Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit is denying internet reports which have implied that he is connected to companies in the offshore financial sector.
Skerrit who responded to the allegations on radio late Thursday, blamed the opposition United Workers Party (UWP) as being the source of the article “From Rags to Riches? In search of Roosevelt Skerrit’s millions”.
In the article, it is alleged that Skerrit has close connections with offshore companies in the UK and this could be the source of “what has been rumoured to be significant wealth quietly amassed over the years.”
“I know of no such companies, I know of such transactions and I am no shareholder…” said Skerrit who said the UWP has used the article as a form of distracting the government from building the country.
“I want to go further to say I have absolutely no intention of engaging (opposition leader) Lennox Linton and the operatives of the UWP on any his pen name scribes in this useless discussion contrived totally to distract the government from the job it has to do to build this country.”
According to Skerrit, the article threatens to undermine the island’s offshore services sector.
“The man grab for power and to tinge Roosevelt Skerrit, they are saying to the world that there is no confidentiality about offshore financial services in Dominica and that an investor’s private information can be easily ferreted across the globe as part of politics in Dominica.”
The article also alleged that “Skerrit is wealthy man …his rumoured holdings include villas, land deals, foreign real estate holdings, and private bank accounts….”
The Prime Minister said while he is not worried about “the nonsense that they are writing about me, that is an occupational hazard for anyone in public life or anyone who is a Prime Minister of a country.
“I am so angry with this near treasonous act because it is a treasonous act in Dominica…..I am not worried about How can these vagabonds be happy and contented sitting down week after week penning this nonsense and circulating across the globe? Do they really understand the damage that this is doing to the image of Dominica?” the Prime Minister said.
