prosecuted. Several private businessmen supposedly in legitimate activities were thoroughly exposed for what their source of money was and influence peddlers were named as being involved in soliciting favours from those in a position to deliver visas.
What Carroll had to say also connected the dots between many illegal operations here including the entire illegal migration racket, gold running, drug smuggling and money laundering. The interconnectedness of these has always been known and Carroll’s arrest and prosecution provided an invaluable opening for the law enforcement authorities to take these on.
Above all, what Carroll’s testimony shone a bright spotlight on was how lucrative and deep-seated the `backtracking’ operation is. Indeed, it has become almost a daily occurrence for persons to be charged in the courts with false pretence for failing to deliver on promised US visas. Many are probably still succeeding with US visas from somewhere and there are many spin-off operations such as procuring or forging local passports and the use of immigration stamps. At one point in his statement Carroll related that passports would be sent back here for false stamps to be inserted to show that the holders did not overstay their time in the US. The inability to crush the `backtrack’ system leads daily to corruption in public life at all levels and an eroding of confidence in law and order. It is something that needs to be addressed as crippling it would also stifle several other scourges that thrive symbiotically. A local task force did undertake an investigation which seemed primarily for the purposes of the US prosecution. One man was charged here but that case quickly fell apart. It is inconceivable that hundreds of visas were sold illegally in Georgetown - not necessarily on US territory in the US embassy - and hosts of other crimes committed without a single person being punished. How cases like these involving nationals of Guyana and the US should be prosecuted is a matter that the authorities should address to ensure that all available evidence is brought to bear in local courts.
Carroll’s statement should be reviewed by the Minister of Home Affairs, the Attorney General and the police and they should explain to the public why so little was done with it.