The Cayman Islands website, owned by Sandra Hill, Cayman Marl Road, has been forced by the Cayman Courts to apologise to former Minister of Finance of the Cayman Islands, Marco Archer.

This follows on from a post they published in August 2017 alleging Archer had been dishonest in his handling of a stamp duty waiver.

Archer sued Hill for defamation, and seeking financial damages.

However, Archer accepted a full apology and waived the compensation. All lawyers’ fees would be settled by both parties.

We publish the apology as it has appeared on the Marl Road website and as the wording ordered by the Court:

“On 23 August 2017, I published a post under the headline ‘Archer accused of abuse of office in stamp duty fiasco’. In that post, I stated and insinuated that Mr. Marco Archer, the former Minister of Finance of the Cayman Islands, acted dishonestly, abused his power and misconducted himself in his profession and office, when handling a request for a stamp duty waiver. I accept fully that I was wrong to do so.

“I sincerely and unreservedly apologise to Mr. Archer for publishing allegations which it is accepted are unfounded and completely untrue. This error in judgment is something I deeply regret. I have taken stock, and have reviewed, and adjusted my editorial policies to ensure an error of this nature does not happen again.

“I completely retract the untrue allegations and apologise for my mistake and for any distress caused to Mr. Archer by publication of the story.”

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