Two days before the General Elections of 2015 in St Vincent, a document surfaced showing the current leader of the ULP and Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves as the holder of an HSBC account with 19 million US dollars.
This was swiftly rebuffed with the following statement from the ULP via a press release and the party’s website.
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2015 – 12:38PM Kingstown St Vincent
“The Prime Minister of St. Vincent & the Grenadines, the Hon. Ralph E. Gonsalves, has instructed the Office of the Attorney General to immediately contact the Government of the United States of America under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty to investigate a fraudulent bank document with an alleged bank account domiciled to an address in Brooklyn, NY USA.
He has further instructed the Commissioner of Police to open a criminal investigation into the fraudulent document locally, which includes any regional or international operatives currently working in St. Vincent & the Grenadines, as well as to immediately contact INTERPOL, the Regional Security System and the Joint Regional Intelligence Fusion Centre of IMPACS to assist in the investigation. He has also instructed the Commissioner of Police to alert the Director of Public Prosecution of these investigations.
Today some 7 months to date Vincentians await the findings of such investigations, one which they consider to be a very serious matter .
Gonsalves at the time denied holding any such account and said it was clearly evident by the fact that the account does not exist. The Unity Labour Party had also stated that their own internal investigation is ongoing.
As of 17 July 2016, the findings of such investigation have not been revealed to the public.
The Prime Minister at the time said that those who fabricated the scandal implicating him to the 19 million US dollar account being held at an HSBC bank, came from St Vincent, Grenada, and Europe.
He also at the time said the NDP would deny paternity and maternity for the document, however, they will find it difficult to do, he said for several weeks now the NDP have a spokesperson on radio, saying a high ULP official goes through Panama every month to launder money, he did not say Ralph, but everybody knows when he talking, he is talking about Ralph.
Gonsalves was at the time speaking at a party rally in Argyle.
