From OffshoreAlert

RC Cayman Hotel Holdings Ltd. et al v. Cayman Islands Chief Valuation Officer et al: Application for Leave to Apply for Judicial Review

Application for Leave to Apply for Judicial Review in RC Cayman Hotel Holdings Ltd. and RC Cayman Property Holdings Ltd. v. The Chief Valuation Officer, The Premier and Minister of Finance, and The Government of the Cayman Islands at the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands.

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RC Cayman Holdings are seeking to stop two more evaluations of the property for stamp duty purposes that the Cayman Islands Chief Valuation Office has ordered. This is because the government has said there are inconsistencies in the value of the property over the past 5 to 7 years.

A 2007 valuation by local Quantity/Valuation Property Surveyors, BCQS, gave a figure of US $468 million for the hotel complex that was executed near the peak of the real estate market.

However, at the auction held in 2012, there was only one bidder, RC Cayman, and they were able to buy the hotel for the reserve price of US $177.5 million, a valuation carried out by another local firm, Charterland.

Both the previous Bush government and the present one have tried to obtain stamp duty on the higher valuation.

What casts some suspicion on the whole affair is that RC Cayman is owned by Five Miles Capital. Five Miles Capital is the company that instigated the auction and had originally set a much higher reserve price.

At a press conference held in November 2012 James Glasgow of Five Miles Capital said they had marketed the planned sale across the globe to well over 1,100 investors, but only three groups showed an interest and in the end there was only one other bidder, who didn’t actually bid.

Glasgow said, “Were the hotel worth anything like $400 million, we would have had hundreds of investors wanting to bid given a reserve price of $177.8million.”

Glasgow’s fellow executive, David Lattimer, warned that any attempt by the government to collect monies above $177.8M would be met with litigation and could be so crippling the hotel could close.

Previous to this latest court application RC Cayman had filed a writ against the Cayman Islands government accusing them of corruption and blackmail, calling into question the conduct of recently-deposed Premier McKeeva Bush, new Premier Julianna O’Connor-Connolly, and former owner Michael Ryan.

And …..  just before this one RC Cayman filed another judicial review against the new government for failure to register the transfer of title to them since December, despite, they say, repeated requests.

RC Cayman say government has unlawfully failed to register the transfer of lands relating to their purchase of the property and has unlawfully failed to adjudicate Stamp Duty on the transfers, in accordance with the valuation agreed in October last year by its own chief valuation officer.

Jim Glasgow, a Director of RC Cayman Property Holdings Ltd., stated they had repeatedly written to the government, most recently being Feb 19 and Feb 25, and not received the courtesy of a reply. Therefore they have been forced to exercise the option of legal action.

They have claimed the government has cashed the $11.6 million transfer cheque for transfer taxes on December 28, 2012.