Navigator reporting for duty Captain

In the year 2000, while living and working on the Island of Nevis in the Caribbean, I was criminally indicted by the US Government for 26 counts of wire fraud, money laundering and aiding and abetting: USA vs. Hart et al, 2:00CR-0081B, in the US District Court, District of Utah, Central Division.

I was shocked when I received the indictment by fax.

A few months before I have received a phone call, purportedly from an SEC attorney investigating my client. He asked me a series of questions about my client Ned Hart. I told him that I would be happy to cooperate with the Government if any real crime, such as the alleged fraud had been committed. I went on to explain that under the terms of the local Confidential Relationships Act, if I just gave him the information he requested, I could go to jail, lose my license and even be deported. But I also explained, that if he would make a written request for the information and back it up with some facts, I would personally go to the Government of Nevis and seek a waiver in order to cooperate—if there was indeed a real crime. He told me he would write such a letter. He never did, and I assumed he had been fishing.

The indictment with my name on it disabused me of that opinion. It is an incredibly intimidating experience to be “indicted by the United States of America” and realize that its full power is now being pointed at you.

I hired an attorney and we informed that prosecutor that I was willing to voluntarily return. And return I did, with more than 6000 pages of documents which conclusively proved my innocence.

I was allowed to return to the US without being arrested—the arrest warrant was cancelled by the Government. My attorney and I met with the prosecutor, the chief FBI investigator on the case, and the SEC attorney who had called me months before. They sifted through my documents, and showed me there evidence, which proved to me that my client was indeed a crook, and had even tried to set me up—he had made false copies of our corporate documents and signatures as early as two weeks after he became my client.

The upshot was that the three officials agreed that I could not be successfully prosecuted because I was not guilty and could prove it.

I asked the SEC attorney why he had not saved us all a lot of bother and simply written the requested letter. His response was, “Since you were offshore, I just assumed you were a crook.” I asked him about the presumption of innocence, to which he replied, “we don’t care about that anymore”.

I never cut a deal with the prosecutors, although several were offered to save face, all the way down to me pleading guilty to a misdemeanor—which I refused to do. Ned Hart plead guilty and became a guest of the US Government.

Being an honorable man, the Assistant US Attorney requested permission from Washington to withdraw the indictment against me. The response he received was chilling. Permission was denied on the grounds that “the DOJ did not want to establish the precedent of withdrawing an indictment simply because a person was not guilty”.

I was flabbergasted.

I waited and they investigated me; over and over and over again trying to find something to save face and amend the indictment instead of dropping it.

Finally, in 2004, they gave in, admitted to the Judge the indictment was a mistake and it was “dismissed with prejudice”—my 4½ year ordeal was over. My good name is intact, I have never been arrested—few men in my position or circumstances can say as much.

Thus, unencumbered, I present myself for duty as your Navigator. You decide where you want to go and I will try to tell you the options you have for getting there.

I look forward to your comments and questions and will try to answer as many as I can.

—The Navigator
David Finzer