From TCI Affairs

Published October 12 2014

Mckeeva Bush’s acquittal in Cayman exposes Billion Dollar cover-ups in the TCI

The opinions and views expressed in the article below are solely those of the writer and not the views and opinions of the Editors of this publication [TCI]

By Ingrid Williams

Dear Mr Editor:

Sometimes one has to wonder why the British Government took over the Turks & Caicos Islands (TCI) in August of 2009. What were the reasons and why? Well at the forefront was the alleged, perceived and what many observers called the “ongoing corruption of the former PNP Government” led by the then Leader, Michael Misick. Misick is now to stand trial on a number of issues but the issues for which Misick is to be tried are small in comparison to what really took place in the TCI under his Government and during the interim Government. We do not know all of the facts but as time escapes we are seeing more and more that the PNP Government and its ministers were “pawns” in a larger British agenda to cement and take control. The many emails in Cayman, the alleged set up of the former Premier may reveal an effort, the British had, to destabilize in Cayman and a Major cover-up between The Foreign & Commonwealth Office FCO, Prime Minister David Cameron’s Office and the Governor’s Office in Grand Turk. Please note that no-one is advocating or asserting the innocence of Mike Misick or His Government. The effort here is to show the duplicity and scams of the British Government. No reference, of suspicion or conspiracy, is made to the Office of the Governor, Peter Beckingham, because until we know better, he is supposed to be a “good” Governor, on instructions of course. Caribbean thinkers are still wondering about all of this.

Just compare the “speed” in which they arrested former Cayman Premier, Mckeeva Bush in March 2013. Just last year. Yet the PNP Government of 2003-2009 was rocked by scandal, news of scandal in 2008 after the Official Opposition, motivated by ‘Rule of law, law enforcement and seeking Justice for the People of the TCI’ ‘had no choice’ but to call for a Commission of Enquiry. This call was inevitable and unavoidable. At issue is not the call but what happened after the British came in. In hindsight the Commission was bigger than the PDM or the PNP. During the Commission of Enquiry some major deals, happenings were not even looked at or into. This issue with the TCI and Cayman is that in Cayman, is that the former Premier there was only apprehended for $50.000, charged, it seems that he was set up and his trial ended within a light speed of 17 months, March 2013 to October 2014. In Cayman the monies at issue, compared to the TCI, $50,000, was petty cash and the British went after a credit card. There was no suggestion, no idea, that any Member of the House of Lords, any official from the FCO, or any British controlled bank was involved in the Caymanian saga but they still went after Bush, tried him and failed to convict him. Maybe where there were no bigger boys at the higher levels to be implicated, they gave them the green light to go ahead.

In the TCI the picture is much more different and “stark in diversity”. We are indeed dealing with a situation where the paper trail, unlike Cayman, reaches to the FCO, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Governor’s Office of “Poston”, the Governor’s Office of Ric Todd, members of the House of Lords and British Controlled Banks in the TCI and the Caribbean. More so Cayman does not have the luxury of a 2,500 acre land scam at Middle Caicos, where some $450 Million in land value was transferred from the Crown a private company, then mortgaged to Belize Bank, British Caribbean Bank (“BCB”) and the mortgage was $7.5 Million. This may have been an alleged mortgage fraud but the Special Prosecutor (“SIPT”) and the asset recovery team, all made conscious decisions not to “touch that”! Again the same can be said of the 160 acres at West Caicos, following the same pattern, $320 in land values and $19 Million in loans from Belize Bank. These loans were issued to secure and control an elected Government in 2007. Yet the same pattern emerges, there is no question of it at the Commission of Enquiry and of course the investigation teams seemed to have been instructed to stay clear of “these transactions”. The SCB Bank stands immune and “these Loans” cannot be touched.

The interim Government of 2009-2012 has also proven to be part and parcel of a plan to cover things up and to protect the Bank, to appoint a friendly Governor, i.e. Ric Todd and to set up a Financial Services Commission that would protect the Bank and ignore the failings of the Bank. Evidence of these loans are there and were there from before the interim government. The Financial Services Commission FSC are powerless to act or investigate because it seems that the power of the Bank, BCB, who made these loans, is greater than that of the FSC or the Prime minister’s office in London. It may also be said that the Former Attorney General of the TCI Huw Shepherd was himself not able to do anything because he knew from whence the power came in London. That power was pro cover-up and anti any meaningful investigation into matters of this nature. It is possible to assert that BCB’s owners controlled the Prime Minister’s office, managed the appointments of the SIPT and the Asset recovery team and handpicked Governor Ric Todd. The head of the FSC, Kevin Higgins, who is doing what he can to destroy the Financial Services Industry in the TCI, was another appointee of Ric Todd. Ensuring that there would be “no investigation” into the Bank, the loans or their suspect nature. The problem for Mckeeva Bush in Cayman was that he did not have these connections and the paper trail on account of a $50, 000 Credit card, gone awry, didn’t go that far. So he had to be charged and thank God that his trial by jury was able to see through the many emails crisscrossing the governor of Caymans computer.

Most glaring of in the TCI is the connection of the Hospital scam in the TCI and the fact that no-one in the former government of the PNP 2003-2009 has teen charged with anything connected with it. The difference is that if the investigators were ever allowed to go after the Hospital Contract the evidence would lead to BCB, its owners, the Prime Minister’s office, the House of Lords, and the Fax Machine of the Controller; the Lord. Despite the clear overwhelming evidence, the connection, the evidence greater than that for Mckeeva Bush, orders have been given to “leave this one alone”. Yet how could a deal which is costing Turks & Caicos Islanders endless tax increases, the TCI Treasury $5 Million per month, $60 Million or more annually, possibly some $5 Billion after 25 years, be left secret quiet and alone? Yet a government in Cayman was removed for the clear misuse of a $50, 000 credit card facility. Yet there cannot be any investigation into the Hospital deal and its contract must remain ultra-secret until it was leaked.

