Whistleblower goes into details on visa facilitated procedure involving Minister Castro

Embattled Minister of State Edmund ‘Clear the Land’ Castro has been dodging the media since allegations of visa corruption surfaced against him. But he has found time to hire Prime Minister Dean Barrow’s law firm to institute lawsuits against this media house and against the informant who blew the whistle on him. As a condition of that lawsuit, both Alverine Burgess and Channel Five were to issue public apologies to Castro by Wednesday. To our knowledge, Burgess has not done so. Neither has Channel Five, and we won’t, since we stand behind our story. What we will do tonight is bring you another clip from Burgess’ appearance on the Dickie Bradley Special on Monday. Burgess has maintained that she paid Castro two thousand dollars for each visa he facilitated, and she goes into detail on the procedure.

Dickie Bradley, Host

“So you go to the Minister’s Office, this is the minister of state, and then what happens? When you reach in that office, what happens?”

Alverine Burgess, Whistleblower

“Well I would have already called him so he was expecting me. Maybe once or twice when I got there, somebody would be in the office seeing him and the secretary would tell me as that person comes out, you could go in. When I go in, the minister would tell me to lock the door and…because I don’t know if those doors were locked all the time, but specifications were made to me by him to lock the door. And when I would lock the door, he would say let me see what you got there. And before we would do any paper transactions, I would have to give him the money first and he would count it to see.”

Dickie Bradley

“Every time he counts the money?”

Alverine Burgess

Alverine Burgess

“Every time he counts the money in front of me.”

Dickie Bradley

“And we are talking a couple fifty dollars, hundred dollars?”

Alverine Burgess

“These monies would come in fifties and hundreds.”

Dickie Bradley

“And the quota would be like what?”

Alverine Burgess

“On a weekly basis, the applications that I took to him would be something between four to six.”

Dickie Bradley

“Four to six passports for visas?”

Alverine Burgess

“Yes. So if there is four, there is eight thousand dollars. If there is six…two thousand dollars. If there is six, it is twelve thousand dollars.”

Dickie Bradley

“And the money is counted in front of you?”

Alverine Burgess

“Right there in front of me.”

Dickie Bradley

“And then what happens after that?”

Alverine Burgess

“And then I would give him the application forms, he would see the names and when he does that, he writes down the names on a piece of paper, like a typing sheet or whatever. And then she would then call in his secretary and he would mention to her to please print out recommendation letters in the names of these people and each letter had to be two copies because he had to keep one there at his office and one had to go to immigration.”

Dickie Bradley

“So if you ker six passports for visas, there are six recommendation letters in duplicate?”

Alverine Burgess

“Yes, six in duplicate and he signed at the bottom and his secretary would stamp it underneath.”

Dickie Bradley

“Stamp it with what?”

Alverine Burgess

“But the minister’s stamp from the office that it came from that office then. And then…once I even asked him why two letters, and he mentioned that on one of the occasions that he sent a recommendation letter there, they didn’t get it stamped and they needed to know if it came from his office. So that is how they got a duplicate letter and that it had to be stamped from the office that it comes from.”

Dickie Bradley

“So then, the secretary prepares these recommendation letters and then what happens then? They give you back the package?”

Alverine Burgess

“After she does the letters, she gives it to him, he signs it, she stamps it and put everything in an envelope and that is sent to the director of immigration; that was what was always on the brown envelope. But that was sent from his office; that never came into my hand again.”

While Castro hasn’t afford News Five an interview, he has spoken to another media house saying that he had not seen the Alverine Burgess interview and that he doesn’t believe a word of what she says. Castro also says that he doesn’t discuss business on the phone in respect to Burgess’ report that the U.S. has a recording of a conversation between her and Castro.