Gda: Another one bites the dust?

ERIC RESTEINER - the man at the centre of the $500, 000.00 bribery allegation is now in the hands of U.S Feds. Former Grenada diplomat and fugitive from justice, Eric Resteiner was expected Wednesday to be brought back on U.S soil to face criminal charges.

Authoritative sources told GRENADA TODAY that american law enforcement officials have laid hands on Resteiner in Singapore and were due to fly him back to Massachusetts for trial with a number of other alleged fraudsters. Resteiner is the second major figure with connection to Grenada's ruling New National Party (NNP) government of Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell to be arrested in recent weeks by U.S officials.

The first was Van Brink, the President of the collapsed First International Bank (FIBG), who was caught in Uganda and brought back to the U.S to be criminally indicted. Hundreds of American and Canadian investors lost millions of dollars when the offshore bank went into bankruptcy.

FIBG is also suspected of heavily bankrolling the 1999 election campaign of Mitchell's NNP which won all fifteen seats at the poll. One well-placed source said that the arrest of Resteiner who once served as a diplomat under Mitchell government is of particular interest to the Miami-based Offshore Alert and its publisher, David Marchant.

Last month, Marchant carried a report about an alleged $500, 000 U.S bribe that was paid in June 2002 in Switzerland by Resteiner to the Grenada Prime Minister for a diplomatic appointment. Marchant's article was based on an affadavit filed in U.S court by Resteiner's former Chief of Bodyguard who alleged that he was directed by the former Grenada diplomat to video-tape the transfer of funds in a briefcase.

Dr. Mitchell has denied the allegation and announced that he had instructed lawyers to file a libel suit against the U.S-based publisher. He admitted to meeting Resteiner but said that the German trickster gave him "approximately $15, 000 U.S" to cover the expenses of a Grenada delegation on a trip to Europe and Kuwait.