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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2025
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Deltec demands $33m ‘stolen’ funds damages t $MBJNT NPOFZ QSPWJEFS AVOMBXGVMMZ XJUIIPMEJOH N t #VU TFU UP SFDMBJN PWFS N GSPN UIF 64 BVUIPSJUJFT t 3FDPWFSZ PG PG TFJ[FE BTTFUT OFFET DPVSU T OPE
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN bank and trust company is demanding “no less than $33m” in damages from a global payments provider after the latter “unlawfully withheld” more than $18m funds belonging to it. Deltec Bank & Trust, in a statement issued yesterday in response to Tribune Business inquiries, confirmed that on Monday it initiated legal action against Ibanera and its affiliates, plus their principal, Michael Carbonara, in a bid to redress
a “past urgent” situation that had resulted in “overdrawn accounts” due to the loss of these monies. “The complaint outlines our position regarding Ibanera’s wrongful withholding of Deltec Bank funds. We look forward to resolving this issue through the appropriate legal channels,” a Deltec spokesman wrote in a messaged reply to this newspaper. The battle with Ibanera is Deltec’s latest legal headache, having become embroiled in litigation following FTX’s collapse and a dispute with the US authorities over seized funds.
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The Lyford Cay-based institution, though, yesterday received better news over the latter battle. The US Justice Department, in a settlement motion filed with the eastern Virginia federal court, agreed to return to it more than 84 percent - or $37.828m out of $44.828m - that the authorities seized from one of its US accounts on the grounds that it represented the proceeds of a ‘pig butchering’ crypto currency fraud. With only court approval of that settlement now awaited, Deltec and its US attorneys can now concentrate on their fight to recover the $18m from Ibanera, which was described as a payments or money transmission services provider offering “global connectivity for banking institutions”. The Bahamian bank said it needed Ibanera “to process transactions” on its behalf in “certain jurisdictions” where it needed a payment provider. “Carbonara promises that Ibanera can be trusted to transmit various currencies and crypto currencies across borders in strict compliance
$5.53 with payment instructions from banks and their clients. Deltec Bank trusted Ibanera to transmit its funds. Instead, Ibanera has stolen them,” Deltec Bank & Trust alleged in its lawsuit, filed in the south Florida federal court on March 3, 2025. “Ibanera has taken at least $11.037m, plus at least $7m worth of other fiat that indisputably belong to Deltec. Deltec instructed Ibanera to transmit those funds to Deltec on January 6, 2025, and Ibanera was obligated to send Deltec its funds within three days. “However, three days passed, then a week, then a month, as Deltec made continuing requests of escalating urgency, culminating in a demand from counsel. All the while, Ibanera’s intermediary promised that Ibanera was working on the payment request.” Deltec is alleging that, more than a month after it issued its instructions, Ibanera replied that “it was somehow
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Super Value chief: ‘$500k gamble paid off’ eggs-actly By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net FREEPORT CONTAINER PORT
Uncertainty if GB assets in Hutchison’s global port exit By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net UNCERTAINTY prevailed last night over whether the Freeport Container Port and 50 percent ownership in the Freeport Harbour Company are included in CK Hutchison Holdings’ multi-billion dollar global ports deal. The Hong Kong-based conglomerate, unveiling its net $17.165bn exit from international ports operations via their proposed sale to a consortium featuring its long-time partner, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), and Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager, said the agreement involves some 43 ports spread across 23 different countries.
