fp Turks and Caicos

Provisional liquidators were stopped by a court injunction Monday, May 24, from trying to advertise the winding up of the TCI Bank.

The Creditors Committee sought the injunction to prevent the liquidators from publishing notices on the television and local newspapers in order to prevent turmoil in the public, said Maxferd Gordon “Solie” Williams, a representative for the Creditors Committee.

Aside from the havoc such a notice might cause, Williams said there are still four deals on the table which the creditors believe are not being given proper consideration. “We don’t think they have the best interests of the creditors in mind,” he said.

The Financial Services Commission closed the five-year-old TCI Bank on April 9 because of mounting unpaid loans and an abrupt $4 million withdrawal of funds by three large, unidentified customers. Court-appointed liquidators, Anthony Kikivarakis and Mark Munnings, partners at Deloitte & Touche Bahamas, are supposed to be evaluating the remaining assets of shareholders and depositors and considering any buyout or investment offers that are presented to them.

The liquidators were charged with performing a complete evaluation and delivering a report to the court at a hearing scheduled for June 4. The recent actions by the liquidators have caused such concern for the creditors that they say they will be back in court in short order to request the removal of current liquidators.

During the hearing on Monday, May 24, the judge told the creditors not to advertise any winding up proceedings until July 13, according to Williams. “This is to give us time to present our case for removing the liquidators,” he explained.

Williams said the liquidators informed the creditors they were only advertising the winding up because it was part of the process. According to the law, a winding up must be published for several weeks before it can take place.

The creditors committee is made up of account holders who are seeking to preserve their rights when it comes to the provisional liquidations. Williams sent out a memo Saturday to encourage more account holders to join the groups efforts in working to achieve the best results for the creditors.

The memo asked creditors to bring proof of their account balances to the group, which caused a stir of customers to head to the TCI Bank branch on Providenciales on Monday morning. Up until Monday the group represented $11 million in assets. After the weekend’s memo, the group gathered another $2 million worth of account holders for their cause.

“The importance of this is to prove to the court, if the need arises, that we represent a significant percentage of investors,” the memo read.

Williams is asking for anyone holding a checking account, savings account or CD with TCI Bank to come forward to strengthen their position. “It is our only chance of getting our money back, as we believe the bank will go into full liquidation soon.”

For additional information on the Creditors Committee, call Bill McCallum at 231-0325 or Solie Williams at 231-0052.