The judge acting alone in the Emerald Cay saga at Chalk Sound, Providenciales, TCI, looking at the evidence before him, without submissions from the AG’s Chambers or the Defense team: was able to look at the papers, seek evidence of stamp duty fraud, make up his mind and order an investigation. Maybe we do have an independent judiciary but do we have an independent legal system? As we recognize the power of the purse and the power of that “particular – purse”, the control of the British Government by the Controllers of Leeward we see a Government in the UK with less political will, initiative or resolve to resist the control over it by the owners of the BCB. So issues like these stand and expose the sharp contrast in the TCI with a $50,000 credit card issue and some $10 Billion Dollars at issue, which cannot be touched despite the evidence. The judge in the Emerald Cay issue, however, seemed free to make up his mind. On the other hand, when dealing with the Middle Caicos $450 million Land Deal, the West Caicos $320 Million Land deal, Joe Grants Cay, the Balance Sheet of BCB, the possible $5 Billion Hospital Scam and our increasing taxes to cover it, the damage at the Leeward Marina (“Close to over $10 Billion in TCI people’s Monies over 25 years) there is “no-one” big enough to touch it. Not the AG’s Chambers, not the SIPT, not the asset recovery team and certainly not the FSC which is clearly an outpost of the see operation. What is it that the Cayman Islands have when it comes to law enforcement for petty crimes that the TCI does not have? It is political will, independent investigation teams or the absence of control over its affairs by the FCO and the people that own the BCB?

Now with leeward marina deal Leeward: Leeward Limited, which is owned by the same people who own BCB and Johnston International, the Construction company that built the $5 Billion Dollar Hospital, dumped dredged spoils in the National Park, Government officials directed that they be permitted to dredge in the National Park at Leeward basically destroying the National Park System there causing damage in the region $150 Million to the people of the TCI. Governor Richard Tauwhare and then Attorney General were instructed by the FCO, London and the UK government no to do anything. Yet, three years later, when a visiting yacht accidentally damaged a reef in the National park system, the Department of the Environment and the AGS Chambers, in “Mckeeva Bush like speed”, moved in, investigated, charged and secured a fine against the captain of that yacht. There was no commission, no SIPT, no need for outside help but the AG’s Chambers seemed free to move in, act, investigate, make up its own mind about the issues surrounding the damage at the reef and secured a verdict from the Court. In his defense the captain of that yacht told the Court that he was directed to go into a certain direction by the Environmental Department, just like Government officials told Leeward to dredge, but in Leeward’s Case there were no charges by the AG’s Chambers. The Captain of the visiting Yacht was charged, Mckeeva Bush speed, less the 17 months though, and fined. Since 2008, however, “nothing” it seems will happen to Leeward or BCB. Local ministers are charged, a Government is removed but the real people benefitting from all of this through increased taxes cannot be touched.

Former Chief Justice, Gordon Ward, issued an injunction in 2008 to stop the dredging by Leeward and one Rodney Propps, also of the Leeward Group, in the Princess Alexandria National park but as if there were no Court of Chief justice, the dredging continued and we saw then who really owned and ran these Turks & Caicos Islands. The injunction was ignored and the Court Order thrown back in the face of the then Chief Justice. Former ministers who authorized the illegal dredging have been charged but not Leeward, nor have these former ministers been charged with anything connecting them to Leeward and its illegal dredging. History may also record that no minister past or present will ever be charged with anything connected to the 2,500 acres at Middle Caicos, the 160 Acres at West Caicos or the Hospital scam because that will open a paper trail, a can of worms connecting the deal, the bribes back to the House of the Lord and his Bank. It seals that ‘no-one’ is big to open the seal on any of this.

So former Premier Mckeeva Bush of the Cayman Islands need not feel discriminated against nor profiled in any way. In some measure he and the Cayman Islands people may feel grateful to the British, the Governor of the Cayman Islands, for the way the British exposed their hand there. What happened in Cayman pales in comparison to the scams and cover-ups in the TCI. But what if the British were able to move in and really take over in Cayman. Would they have engaged in true law enforcement, like they are not doing in the TCI, but really forwarded an agenda to protect and cover up for their boys? Where two wrongs do not make a right but over $10 Billion dollars over 25 years compared to $50,000 seems like a deliberate double standard. The “Cayman Islands, Mckeeva Bush” saga really exposes the hypocrisy of the British hand and their inner agenda. We cannot lose sight of the fact that the Commission in the TCI started in the summer of 2008, monies close to $10 Billion are at issue, Ministers have to stand trial. What is more glaring is that no developer who paid anything to make these deals happen, to any minister or public official, has been or will be charged. The Rt Hon Mckeeva Bush’s acquittal exposes the irony and illustrates a serious double standard in the TCI. Ministers will stand trial in the TCI but not for the Dredging at Leeward, nor the 2,500 acres at Middle Caicos, the 160 acres at West Caicos, the $5 Billion Hospital scam and most critically and intrinsically tied to TCI’s future, any $50,000 Credit card. Yet in Cayman it took them, in virtual light speed, 17 months to finish and in the TCI, 2008 to 2014, 6 full years after games and cover-ups no trials have commenced as yet.

For the original publication of this letter go to: http://www.tciaffairs.com/opinions/mckeeva-bushs-acquittal-in-cayman-exposes-billion-dollar-cover-ups-in-the-tci/

iNews Cayman EDITOR: The views and opinions in the above letter do NOT represent the views and opinions of iNews Cayman/ieyenews.