With operations in China and Hong Kong not included in the deal, subtracting these from all the ports listed on Hutchison Port Holdings’ website leaves the same number of facilities and countries as detailed in the statement announcing the deal. To reach the 43 ports and 23 countries number, the Freeport Container Port would have to be included in the sale but this could not be confirmed before press time last night. The Hutchison Port Holdings’ website also denoted Freeport Harbour Company as being part of its Bahamian port operations, implying that this is also included in the sale. Freeport Harbour Company, though, is a 50/50
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SUPER Value’s owner yesterday asserted its “$500,000 gamble paid off” with the restriction on how many low-priced eggs customers can buy now doubled from just two to four cartons. Rupert Roberts told Tribune Business that the supermarket chain’s investment in its own brand has “taken the public off noodles and sausages and put them on high-protein eggs at almost one-third of the price they used to be” following the in-store arrival of its first imported shipment priced at $3.79 per carton. The initiative sparked frenzied scenes in many Super Value stores on Monday, which Mr Roberts described as “almost riots”, with Bahamians snatching egg cartons
from each other, dropping them and causing general “chaos”. At the chain’s Nassau Street store, consumers went in the back store room and started distributing the eggs among themselves, while at Prince Charles they were dropped and shattered “all over the floor”. With just one-and-a-half containers, out of an original six-strong container shipment, yet to be sold as of yesterday morning, the Super Value chief and his executives reassured Bahamians that a further four containers - all containing lower-priced eggs - will arrive in The Bahamas on Tuesday morning with regular weekly deliveries scheduled thereafter. And, disclosing that Super Value may have to drop self-service and distribute eggs to consumers via its diary department workers to prevent a repeat of Monday’s
EGG cartons line the shelves at a Super Value grocery store. Photo: Dante Carrer/Tribune Staff
t 3FTUSJDUJPO EPVCMFT GSPN UXP UP GPVS DBSUPOT QFS TIPQQFS t -PXFS QSJDFE FHHT BSSJWBM TQBSLT ADIBPT BU NBOZ TUPSFT t 4VQFSNBSLFU DIBJO AUPPL CJH SJTL CZ ATBDSJmDJOH PVS QSPmU over-enthusiasm, Mr Roberts said the 13-store chain had “sacrificed” its profit margin to boost Bahamians’ welfare. Instead of a 10 percent government price-controlled mark-up on a dozen eggs priced at between $9-$10, it is now earning the same margin on just $3.79.
And Clifton Fernander, Super Value’s perishables buyer, yesterday reiterated that the lower-priced eggs - sourced from outside the traditional US supply chain - had met all the Government’s health and safety regulatory requirements
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URCA urged: ‘Cure abuse’ to stop political interference By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net CABLE Bahamas is urging regulators to “cure this abuse” and “unnecessary financial burden” caused by governments dismissing its directors before they have completed their full term in office. The BISX-listed communications provider renewed its call for legislative reforms to prevent the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) from being “compromised by political transitions” when the
CABLE BAHAMAS HQ administration changes following a general election. It argued that the regulator’s contention that the issue is above its pay grade
is little mote than “a flimsy excuse”. Hitting out in its response to URCA’s draft 2025 annual plan, Cable
Bahamas said: “Yet again the Cable Bahamas group calls for an amendment to the URCA Act - Sections 18 and 20 in Part IV on the appointment of Board members - which results in significant financial payments to dismissed Commissioners who have not been allowed to serve out their complete term of appointment due to a change in administration. “The URCA Board is every five years being treated as any other government Board rather than observing the requirements of the URCA Act
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No blanket approach for moving roadside garages By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Reporter jsimmons@tribunemedia.net A SCRAP metal yard proprietor, who says his business has operated without incident for 40 years, yesterday argued the Government should not adopt a blanket, onesize-fits-all approach to relocating such operations.
Gevon Fisher, owner of G & G Scrap Metal, said a relocation plan for roadside garages and businesses such as his should consider the safety risk each one poses to the communities in which they are based. He added that his garage poses a low risk to surrounding residents and businesses as he only stores metals and car parts, which are less combustible
than garages that house derelict vehicles. “I don’t classify scrap garages and roadside garages as the same thing. I deal with stuff that is not as hazardous or flammable. Stuff that people take from cars, like the harness wires, the batteries, starters, motors, alternators, transmission, engines, aluminum, brass, that sort of stuff,” said Mr Fisher.
“I inherited this business, from my father. He was doing it over 40 years and it’s been five years since I took over. We never had that sort of problems.” Mr Fisher said his garage has adequate safety measures in place in case of an accident, as do other scrap metal businesses and roadside garages, so an
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