So now that it has come out that David Smith financed both political parties, allegedly from the money he had obtained by non-legal means, a crime for which he is now doing 30 years in prison, so it begs the question: how many other people who got their means illegally have been funding these parties over the years?

For years now, successive governments have been waffling back and forth over whether they should make public the people who contribute to their parties' coffers. If this David Smith situation doesn't now tell us that there needs to be greater transparency on party campaign financing, then we are more backward than I believe we are.

These recent court proceedings in the Turks and Caicos Islands against Smith has opened a can of worms here and all of a sudden the people who were cozying up to him are now running for cover trying to put as much distance between themselves and Smith as possible.

It's issues like these that have me questioning the integrity of the whole lot of politicians over the years. Both parties claimed they got money but disputed the amounts the incarcerated schemer claims he gave them.

The bottom line is that they got money and it was quite possibly while they were aware of the ongoing issues surrounding Smith's company Olint. Wasn't it the PNP that issued warnings to Jamaicans about the investment scheme when it was at its peak? Why then did they take his money. The same can be said for the JLP.

These parties I find are conveniently blind.

David Smith and I have our own history. No, it didn't involve millions of dollars but way back when we were students at the College of Arts Science and Technology. It did not end well for him then and it certainly didn't end well for him now. That is partially why I hold little sympathy for the people who 'invested' in his scheme.

My parents used to tell me that if something seems too good to be true that usually means that it is and this Olint thing smelled pretty fishy to me from the outset. It's kind of like a scheme being run now that doesn't involve money but one day soon it will all come crashing down. But we Jamaicans never learn anything from our past mistakes.

That's why it's very laughable when I hear people say they want their money back and that the parties should pay back the money Smith gave them to run their campaigns. First question is: where are the parties going to find the money? All that money is gone into campaign expenses like television and newspaper ads and to pay campaign staff and such.

That money is gone for good.

What I don't hear is the call for the show promoters to which Smith donated money and the casinos in Providenciales where he allegedly spent as much as US$100,000 on some nights to return the money Smith spent with them. You know why? That's right, because they know that there is a better chance for me to beat Usain Bolt over any distance than that money being returned.

The greatest revelation in all of this for me, however, is the fact that in the time we here took to prosecute Smith, the United States authorities found him, charged him, tried him and jailed him. Now doesn't that say something about how inept, morally bankrupt and totally useless our authorities are? If it doesn't, then I don't know what does.

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'It's issues like these that have me questioning the integrity of the whole lot of politicians over the years.'