The United States has implemented travel bans on two leaders from the Republic of the Marshall Islands, citing their involvement in a bribery scheme aimed at establishing a semi-autonomous region within the Pacific island country.
Kessai Note, a former president and current transport and communications minister, along with Senator Mike Halferty, are now barred from entering the U.S., as announced in a State Department statement on December 11. The travel restrictions also extend to the immediate family members of Note and Halferty.
The State Department’s statement alleges that there is credible information indicating “significant corruption” by the two officials, involving the abuse of their public offices. According to the statement, Note and Halferty accepted bribes, including services and cash, in exchange for their legislative support of a bill in the Marshall Islands (RMI) legislature to establish a semi-autonomous region.
The U.S. indictment further revealed that two individuals with Marshall Islands passports, Cary Yan and Gina Zhou, attempted to create the semi-autonomous region with no tax and relaxed immigration rules. Yan and Zhou, who are Chinese nationals, were extradited from Thailand last year and pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to conspiring to bribe officials. Yan received a 42-month prison sentence in May, and Zhou received a 31-month sentence in February.
The indictment outlined their efforts between 2016 and 2020, involving attempts to bribe several officials in the Marshall Islands to support the establishment of the semi-autonomous region.
The office of the Marshall Islands president has not yet responded to requests for comment on the imposed travel bans. Kessai Note, responding to the accusations, stated that the allegations are false but refrained from providing further comment.
The Marshall Islands, strategically located in the Western Pacific, is one of three nations with agreements known as compacts of free association, granting the U.S. defense forces access to its vast ocean territories in exchange for funding and rights for its citizens to live and work in the U.S. The failed attempt by Yan and Zhou to pass legislation in 2018 for the Rongelap Atoll Special Administrative Region was opposed by the then-president of the Marshall Islands, Hilda Heine, according to the U.S. indictment. The U.S. Attorney’s Office noted in May that the pair unsuccessfully tried to remove Heine from office after her opposition. They succeeded in getting a resolution passed in parliament in 2020 when Heine was no longer president, endorsing the concept of the special administrative region
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