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THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 2021
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AG’s Office in ‘inexcusable’ blunder on $1.5m freeze By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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N “inexcusable” blunder by the Attorney General’s Office and its US counterparts has resulted in the Court of Appeal refusing to refreeze the alleged $1.5m proceeds from an international fraud. Appeal justice Milton Evans, in a unanimous May 27, 2021, ruling backed by his two fellow justices, blasted Bahamian prosecutors for failing to resolve “inconsistency in the evidence” supporting claims against several defendants who include flamboyant “philanthropist”, Rudolph Kermit King, and a local “non-profit” group.
• Court of Appeal slams ‘material non-disclosure’ • In case involving ‘philanthropist’ Rudolph King • Discrepancy’s ‘potential to destroy’ fraud claim The failure to resolve discrepancies over the date when a US bank account was closed resulted in “a material non-disclosure” to both the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal that was now “too late to cure”, Justice Evans determined, especially given that this fact “had the potential to destroy” the entire basis for the case against Mr King, Celebrating Women International and the others. Damian Gomez QC, representing the former DAMIEN GOMEZ QC
RUDOLPH KERMIT KING
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Airline pricing causes tourist ‘deterrent’ fear
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
THE Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association’s (BHTA) president yesterday voiced concerns that high airline ticket prices, especially at peak weekends and holidays, “could be a deterrent” for travel to this nation. Robert Sands told Tribune Business that tourism demand outstripping airlift capacity was “a good problem to have” as The Bahamas seeks to rebuild its major industry following COVID-19’s devastation, with the desire to travel to this destination “growing quicker than some airlines can adjust”. He spoke out after other tourism executives interpreted $650 weekend round-trip costs between Nassau and Florida as a
• Demand ‘rising quicker than airlines can adjust’ • BHTA chief brands it as ‘nice problem to have’ • ‘Value for money’ critical on Florida routes
ROBERT SANDS
KERRY FOUNTAIN
sign that pent-up demand for The Bahamas may be exceeding the airline industry’s capacity as key source markets, especially the US, maintain the pace of their COVID-19 vaccination roll-outs. Kerry Fountain, the Out
Island Promotion Board’s executive director, told this newspaper: “I have to fly to Nassau for a funeral this weekend, but I can tell you air fares for Nassau are already high. This means to me there is a huge demand and we may not have
Bahamas ‘can’t lose sight’ of real G7 goal By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
THE Bahamas “cannot lose sight of the fact” that G-7 members and other high-tax European states want “to wipe out” international financial centres (IFC) such as this nation, a prominent accountant warned yesterday. Craig A “Tony” Gomez, the Baker Tilly Gomez managing partner, told Tribune Business that The Bahamas needed to keep that objective in mind when determining how it will respond to
CRAIG “TONY” GOMEZ the Group of Seven (G-7) finance ministers’ agreement on a minimum 15 percent global corporate tax rate. He added that the weekend announcement was
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Cruise port chief eyes health visa efficiency gains By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
NASSAU Cruise Port’s top executive says “there is an opportunity to create greater efficiencies” with the COVID-19 related health questionnaires and documents that cruise passengers must complete. Michael Maura told Tribune Business that The Bahamas’ own health travel visa should be incorporated with the cruise lines’ medical forms to ensure that passengers do not have to provide the same information twice when visiting this
MICHAEL MAURA nation for home porting or on transient cruises. “I do believe there is an opportunity to create greater efficiencies in the health documentation,” he explained. “By that I mean
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enough seats because the prices are alarmingly high. “I’m coming in on a JetBlue flight costing $450 one-way, and on Sunday I’m flying on Bahamasair, travelling on two airlines because of availability. The one-way ticket there is $200. You’re talking $650 for a two-way ticket. I’m complaining because we have to pay out of pocket, but it signifies we have more demand than supply, and signifies more people are travelling. I can live with it.” His assessment was echoed by Mr Sands, who said: “I am concerned that
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$2bn pension liability ‘blows everything up’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net AN ex-Cabinet minister yesterday warned “we blow everything up” if an estimated $2bn in unfunded civil service pension liabilities is added to the national debt, adding: “We never thought judgment day would come.” Dr Duane Sands, former minister of health, told Tribune Business that “we have to do a lot of things right” if The Bahamas is to extract itself from an economic and sovereign debt crisis that has been both accelerated and worsened by a combination of Hurricane Dorian and COVID-19. Speaking after giving a sobering budget debate contribution in the House of Assembly, he argued that the government, all politicians and the Bahamian people must “call a spade a spade” and take ownership of the problems that threaten to engulf the country if not rapidly addressed. Arguing that austerity measures will be less painful if The Bahamas “takes control of its own destiny” rather than letting them be managed by the likes of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dr Sands said this nation will now have to abandon the near-50 year practice of borrowing to cover government deficits that it has employed since independence. The Elizabeth MP, acknowledging that many Bahamians were likely unaware of how their living standards, disposable incomes and quality of life stand to be affected by the measures the government will take to address its fiscal woes, also conceded that the country has effectively mortgaged its future for several generations to come as a result of the debt taken
DR DUANE SANDS on both pre-COVID and during the pandemic. Confirming that his budget debate contribution had delivered this message “in not so many words”, Dr Sands said The Bahamas cannot afford to ignore the fact that it is “in deep, deep trouble” due to the condition of both the economy and the public finances. “It’s scary, but it’s real. It’s factual,” Dr Sands told this newspaper of the country’s economic and fiscal outlook. “The first thing is that we’ve got to claim it, and if we don’t claim it we will never start. We’ve got to call a spade a spade. We cannot pretend things aren’t what they are. We never thought judgment day would come. It’s going to be an awful lot of work. It’s going to be awkward, uncomfortable things politically to dig ourselves out of this mess. “I don’t think we had much choice with this Budget. You have got to set the stage that the belt tightening comes, that we address these issues that we have kind of swept under the rug for so long. Hope is not a fiscal strategy. Something as simple as looking at the unfunded pension liabilities. We ain’t talking about that. If we put that on the books it blows everything up.” The government’s finances, which project that the direct national debt will hit $10.386bn by end-June 2022, are calculated on a
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