| Government seeks to halt Salt Cay plans | | Print | |
| Friday, 30 April 2010 07:53 | |||
 The Turks and Caicos Islands government has asked the Supreme Court to halt the Salt Cay resort development and return 239 acres of crown land. The summons filed April 23 by the attorney general accuses Salt Cay Devco Ltd., Salt Cay Devco Estates Ltd. and Salt Cay Golf Club Ltd. of using “a series of corrupt transactions (namely, secret commissions, illicit rewards or inducements, and/or bribes provided or paid to Michael Misick (or to Chal Misick at the direction of Michael Misick) and/or to McAllister Hanchell) and/or fraud” to gain advantages in their plans for the tiny island. Because of those alleged actions, the court has been asked to allow the government to terminate or rescind Devco’s development agreement and the commercial lease of 239 acres on Salt Cay for $1 per acre. The specific “corrupt transactions” were cited as giving Chal Misick — a lawyer and Michael Misick’s brother — a 50 percent share of Salt Cay Devco Golf Club, and giving credit cards and loans to former Premier Michael Misick and former Minister of Natural Resources McAllister Hanchell. The Salt Cay development companies denied any wrongdoing in a lengthy statement. “The allegations made in the papers submitted to the TCI Supreme Court are unfounded and without merit,” the company said. “In addition they contain lots of factual mistakes and ignore facts and documents that are available to (Turks and Caicos Islands government). “We believe that this action is politically motivated and is as result of the enormous pressure on the interim government from both the TCI and U.K. It is just another demonstration of the arrogance, ignorance and irresponsibility of those who currently govern the TCI.” Click HERE to read the government's writ of summons. Click HERE to read Salt Cay Devco's full statement. The case against Devco was built by the attorney general’s office and lawyers hired to recover assets belonging to the country. It is led by Laurence Harris, who heads the London office of Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, an international firm with more than 500 lawyers worldwide. At a press conference Wednesday, Harris said the next developments under review are Dellis Cay, Joe Grants Cay and Third Turtle. He explained the asset recovery process as follows: he reviews the information in each case, and if there are valid claims, writes the developer for a response. “We then look at the response and consider whether that has answered the concerns,” he said. “Perhaps there are good answers to the questions raised. If however at the end of that process we conclude our questions have not been answered satisfactorily, and there are claims that the government has, then the next step is to assume proceedings to seek to recover in some cases land, damages, and money to follow through on those claims.” Harris said he has written to developers of both Joe Grant Cay and Third Turtle and is awaiting response before making any decisions. But Dellis Cay, which is in receivership, is much more complex. “We are in negotiations with the receiver and Trinidad and Tobago Unit Trust Corp., the bank which stands behind the receiver,” Harris said. “The governor’s very great hope is that an agreement will be reached which will allow the development to be sold and for new development to take place for the development to continue. “However, the government believes it has claims with regards to that development, and those claims form part of the negotiations. They are ongoing.” On Monday, May 3, Dellis Cay developer Dr. Cem Kinay issued a statement saying that his shareholders "categorically deny that there is a reason for the government to assert any claim against Dellis Cay. Any such claim would be spurious." Oceanpoint Developments CEO Richard Padgett declined to comment on his Third Turtle project, a proposed five-story multi-phase condo/hotel, spa and marina at Turtle Cove. In March Padgett announced he would sell the property where construction has not yet begun. In an effort to prevent investigations from scaring off potential developers, Harris said his team is helping them with due diligence to review proposed new contracts. In that way, “progress can be made, new contracts can be entered into and people can be confident when new contracts are entered into that full due diligence has been done and that there has been a level playing field.” Harris said his team is also reviewing as many as 500 conditional purchase leases of crown land that are in arrears or have expired and should be returned to the crown. The first 20 letters have been sent out to those whose leases are the most in arrears and they are currently awaiting responses. “That is a process that will be ongoing,” he said. “Hopefully that way, we will recover a lot of land and money for the government.”
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