Kishore Shallow, what became of the briefcase files?

Vincypowa News | Newsroom

Dr. Kishore Shallow promised to expose ULP figures “one by one.” His party now runs the government. Ten months on, Vincentians are still waiting to see the evidence.

Vincypowa News | Accountability

During the 2025 election campaign, Dr. Kishore Shallow held up a briefcase he said contained files on members of the Unity Labour Party and promised to expose them. He opened part of it on radio. Ten months later, he is the MP for North Leeward and Minister of Tourism and Maritime Affairs, and the New Democratic Party he campaigned for runs the government, with full access to the records of the state.

Vincypowa News is asking: what became of those files, and why has so little of what was promised been made public?

1. November 1, 2025Shallow holds up the briefcase at the NDP rally in Biabou and says he needs Dr. Friday’s permission to release the files.
2. November 3, 2025Dr. Friday tells Hot 97 the timing is Shallow’s to decide.
3. November 8, 2025Then-Prime Minister Gonsalves dares Shallow to open the briefcase.
4. November 11, 2025On Hot 97, Shallow pulls envelopes from the bag and makes his contract and payroll allegations.
5. November 27, 2025The NDP wins the general election. Shallow wins North Leeward.
6. September 20, 2026Prime Minister Friday tells a Brooklyn town hall that an assessment of public enterprises has found matters requiring further investigation. No findings have been released.

What was promised

At the NDP rally in Biabou on November 1, 2025, according to iWitness News, Shallow called for his brief bag, told the crowd he had files, and said he needed party leader Dr. Godwin Friday’s permission to release them. He said he would reveal which ULP figures owned properties across the Caribbean, which owned businesses competing with Vincentians, and who was earning millions of dollars without paying taxes. St Vincent Times reported his pledge: “We are going to expose them one by one in this campaign.”

Two days later, St Vincent Times reported, Dr. Friday told Hot 97 that the matter was one Shallow had introduced and that he would leave the timing to him.

What was revealed

On November 8, then-Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves publicly dared Shallow to open the briefcase and called him a liar. Three days later, on Hot 97, Shallow brought the bag into the studio and pulled out envelopes, including one marked “ULP Treasury” and another marked “Oney.”

He alleged that a person close to the prime minister held a government contract paying more than EC$40,000 a month plus allowances, and said he had the contract number. He also alleged that others were being paid close to $10,000 a month from the national treasury for little or no government work. He said he was holding further papers for the NDP’s North Leeward rally that weekend.

“When I pull things from my briefcase, they’re going to be factual.”

Dr. Kishore Shallow, as quoted by iWitness News, November 12, 2025

A source quoted in the iWitness News report said contract workers are often paid more because they receive no pension or certain other benefits, while also describing the figure as very high.

Vincypowa News has found no public record that the property, business and tax allegations made at Biabou were ever substantiated, and no record that the underlying documents were published in full.

What the government has done since

On September 20, 2026, at a town hall meeting in Brooklyn, Prime Minister Friday said a two-person rapid assessment team appointed after the election had reviewed 12 public enterprises and delivered its first report about three months earlier. He said the team found matters requiring further investigation, and that the review has been expanded to the remaining public enterprises. He said his government would proceed methodically rather than to an arbitrary timeline, and would follow the evidence. Foreign Affairs Minister Fitzgerald Bramble said the claim that computers at the SVG Consulate in New York were wiped remains under investigation.

That is a start, but it is not disclosure. No specific findings, figures or names from the assessment have been released. Neither official confirmed at the town hall whether any matter has been referred to the police or to external forensic investigators. Commentators have also asked what became of the forensic audit that the MP for East Kingstown said, before the election, had to happen.

Questions for Dr. Shallow

• What did the remaining papers in the briefcase contain? Were they released at the North Leeward rally or anywhere else? If so, where can Vincentians examine them?
• Were the underlying documents for the claims you made on Hot 97, including the contract you referenced, ever published in full? What did the envelope marked “Oney” contain?
• Did any of the files support your claims about properties, businesses and unpaid taxes? Who are the other individuals you said were being paid close to $10,000 a month, and what evidence supports that claim?
• Were any of these materials handed to the police, the Director of Audit or the government’s assessment team? Now that you serve as a minister, has the contract you raised been reviewed?
• If any of the documents did not substantiate wrongdoing, will you say so publicly so that suspicion does not take the place of evidence?

Questions for Prime Minister Friday and the government

• Did you give Dr. Shallow permission to release the files? Has the government received and examined them, and what action followed?
• When will the findings of the rapid assessment, including the report on the first 12 public enterprises, be made public?
• Has any matter been referred to the police, the Director of Public Prosecutions or the Director of Audit?
• Is a full forensic audit of the former administration still planned, and if so, when will it begin and who will conduct it?

Why it matters

Vincypowa News is not asserting that the briefcase contained proof of corruption, or that any person has committed wrongdoing. The issue is that serious allegations were made in public to win votes, and the party that made them now holds the power to test them.

These questions are directed to Dr. Shallow and to the government for a public response. Vincypowa News welcomes the relevant documents, an account of any action taken and any correction to the published reports.

Vincentians deserve to know what the files contained and what, if anything, followed.

Vincypowa News. Power to the People.