A neighbor of Daniel Langlois and Dominique Marchand was formally accused of the couple’s murder on Wednesday. The man was in conflict with Quebecers over access to his property, which occupies a key place in the program of selling Dominican passports to wealthy foreigners. An increasingly controversial program, from which the government of the small Caribbean country now derives more than half of its revenue.
Jonathan Lehrer, owner of a former colonial estate next to Daniel Langlois’ hotel, appeared in a Dominica court on Wednesday to be charged with the double homicide. A co-defendant, Robert Snider, was charged with the same crime. During a brief interview with The Press, the investigator of record explained that Mr. Snider is an auto mechanic residing in St. Petersburg, Florida. The police theory is that he came to help Jonathan Lehrer eliminate his neighbors, with whom the latter was in conflict.
For the moment, the two men will remain detained. They are due back in court on March 15, confirmed investigator George Theophile. They officially face the death penalty by hanging if found guilty. Dominica has not executed a convict since 1986, but the punishment is still provided for in law. The current Minister of Justice, Rayburn Blackmoore, has already stated that he favors the death penalty for the most serious crimes.
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Daniel Langlois and Dominique Marchand
The estate of Jonathan Lehrer, a 57-year-old American businessman who holds Dominican citizenship, is at the heart of the affair.
An access road to the Quebecois resort area, open in 2022, passes through land belonging to Mr. Lehrer. The latter was unhappy to see vacationers and employees passing through his property. The conflict escalated to the point where, during construction of the complex, Mr. Lehrer blocked the road, angering local residents.
Passports for the world
Mr. Lehrer was accredited as an authorized agent to monetize Dominican citizenship under the “citizenship by investment” program. And everything went through his property, access to which he jealously protected. Rich foreigners could invest US$200,000 for real estate development purposes and obtain in exchange a Dominica passport, a veritable ticket capable of opening the doors of 140 countries to its holder, including China, the United States, the Schengen area in Europe, Singapore and Hong Kong. No need for the buyer to reside on Dominican soil or even set foot there, as long as he pays.
According to the most recent report of the Auditor General of Dominica, which concerns the year 2021, the program provided 448 million dollars to the Dominican state, out of a total budget of 813 million, or 55% of revenues. In 2020, revenue from the program was much lower, at $182 million.
“Caribbean countries are not rich. Some were impacted by hurricanes and the decline of the sugar industry. They cannot rely solely on tourism. This was especially the case when COVID-19 hit. So, some people may disagree with the concept of wealthy people who can acquire citizenship through their investments, but there is certainly great value there for these Caribbean islands,” explains Christopher Willis, a Montreal consultant specializing in citizenship programs. by investment for the international firm Latitude.
Several countries in the region bargain for their citizenship in the same way. One of the attractions of the Dominica program, however, is its low cost: US$200,000 investment in a real estate project like that of Jonathan Lehrer, or $100,000 to be paid directly as a donation to the government. “It’s certainly one of the most affordable programs of its kind,” says Willis.
The other attraction is the large number of countries to which the Dominican passport gives visa-free access. “As a Canadian, you can take for granted hopping on a plane and going anywhere in the world. But if you come from a country like Pakistan, you do not have this privilege, the number of countries accessible without a visa is limited. For someone from Pakistan or Venezuela, another country with a very weak passport, that changes in terms of access to the world,” illustrates the consultant.
For those preparing for disaster
Today, many wealthy citizens in many countries are looking for a “plan B” in case things go wrong, he observes. “It’s growing. The world is volatile, people are nervous. It’s all about having options,” he says.
Jonathan Lehrer also relied on this necessity, and offered people who invested in his real estate project plans for “preppers” who are preparing for a disaster, as well as a “refuge” plan allowing long stays in shelter. case of concern.
“If the outside world experiences a major disruption, whether political, economic, or from a prolonged natural disaster, or if it shuts down for a variety of other reasons tomorrow, 150 savvy investors will still have a refuge and the possibility of living in peace,” he promised.
However, the ease with which Dominican citizenship is obtained is controversial. “Some other programs may be more robust,” acknowledges Christopher Willis.
Last summer, the United Kingdom imposed a visa requirement on Dominica passport holders due to “clear and obvious abuses of the program, including the granting of citizenship to individuals known to pose a risk to the United Kingdom”, according to the statement from the British government, which was particularly concerned about seeing certain people easily change their name by obtaining this new citizenship, which allowed them to escape controls.
In October, a European Commission report noted that the citizenship by investment program of countries like Dominica poses “security risks, including those related to the infiltration of organized crime, money laundering, evasion tax and corruption. The report estimated that Dominica, whose population is just over 70,000, had granted 34,500 passports to investors.
Also in October, a journalistic investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a consortium of investigative journalists of which The Pressrevealed that several controversial figures had benefited from the program to obtain access to a Dominican passport, including Taiwanese fraudsters, Russian billionaires subject to sanctions, arms dealers, a former Afghan minister accused of war crimes and a former official of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program.
With Henri Ouellette-Vézina, Alice Girard-Bossé and Denis Arcand, The Press