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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2022
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Bahamas shrugs off FTX for perfect ‘40 out of 40’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
• AG hails ‘enormous accomplishment’ in financial crime fight • Bahamas just sixth nation compliant on all FATF standards • Upgraded on digital assets despite crypto exchange failure
THE Bahamas yesterday shrugged off FTX’s implosion through what the attorney general hailed as the “enormous accomplishment” of a perfect score in the fight against financial crime. Ryan Pinder KC told Tribune Business this nation had achieved a “rare” feat by becoming only the sixth nation ever to achieve full compliance with the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) 40 recommendations for combating money laundering and terrorism financing. The Bahamas’ upgrading to “compliant” on the final two outstanding recommendations, which was confirmed yesterday by the FATF’s Caribbean affiliate, is especially timely given the negative publicity surrounding FTX’s collapse as one of the areas
re-rated involves the regulation of digital assets. Mr Pinder said the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force’s (CFATF) assessment had vindicated the strength of The Bahamas’ financial services regulatory regime, particularly when it came to digital assets and crypto currency, as well as backing the country’s repeated assertions that supervisory failings did not play a role in FTX’s collapse. “This is an enormous accomplishment for the
country,” the attorney general said, having targeted a perfect ‘40 out of 40’ compliance with the FATF’s standards earlier this year. To get there, Mr Pinder acknowledged that the effort had spanned several administrations, with the most recent push stemming from the findings presented five years ago in the CFATF’s last “mutual evaluation” of The Bahamas. Those findings, based on an assessment that was carried out two years prior to that in 2015, identified
RYAN PINDER KC multiple deficiencies and weaknesses in the country’s anti-financial crime regime. The results were severe enough to land The Bahamas on the “enhanced monitoring programme” of the parent FATF, but reforms enacted by the Minnis administration ultimately secured the country’s escape. Mr Pinder and the Davis administration, picking up
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‘Unprecedented’: Hotel staff enjoyed slow season boost By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net MANY hotel staff worked “unprecedented” fiveday weeks during the tourism season’s slowest months, a union leader revealed yesterday, as he bids to complete multiple new industrial agreements in early 2023. Darrin Woods, the Bahamas Hotel, Catering and Allied
Workers Union’s (BHCAWU) president, told Tribune Business that the post-COVID tourism recovery’s momentum meant many employees worked double the two-three day weeks typically endured during September and October to meet the demand. Forecasting that they will be working up to six-day weeks during the Christmas and New Year period, as occupancies and visitor numbers peak, he
voiced optimism that staff will be able to join their employers in “riding the proverbial wave all the way to Easter” 2023. At the same time, Mr Woods disclosed to this newspaper that the union hopes to close negotiations on a new industrial agreement with the Bahamas Hotel and Restaurant Employers Association some time in the first four
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DARRIN WOODS
Ex-AG: Don’t let ‘proper’ FTX collapse probe slide By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A FORMER attorney general yesterday warned The Bahamas against letting a “proper probe” into FTX’s implosion slide because of its perfect score in the financial crime fight and Sam Bankman-Fried’s departure. John Delaney, now principal at the Delaney Partners law firm, told Tribune Business that simply moving on and treating the crypto currency exchange’s collapse as if it never happened would be “the wrong thing” for the jurisdiction to do as there were likely lessons that have to be learned.
JOHN DELANEY And, while yesterday’s confirmation that The Bahamas is now fully compliant with the 40 global anti-financial crime standards (see other article on Page 1B) may show “there’s no systemic weaknesses in
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Investor seeking $2.7bn in South Ocean dispute By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A CONTROVERSIAL Austrian investor is pledging to seek an extraordinary $2.7bn in damages if his attempted acquisition of New Providence’s 384-acre South Ocean resort is ultimately thwarted. The claim is the latest astonishing demand by Dr Mirko Kovats, a Lyford Cay homeowner who has permanent resident status in The Bahamas, in his battles to acquire separate Bahamian resort properties. He has already launched Judicial Review litigation against the Government
after it blocked his efforts to acquire Abaco’s Treasure Cay property, claiming a total $3.127bn in damages there. His South Ocean move, if pursued, would take the combined damages sought by Dr Kovats to some $5.8bn. There is no suggestion he would be awarded anything remotely close to these sums should he prevail in his legal battles, but the latest development provides further evidence of the Austrian investor’s hard-nosed approach to business and litigation. Dr Kovats’ position was revealed in December 21,
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Realtor has ‘never seen such high rental rates’ • High-end tenants paying up to $30k per month • Further reducing upscale ‘for sale’ properties • Inventory estimated down 30% on ‘normal’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN realtor says he has “never seen such high rental rates” as now exist in some of western New Providence’s most upscale communities with demand in this segment now suppressing available-for-sale JOHN CHRISTIE inventory. John Christie, HG Christie’s president and managing broker, told Tribune Business that high net worth individuals were paying between $10,000-$14,000 per month to rent homes in areas such as Sandyport, while the rates in communities such as Lyford Cay and Old Fort Bay were reaching to $20,000-$30,000 per month. Given such returns, he explained that residential property owners were increasingly electing to seek tenants rather than buyers for their real estate. The surging rental market is thus keeping the volume of properties for sale relatively low, especially after much available inventory was acquired in the post-COVID boom, with the result that prices are driven higher as buyer demand outstrips supply. “Inventory is pretty low in places like Lyford Cay and Old Fort Bay,” Mr Christie told this newspaper. “There’s still an inventory in Ocean Club Estates and Albany. Albany still has some inventory in their condos, but it’s still pretty tight. There’s still demand outstripping supply right now. Who knows what
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