Former Insurance Corporation Of Barbados Ltd (ICBL) chief executive officer Ingrid Innes is set to plead guilty in a United States federal court to her role in a bribery scheme involving former Government minister Donville Inniss.
The 70-year-old, Guyanese-born, Canadian resident faces one count of conspiracy to launder money and two counts of money laundering.
Innes is scheduled to appear before District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto in the Eastern District Court of New York on September 1, where she will formally enter her guilty plea and be immediately sentenced. Matsumoto also presided over Inniss’ 2020 trial, handing the former parliamentarian a two-year federal prison sentence.
According to the indictment, between 2015 and 2016, Innes and other high-level ICBL executives funnelled US$36 000 in bribes to Inniss through a New York dental firm’s bank account. It added the payments, routed through ICBL’s then Bermuda-based subsidiary, were made to secure two Government insurance contracts worth over $100 million.
Innes resigned from ICBL in 2017 and relocated to Canada in 2018.
Her decision to plead guilty brings a sudden conclusion to a lengthy legal battle that had lain dormant for years while she fought extradition in Canada. After a Canadian court ordered her extradition in 2024, she filed an appeal originally slated to be heard next month. However, sources indicated she abandoned those proceedings in March, notifying US authorities of her intention to plead guilty.
This notification set off a flurry of preliminary proceedings, including a sealed letter filed by US prosecutors requesting a hearing.
Detailing the strict timeline for the upcoming court date, the US court filed a scheduling order on April 4. It stated: “Scheduling order as to Ingrid Innes: All parties shall appear for a guilty plea hearing to be followed by sentencing on September 1, 2026, at 10 a.m. The parties are expected to follow Federal Rule 32 with regard to objections, corrections or comments to the Presentence Report (PSR). Defence counsel must respond to the PSR within two weeks of receipt, the Government will respond one week thereafter.”
The court order further established a hard deadline for final submissions, noting that “defendant’s submissions shall be filed by August 7, 2026, the government must respond by August 14, 2026, [and] reply by the defendant shall be served and filed by August 20, 2026.”
The charges against Innes carry a maximum term of 20 years in prison for each count. Assistant United States Attorney Jonathan P. Lax was added as counsel for the government in March, while attorney Ronald G. DeWaard entered the case pro hac vice to represent Innes last month.
While Innes prepares for her plea, the extradition case against the scheme’s third defendant, former ICBL senior vice-president Alex Tasker, remains paused.
The 65-year-old Barbadian faces the same charges as Innes. However, his surrender to US authorities has been stalled by some legal issues.
In September 2021, Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes originally ordered Tasker’s extradition. However, Tasker’s legal team filed their appeal under the wrong piece of legislation. By the time the error was realised, the statutory 15-day filing deadline had expired.
When Tasker’s lawyers asked the Court of Appeal for an extension, the court dismissed the request, ruling it had no jurisdiction to extend the timeline. The matter was subsequently taken to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
After initially refusing to hear the case, the CCJ granted an oral hearing and ultimately ruled that the local Court of Appeal must properly evaluate how to handle the procedural mistake, rather than dismissing the high-stakes extradition case outright on a technicality.