‘The Thomas Carroll Affair’ revisited

Jun 26, 2013 News

-American author launches book highlighting greed and crime in Guyana
New York-based writer David Casavis on Tuesday last, released, “The Thomas Carroll Affair… A journey through the cottage industry of illegal immigration.” The book deals specifically, with events that occurred during 1998 to 2000; when Thomas Patrick Carroll, a United States citizen, serving as a Foreign Service officer with the United States State Department and appointed vice-counsel in the United States Embassy here in Guyana, developed and carried out an immigration visa fraud operation, which facilitated scores of people, especially those of the underworld, getting into the U.S. illegally.
Carroll’s cover was blown in 2000 when the American government got their hands on him, subsequently imprisoning him and his associates. He is due out of prison within hours.
The author cited the book as a historical record that speaks prior to the Guyana Elections of 2006.
In putting it together, he said he was consistent in refusing information about what transpired after 2001, subsequent to Carroll’s detention, because he wanted to preserve the book’s authenticity.
He said too that, the story is of a lost community and lost hope.
“It is the story of a small, corrupt country (Guyana) and how an American Embassy official looted it.” Casavis passionately writes about how lives were changed, the consequences of those events, and the victims of a scheme in a country, ‘made poorer.’
He charged in the book’s introduction that America is an opportunity for the poor. Poor countries need a skilled workforce. Better wages, upward mobility and humane working hours are the rewards of a burgeoning economy, but those rewards, he forwarded, disappear when supply and demand is altered.
“If a world without opportunity sees thieves and rapists slipping across the borders through bribery, skilled and educated professionals will follow. Poor countries lose ground too. This is the Thomas Carroll legacy.”
With the ‘twist of fate’ meeting of two unlikely people, the book describes the actions of ‘a bandit and a US diplomat, along with their gangs,’ as combining to ‘shake a little country to its roots… channeling a sense of injustice and rage into violence, ’ while the other ‘threw a spotlight on official corruption.’
In his book, Casavis listed principal characters who actually played a significant part in the events of the late ‘90s early 2000s; Thomas Carroll, the foreign officer who served in that capacity not only in Guyana, but in China and Taiwan; Lance Corporal Linden London, also known as ‘Blackie’ (now deceased), was a soldier in the Special Forces Squadron of the Guyana Defence Force, while Deputy Superintendent of Police Leon Fraser (now deceased) was a member of the Target Special Squad or ‘Black Clothes Police.’
CN Sharma is the owner and operator of Channel six television, also a self made millionaire once active in politics. Vince Principe was the head of the Visa section at the Embassy. He reported to James Mack, the Ambassador at the time.
Eton Cordis and Jason Azaria are two Guyanese who worked at the Embassy at the time, while Paul James ,who ran a hardware store in Georgetown, Haleem Khan, Rajesh Persaud, ‘Jerry’, Donna Dos Santos and Roy Singh were visa brokers. Laurie Lewis (now deceased) was the Police Commissioner at the time, Joe DeAgrella, was a diamond merchant in the city and Rhonda Forde, (now deceased) was ‘Blackie’s’ girlfriend.
The revelations that informed the publication, rocked Guyana and the subsequent details that emerged during Carroll’s trial in Chicago confirmed what many had been speculating.
The involvement of local cops as enforcers for his schemes came as no surprise. The fact that no one was held culpable by the Guyanese authorities was however a hard pill to swallow, especially in light of the theory that many unexplained deaths and disappearances were linked to the scheme.
Carroll reportedly sold over 800 US visas at a price of between US$10,000 and $15,000 each.
Thomas Carroll was found guilty and sentenced to a total of 21 years imprisonment in 2002.
He was 38 years old at the time. During the investigations, federal agents raided his house and found large amounts of cash and gold bars; they also found out that Carroll operated about seven bank accounts.
The sentence was later slashed by half to 11 years.

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‘The Thomas Carroll Affair’ revisited

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