“If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." -- Samuel Adams

Did Doug Parnell think that no TCIslander (or anyone else) would ever enter the words, “Doug Parnell” into Google and then click on the first link and read the Securities and Exchange Commision's (SEC) August 5 2002 criminal complaint against him? If so, that was an extremely foolhardy risk for the leader of the PDM political gang to take.  The Torch cannot imagine that he was the first TCI citizen or resident to Google Parnell.

Did Parnell rely instead on the fact that the SEC's website publishes criminal complaints, but does not track cases, such that it would be more difficult to find the disposition of his case?  It took The Torch 2 seconds to figure out to go to the website of the court where the complaint and indictment were filed in order to track the case disposition. No great  perspicacity was necessary.  So that would also have been a reckless position for a man who wishes to be the next elected leader of the TCI.

Did Parnell think that if someone went as far as the court website, Parnell could obfuscate the question of identity?  No, that couldn't have been it.  Parnell prevented that himself.

His personal website at http://pdmleader.com states that he resided in San Diego between 1989 and 2001 and worked in the telecommunications industry for “Phoneware - the largest agent for GTE.” The criminal complaint states that the fraudulent scheme involving Parnell was conducted “from approximately September 1999 to February 2000” and that “Parnell, age 29 and a resident of San Diego, California, sold Webphone securities through ABC Consulting, a fictitious entity.” Parnell's website states that he, “made a decision to become an entrepreneur in October of 1998 forming the company American Business Center Inc.“
No, Parnell was never going to deny the matter based on identity. How many 29-year old Douglas F. Parnells were there in San Diego working in telecommunications in 1999-2000 and using actual company initials the same as those of the fictitious company referred to in the SEC criminal complaint?

Failing to disclose to the TCIslander electorate before he began his political campaign that he had been indicted by a grand jury on January 13 2005 and pled guilty on April 3 2008 to two felony counts of conspiracy to defraud and deceptive practices was a breach of the public trust by Mr. Parnell and by the PDM's, if indeed they knew the facts of the matter.  The Torch cannot imagine Mr. Parnell undertaking the risk of not telling the PDM hierarchy about his criminal convictions.

When one considers the depth of criminality of the prior TCI government, as evidenced in the Commission of Inquiry, and as lambasted by the PDM gang itself, as well as considering the current continuing denial of democratic rights to TCIslanders by the Brit High Command, then Parnell's breach of the public trust appears that much more serious. 

TCIsanders deserve better than this, and Mr. Parnell must know that.  Parnell's purposeful failure to disclose his integrity problem to the public is also a continuation of the dishonesty evidenced in the criminal complaint and indictment against him.  Dishonest people rarely stop being dishonest.  Their dishonesty simply continues to show up in different ways under different situations.

Parnell must have known the matter would come to light. The TCI is coming out of one of the deepest criminally corrupt 30-year periods of crony government anywhere in the world – at least on a per capita basis. The Torch notes Lee Ingham's recent proper call for greater vetting of political candidates in the TCI.  TCIslanders not only deserve better.  They now want better. No one here wants a repeat of what we are all going through right now.
Yet Mr. Parnell obviously thinks he knows even better than the rest of us.  In that regard, he is a lot like the Brit High Command, and in The Torch's submission, Parnell's continuing dishonesty has played right into the hands of the Brits.  Do you think the Brits might just have been looking for other reasons to continue to deny your democratic rights? Shame, Mr. Parnell.

What else could Mr. Parnell possibly have relied upon to hold him harmless from the unbelievable risk of his big crapshoot? The Torch regrets that he can only conclude, because he can't think of any other reason, that Parnell deceived the TCI people because he knows that he is a TCIslander in the TCI, had joined a TCI political gang, and that no TCIslander (or anyone else) would want to attract retribution from them.

Parnell simply relied upon his gang membership to protect him and shut people up. That is far worse morally than what is contained in the SEC indictment because in the ultimate analysis, Mr. Parnell has relied upon the threat of physical force to keep TCIslanders silent about his criminal convictions for crimes of moral turpitude.
BTW, the fraudulent scheme involving Parnell was a nationwide activity and interstate devices were used. So the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York was the court with jurisdiction under the appropriate SEC legislation. Parnell's case number was 2:02-cr-00880-LDW-9. He was defendant number 9. The SEC criminal complaint was filed July 24, 2002 and terminated March 5 2010.

For some reason, when he returned to the TCI from San Diego, Mr. Parnell did not consult The Torch for damage control before beginning his political campaign.  Here is the PR The Torch would have advised, “My fellow TCIslanders, when I was much younger and residing in San Diego, I wanted so badly to return to the TCI as a business success that I regret to tell you now that I cut some corners. 

I set aside my normal judgment and I allowed myself to be tricked by others into a criminal scheme to sell unregistered shares in an existent company but to sell them through a non-existent company that was not registered and in a way that I knew was fraudulent.  Many investors were hurt.  I owned up and pled guilty to two felony counts of conspiracy to defraud and using deceptive devices.  I was never imprisoned.  I paid my debt to society.  I paid full restitution to all of my victims, even though it took me 8 years to do so.  I have been punished in more ways than I can tell you, and I deeply regret my actions to such an extent that I can assure you that there will be no repeat.  My wonderful marriage and my three beautiful children are testament to that.  I hope and trust that you can understand my position, recognize my contrition, forgive me and allow me to move on together with you to build a better TCI for our children.”

There is not a TCIslander The Torch knows who would not have recognized the tragedy and genuine human remorse in such a statement.  It would have established morality, humility, remorse and integrity at a stroke.  Individuals, even those who have been dishonest, can change themselves through such watershed moments. 

