Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

The VI CoI Report

The VI CoI Report

The arrest of the British Virgin Islands Premier in Miami Florida on drug-related charges on April 28 2022 is a dramatic development in the Commission of Inquiry saga that has kept the country on edge for many months.
The arrest was sheer coincidence according to the Island’s Governor. It was a separate matter from the Commission of Inquiry. There is a direct link, however. The apprehension of the Premier precipitated events that led to the immediate release of the report to the public.

The allegation is that the Ex-Premier together with a top official in charge of Virgin Islands Sea Ports attempted to facilitate the importation of narcotics into the USA using the Virgin Islands as a type of staging post. The arrest was the result of months of work by the US Drug Enforcement Agency, probably with the aid of other supporting agencies.

Now, the report is today available for all to see. Will the COI report be an agent of change, or a damp squib?

UK Officials initiated the Commission of Inquiry; they conducted the Investigation; arrived at their conclusions; drafted the final report; and placed their mark on the outcome of the Commission’s findings and recommendations.

The Virgin Islands remain an overseas territory of Great Britain. The UK Cabinet has the last say on the decisions, outcomes, and execution, of the Commission’s findings, recommendations, and report. That is the reality.

The Key Recommendation is that the Virgin Islands Constitution is suspended and Direct Rule introduced for such a period until mechanisms are put in place to avoid a repeat of matters that led to the Commission of Inquiry.

A closer look at what the Governor stated and asserted on April 29 will reveal that there are just two possible outcomes of the report after his consultations with officials and the public is ended.

The first outcome is that the UK will step in and rule directly; the Governor suspends the Virgin Islands Constitution. General Elections will be on hold until the UK puts in place new mechanisms that ensure no repeat of the matters that got the country to this difficult place.

The Governor will rule with the assistance of an Advisory Council. That intervention could take two years or more. That is the most likely outcome after the Governor’s Press Statement of April 29.

The second outcome is charges brought for criminal misconduct against specific officials. Then these officials were arrested and charged, for allegations made against them, in the normal way of a criminal investigation. The Common Law, which rules Virgin Islands law, is clear on matters of criminal liability. Then elections held with officials indicted suspended from running for office indefinitely. This is the least likely outcome.

Events move swiftly. May 5, 2022, a New Premier Dr. The Honorable Natalio Wheatley, and a Unity Government made up of cross-party politicians came into existence with the sole purpose of averting a UK takeover of the territory through the rapid implementation of the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry.

Dr. Wheatley is an honest, humble, and bright man with a calm disposition. This Writer hopes the UK Cabinet offers the Premier a chance to get the house in order.

The present crisis was a necessary catharsis for an overseas territory with a high degree of self-governance. A tiny country that has taken honest governance for granted, and is possessed of a ‘ruling clique’ that has placed impunity on a pedestal.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×