Andrew Fahie wants to know the identity of the confidential informant who gathered more than 8,000 minutes of audio recordings of the former British Virgin Islands premier allegedly plotting drug smuggling and other crimes.
Fahie’s attorney filed a motion with the U.S. District Court in Miami on Monday asking the smuggling and money laundering trial be pushed back from January to at least mid-May because prosecutors were still transcribing the recordings.
The attorney had initially sought the identity of the informant in August but withdrew the request only to ask again in October. In the Monday court filing, Fahie’s lawyer promised not to make the identity public.
“The government responded to the undersigned’s request on October 26, 2022, and declined to provide the undersigned with the identity of the confidential informant, nor other related information sought in the request,” the lawyer wrote. “Owing to the government’s refusal to confirm, or refute, the identity of the confidential source, the undersigned is required to submit the matter to the court and anticipates doing so immediately after the Thanksgiving holiday.”
U.S. prosecutors have charged Fahie and two co-defendants, former BVI ports managing director Oleanvine Pickering Maynard and her son Kadeem Maynard, with an array of drug smuggling and money laundering charges. They have pleaded not guilty.
Fahie has been free on $100 million bail since June, ordered to wear an electronic monitoring device and not leave his daughter’s Florida apartment. Maynard and Pickering Maynard remain in Florida jail cells.
A superseding indictment filed in November charged Fahie and Maynard with conspiracy to import a controlled substance. The new charges are in addition to existing charges prosecutors leveled after their April arrests.
Fahie, 51, and Pickering Maynard, 60, are charged with conspiracy to import a controlled substance (cocaine), conspiracy to engage in money laundering, attempted money laundering, and foreign travel in aid of racketeering.
Maynard, 31, has been charged with conspiracy to import a controlled substance (cocaine), conspiracy to engage in money laundering, and attempted money laundering.
They face the possibility of life in prison and $10 million in fines if convicted on all counts.
Fahie had sought to invoke immunity from prosecution as the BVI’s head of state. In October, BVI police arrested Najan Christopher, the British overseas territory’s assistant secretary of external affairs, for allegedly creating and mailing an unauthorized letter demanding Fahie’s release to the Florida court — which rejected the idea.
The trio was arrested on April 28 following a months-long sting operation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, which alleged in a criminal complaint that they agreed to arrange safe passage of cocaine through the British Virgin Islands in return for payments of millions of dollars in cash.
Fahie and Pickering Maynard were arrested at the Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport where, according to court filings, they thought they were meeting members of the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel to get $700,000 in cash. Maynard was arrested the same day on St. Thomas on a trip to arrange his first shipment of cocaine, as well as pick up a satellite phone and $30,000 in bribe money, prosecutors have alleged.
Prosecutors allege the group’s illegal activity started about Oct. 16, 2021. Last week, prosecutors shared tape recording evidence from November of 2021 with defense attorneys, as well as two discs of video clips from the day of the accused’s arrests.
According to the superseding indictment, Fahie, Maynard and Pickering Maynard face 10 years to life in prison on the drug charges, and 20 years on the money laundering charges if convicted. The racketeering charge carries a maximum penalty of five years.
They could also face fines of up to $500,000 on the money laundering charges and $250,000 up to $10 million on the drug charges, as well as forfeiting any property that was derived from illegal dealings, according to the superseding indictment. The racketeering charge carries a maximum fine of $250,000, it said.
