Former BVI Premier Fahie Files Notice of Appeal

Once the most powerful elected official in the British Virgin Islands, former Premier and Finance Minister Andrew Fahie could soon plead poverty and ask for the assistance of a public defender in the appeal of his cocaine smuggling and money laundering conviction, according to court records filed Thursday.

In earlier court filings, Fahie’s lawyers had said he was having trouble raising money to pay an appeals attorney, which can cost $35,000 minimum and run up to $200,000 or more in complex cases.

Fort Lauderdale attorney Richard Della Fera, who represented Fahie after his February conviction, paid the $605 appeals filing fee himself Thursday, saying it was part of his duties. Della Fera said he did not want Fahie to lose his opportunity to appeal over $600 but also asked the court to allow him to leave the case. Fahie’s attorney at trial, Theresa Van Vliet, also asked the judge to sever her from the case but said she’d be happy to help Fahie find appropriate appellate counsel.

Della Fera said it could take 18 months for the details of Fahie’s appeal to be filed, rebutted, heard, and potentially resolved. Getting transcripts alone would take 60 days, he said.

Undercover officers had amassed some 8,000 minutes of secretly recorded audio tape that prosecutors said showed Fahie as an enthusiastic participant in a cocaine smuggling plot that would have briefly parked thousands of kilograms of narcotics on Tortola — were the scheme real. Fahie bragged in the recordings about a long history of illegal actions and bemoaned not being compensated properly, prosecutors said. At one point, Fahie was recorded offering to help supply illegal weapons, according to court filings.