business@tribunemedia.net
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2023
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Gov’t to double its share of treasure By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A MULTI-MILLION underwater explorer yesterday said it is “still evaluating the economics” after the Government moved to double its share from treasure salvaging in Bahamian waters. David Concannon, Allen Exploration Group’s spokesperson, told Tribune Business via e-mailed reply it had been engaged in “ongoing discussions” with the Davis administration about revising the present formula that splits the proceeds from underwater treasure salvaging 75/25 between the explorer and the Government. The majority of the economic benefits thus go to the explorer, and legislation tabled in the House of Assembly yesterday aims to change this so that they are split equally - or 50/50 - with the Government. Besides now receiving 50 percent of
• Tables Bill to give Bahamian people 50% of all finds • Moves away from gaining majority share to equality • Major explorer ‘evaluating economics’ of 50/50 split the proceeds from all licensed treasure salvaging in Bahamian waters, the Government will also get “first preference” in selecting its share of the recovered artifacts as well as the right to retain those deemed vital to “natural patrimony”. The Antiquities, Monuments and Museum (Amendment) Bill 2023, in its “objects and reasons” section,
states: “This Bill seeks to amend the principal Act to provide for any recovered artifacts to be shared between the Government and the licensee, with each to receive 50 percent, and the Government to have first preference in selecting its share of the recovered artifacts. “The Bill also seeks to amend the regulation making power to prescribe the maximum period for which a particular type of licence may be granted.” The changes are given effect by reforms to the existing Act’s section 13, with the Bill and its changes receiving their first reading in Parliament yesterday. “Any artifacts recovered by a licensee under a licence to survey for, or recover, underwater cultural heritage shall be shared between the Government and the licensee with each to receive 50 percent of the total value measured by points, and the Government shall have first
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Bahamas ‘into line’ on economic substance By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE ATTORNEY General yesterday said reforms to bring The Bahamas’ economic substance regime “into line” are “not necessarily” designed to address the deficiencies that led to the country’s re-blacklisting by the European Union (EU). Ryan Pinder KC, in messaged replies to Tribune Business, said legislation tabled yesterday in the House of Assembly was designed to update The Bahamas’ regulatory framework such that it matched the latest “standard” for corporate entities to have
RYAN PINDER KC a real “economic presence” in a jurisdiction. “The Bill is an amendment to reflect updates to the economic substance regime. Not necessarily addressing the
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Bahamas liquidators explore FTX ‘restart’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net FTX’s remaining Bahamas-based staff were paid a collective $635,297 through to end-January 2023 as provisional liquidators explore “options” that may include restarting its trading platform, it was revealed last night Brian Simms KC, the Lennox Paton senior partner, and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) accountants Kevin Cambridge and Peter Greaves, in their first interim report to the Supreme Court confirmed all bar 16 of FTX
Digital Markets’ employees had either left the collapsed crypto exchange or been terminated at end-January. They added that virtually all the Bahamian subsidiary’s 49 expatriate employees, out of a total 83-strong workforce, fled the jurisdiction within hours of it being placed into provisional liquidation. This, the trio added, deprived them of potentially critical information on FTX Digital Markets operations and finances, with few subsequently co-operating with their investigations or accounting for company property in their possession.
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Probe into ‘legitimacy’ of $7.7bn FTX withdrawals • $219.5m cash ownership tangled by ‘commingling’ • Bahamian entity’s 2.4m clients in 230 ‘jurisdictions’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net FTX’s Bahamian liquidators are probing whether $7.7bn was withdrawn from its local subsidiary via “legitimate” transactions as they yesterday revealed virtually all countries are represented in its 2.4m-strong client base. Brian Simms KC, the Lennox Paton senior partner, and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) accountants Kevin Cambridge and Peter Greaves, in their first interim report to the Supreme Court said they are having difficulty untangling FTX Digital Markets assets from those owned by clients because of the crypto exchange’s habit of “commingling” funds.
BRIAN SIMMS KC The trio, in particular, said they are examining whether $5.6bn worth of transactions between FTX Digital Markets and other entities in the group, and a further $2.1bn transferred to related parties, were improper or conducted for legal, appropriate reasons. And, pointing to the shambles that passed for corporate governance
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