Miami Judge delays Former BVI Premier Andrew Fahie’s criminal trial

The trial of the Former Premier of the British Virgin Islands, Andrew Fahie, has been postponed to the 29th of January, 2024, by a Miami Judge. Fahie is facing charges of drug smuggling, racketeering and money laundering in a sensational case that has caught the attention of people around the world.

Previously, the trial was delayed by a span of two weeks on the 8th of January and was scheduled to begin on Monday. A second delay has been announced by Judge Kathleen Williams, who pushed the decision through via a paperless motion, delaying the beginning of the trial by one more week.

Judge Williams was due to hear arguments for introducing foreign law jury instructions and expert witnesses into the trial from both sets of lawyers. There is also an argument to be made over the issue of hearsay testimonies and a possible case of the entrapment defence, among other things that have surfaced recently.

The prosecution has already disclosed a list of 6 witnesses who will take the stand at this landmark trial. BVI Premier Fahie has been charged on the counts of conspiracy to import a controlled substance, conspiracy to engage in money laundering, and attempted money laundering, all serious offenses, especially considering the office that he has held in the past.

In addition to the aforementioned charges, Fahie has also been charged with interstate and foreign travel in aid of racketeering which has added to his woes.

One of the most significant and damning witnesses on the prosecution’s list is the Former BVI Ports Authority Managing Director Oleanvine Pickering Maynard, who is said to have been a part of the illegal operations headed by Andrew Fahie.

She has agreed to testify against Fahie in this case, for a plea deal which has provisioned a reduced sentence for her, in exchange for her testimony, which plays a vital role in the prosecution’s case.

Maynard has stated on record that she introduced Fahie to a US Drug Enforcement Agency informant, who was posing as a member of a drug cartel at the time. The three of them supposedly used their positions to establish a cocaine smuggling operation in secret.

Andrew Fahie and his associate Pickering Maynard were arrested from the Miami-Opa Locka airport on the 28th of April, 2022, following a sting operation. Maynard’s son, Kadeem Stephan Maynard was arrested on the same day in the US Virgin Islands.

He was subsequently sentenced to 57 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to import cocaine. US Drug Enforcement Administration agents Jossue Dominguez, Shad Aschleman and Brian Witek, as well as US Customs and Border Protection officials Jon Adams and William Cortes, will also be taking the stand to delineate their perspectives on the case.

Recordings and transcripts of phone calls, amongst other articles, have been listed as exhibits in this case already, leading many to believe that Fahie will be confronted by a mountain of incriminating evidence when the trial begins.

The recordings and transcripts date back to the months of March and April 2022.

The defense team, which is led by attorney Theresa Van Vliet, made repeated attempts to have the name of the informant exposed but failed to achieve this objective.

The prosecution is also said to have access to WhatsApp message logs, a handwritten ledger from an April 27, 2022, meeting, call logs for various phone numbers, surveillance videos, a lease document for a property in Miami, and images of Fahie’s co-accused, which will be used in the case against him.

Theresa Van Vliet appealed to the court to have the most recent accusations levelled against her client thrown out as they raised crucial questions about the case just before the trial was set to begin. This goes against the letter and the spirit of the law in her opinion.

A bail amount of $1 million has been set, as Fahie remains confined to his daughter’s home in Miami. He is facing a possible life sentence, which underlines the severity of the charges that have been levelled against him, not to mention the blowback that will be faced by the people he represented and the office he once held.