Dishonest people cannot and do not change themselves through CONTINUING DISHONESTY AND DECEPTION.

Such a PR statement as above is how a mature honest statesman would have dealt with  an integrity problem and moved forward.

And there is nothing in the PR statement above that is false.  Any reading of the SEC  criminal complaint and of the court's case register will show that Parnell was a small cog in a larger criminal scheme concocted entirely by others.  His most fraudulent act was that the terms of his own sales commission contract violated the sales materials he was handing out to customers.  As a business school graduate, Parnell certainly knew that.  He was also selling securities without being registered as a broker with the SEC.  While all of that was wrong, and apparently some 75 victims suffered greatly, this is hardly the type of criminality that has been going on in and through the TCI political gangs for at least 30 years.

Let The Torch repeat.  Mr. Parnell's crime was NOTHING compared to the criminality of prior TCI governments as developed and encouraged by the TCI political gangs. Mr. Parnell's deception in failing to disclose his integrity problem to the TCI people is a much  bigger integrity problem than his crimes.

The reason that is so is that if Parnell had committed his fraud in the TCI, he would not  have been eligible under the new Constitution to hold elected office. TCIslanders deserved an opportunity to consider that fact.  Now they have that opportunity.

Further, Parnell's cowardly and cynical use of his political gang membership to hide behind and to silence any citizens interested in a genuinely better future leadership of the TCI is a troubling indication of just how difficult it is going to be for the TCI to make a break from the gangs and elect clean unconflicted leaders.

When a citizen gives his suffrage [vote] to a man of known immorality he abuses his trust; he sacrifices not only his own interest, but that of his neighbor, he betrays the interest of his country." -- Noah Webster

Further demonstrating the lack of political judgment in his deception, Mr. Parnell actually paid the ordered $200K in restitution to his victims in full discharge of his sentence.  Though the exact date is unclear from the case register, his restitution payments were completed somewhere around March 2010 and the criminal complaint has now been terminated against Mr. Parnell, meaning that while the criminal record remains, the case against Mr. Parnell is at an end.

In his column two weeks ago, when addressing the leadership vacuum facing TCIslanders, The Torch asked, “Has either gang created a code of ethics for its leaders or a set of rules for transparency and accountability within the gangs themselves?”  The Torch has also on numerous ocasions in the past described the two TCI political gangs as being conflicted and therefore ineffective bodies to deal with the Brit High Command.

Many readers may have thought, “Yeah. Blah blah blah. That's just The Torch flapping his gums.”  No.  The Torch's Parnell research took about 10 mins this past week.  The Torch had not even begun his Parnell research 2 weeks ago.  This was precisely the type of ethics problem and the conflict to which The Torch was referring.  The Torch does not waste your time.

Armed with the information that their gang leader and prime candidate for the highest elected office in the TCI was a convicted felon and had failed to disclose it to the voters, the PDM  gang hierarchy did nothing.  It apparently did not occur to them that they had an overriding duty of integrity to the TCI electorate to produce clean unconflicted candidates.

"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those, who in times of moral crisis, do nothing." - Dante Alighieri
TCIslanders, do you think for one moment that the Brit High Command does not know these facts?  They would have run background criminal checks on all members of the two non-consultative panels before they were appointed and on all members of the recent constitutional negotiation team before they were allowed to set foot in the FCO.

Do you think for one moment that if they thought the need had arisen, the hardballers at the FCO would not take Doug into a separate room and advise him of his opinion - if he'd like to keep his position?

So you are very welcome, Mr. Parnell.  The Torch just solved your biggest problem.  He has put your relatively small criminal problem out in the open where you and your criminal gang cohorts should have put it yourselves.  He has removed any further possibility of your being compromised by the FCO, the Brit High Command and who knows who else - to the detriment of TCIslanders.

All you have to do now is to issue a statement that The Torch is a racist ex-pat who hates TCIslanders and wants to take over the government – you know, the usual stuff.  That'll cover your base, and you can still use your gang to intimidate and silence your fellow TCIslanders.

The Torch can go no further with this.  Democracy requires truth, not deception.  The Torch wants TCIslanders to have democracy.  Hence his job has been to draw this matter to their attention.  TCIslanders must now resolve this matter themselves or if they prefer, just go ahead and completely ignore it. 

Do you think for one moment that if they thought the need had arisen, the hardballers at the FCO would not take Doug into a separate room and advise him of his opinion - if he'd like to keep his position?

So you are very welcome, Mr. Parnell.  The Torch just solved your biggest problem.  He has put your relatively small criminal problem out in the open where you and your criminal gang cohorts should have put it yourselves.  He has removed any further possibility of your being compromised by the FCO, the Brit High Command and who knows who else - to the detriment of TCIslanders.  All you have to do now is to issue a statement that The Torch is a racist ex-pat who hates TCIslanders and wants to take over the government – you know, the usual stuff.  That'll cover your base, and you can still use your gang to intimidate and silence your fellow TCIslanders.

The Torch can go no further with this.  Democracy requires truth, not deception.  The Torch wants TCIslanders to have democracy.  Hence his job has been to draw this matter to their attention.  TCIslanders must now resolve this matter themselves or if they prefer, just go ahead and completely ignore it.

It is high time for the silent majority of TCIslanders to tell its two political gangs that what they have been producing is not good enough.  TCIslanders have legitimate democratic and economic issues on which they can still prevail against the Brit High Command if those issues are handled with clarity, logic and integrity by focused non-conflicted leaders.

TCIslanders should be looking actively now for independent leaders and candidates with no connections to the two political gangs. "One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." -- Plato

Posted August 22 2011