Abby Martin interviews Afra Raymond about the corrupt CL Financial – CLICO disaster.

“On the 30th of January 2009… that bailout was wreathed in political corruption because it was discussed and agreed behind closed doors. We later discovered the Minister of Finance who negotiated the bailout is a lady called Karen Nunez-Tesheira, I will call names.

She is an attorney at law, former lecturer of law, and in fact was a shareholder of CL Financial. She was later revealed by my research to be a shareholder of CL Financial that she was negotiating a bailout of.”

“The people who caused this collapse have really gotten away scot-free because the government purchased their debt.”

Afra Raymond to international journalist Abby Martin.

Two-thirds of Caribbean Government money stolen!

If this interview doesn’t rock you about how corrupt your Caribbean governments and politicians be then go back to smokin’ whatever you be smokin’ an doan bother with life.

Afra Raymond tells it like it is to international journalist Abby Martin. It’s all here – the whole history of corruption in the CL Financial collapse and bailout.

Ministers of Government who were CL Financial shareholders gave your public funds to shore up their own interests.

That was the corrupt foundation of the bailout.

I saw this interview on YouTube and had to post it. Don’t know when I’ll be back.

One Love… Cliverton.

Barbados Free Press takes a holiday

Dear Friends,

Robert headed out on a job over and away a month ago. My current work and new little one are taking all my time.

I know it hasn’t been the same ’bout hey since Marcus passed on. We miss him, all of us do.

We’re not doing justice to this place so we’ve stopped the comments on older articles.

BFP’s 5,962 posts remain as a memorial to Marcus and the old days when Bajans made our corrupt politicians promise ITAL: Integrity Legislation, Transparency and Accountability Laws. The BLP and DLP politicians lied. Much like the old fable of the turtle and the scorpion – it is their nature.

Barbados will never have ITAL. If it didn’t happen in the past nine years, it won’t happen in the next nine years. The place is too corrupt, and anyway, very little remains to be stolen by the political class. Bad times are coming fast and you had better believe that for the sake of your loved ones. You ain’t seen nuthin yet.

We’ll be back here and there, but it will take a while.

May the Lord bless you and yours.

Cliverton

Financial Times: Cuban tourism boom to harm rest of Caribbean

What a surprise!

The sight of the Stars and Stripes being hoisted over the newly opened US embassy in Cuba last week, was one of the most visible signs yet of the diplomatic rapprochement between the long-term foes.

If President Barack Obama gets his way, the US Congress will soon go further still and lift its 55-year-old trade embargo on the island.

Such a move would be a major boon to the Cuban economy, not least by unleashing a torrent of big-spending American tourists on the island, which has largely been starved of such arrivals for more than half a century.

This, however, could prove disastrous for some of the small islands elsewhere in the Caribbean which are heavily dependent on tourism. They could see much of the US tourism trade they have come to reply on decamping to the large, and quite possibly cheaper, new competitor in their midst.

… continue reading the Financial Times Cuban thaw poses tourism threat to Caribbean neighbours

Barbados Minister of International Business Donville Inniss: Swiss Bank Account for your online porn business?

Revealed for the first time: Donville Inniss Swiss Money Connection

An interesting article in yesterday’s Nation Newspaper where Donville Inniss, our Minister of International Business, announced that Barbados is fully on board with the US and international efforts to have an automatic exchange of tax information between countries.

Some folks would say that Barbados is caving to the USA’s extortion, but others would say this is the future and welcome to it.

Of course, some folks would also question where the customers are going to come from if keeping money in Barbados is the same as having a bank account in Chicago or London. Why should anyone do their banking in Bim if there is no advantage?

“. . . My ministry has written to the secretary general of the OECD in Paris indicating that Barbados has formally committed to signing on to the automatic exchange of tax information,” Inniss said. “This is important because as a government there is somewhat of a paradigm shift in taking a position that Barbados needs to be a player, and to be seen as a major player in this international financial services sector where it matters most.”

… Nation News Bowing to Global Pressure

What about all Donville’s porn profits?

This concern with international tax treaties is a newish thing for Pornville, er, Donville.

You see, not so many years ago, Barbados Free Press caught out Donville Inniss in the act of profiteering from online pornography.

“One of the saddest things I’ve ever seen is Orgasm.com’s pregnant woman porn section. How does Donville Inniss feel about these desperate young girls – making money for him like this?” 

Black and White Sea Egg Poachers have different court outcomes in Barbados

Editor’s note: This story is unchecked and was submitted anonymously.

Take with some salt and decide for yourself!

submitted by Steve See the Egg

Black and White Sea Egg Poachers

Recently two Sea poachers were apprehended somewhere between Martin’s Bay and Glenburnie in St. John. One Eric Mayers, known to most of us as “Grease”, and Anthony Standard, known to most as “TC” though breaking the law, which banned the poaching of sea eggs due to a scarcity of the delicacy for the past 10 years or so.

The two faced the court where they both pled guilty, but Eric was hit with a fine of BDS$5000 forthwith or 13 months in jail. As he could not come up with the fine he’ll have to serve 13 months in prison. This was indeed the second time Eric was caught or escaped being caught.

Anthony on the other hand was caught for the first time and was given a suspended sentence of one years’ probation no jail time, fine.

It should be noted that Mr. Anthony Standard is a white man and like in the Judicial Systems in place in the USA, Canada and many other racist societies, blacks are treated differently in the courts of Barbados. This is a double standard.

It should be noted that two brothers Edgar and Stephen Barrow who were also caught poaching Sea Eggs for the first time like some other first time Poachers were fined BDS$1000.

Why wasn’t Anthony Standard fined?

Is it because “Blacks don’t matter”?

Steve

Sea Egg photo courtesy of BarbadosPocketGuide.com

102 year old Harlem Cotton Club dancer sees herself on film for the first time

Have a little more respect the next time you see some old lady going to market. That old lady used to be a babe!

Had to post this. God bless Alice Barker and all the others who were unappreciated, used and cast aside by Hollywood and promoters for so many years.

Alice… If we’d have been born in the same time, I’d have followed you around like a little puppy dog.

Cliverton

Harlequin’s David Ames disobeys court order, fails to give evidence in court. What now for investors?

David Ames – Harlequin’s Ponzi King

TLW Solicitors are here to help on a no-win no-fee basis

contributed by TLW Solicitors

Following recent reports of the Harlequin Properties’ headquarters going up for sale and the company’s chairman David Ames failing to give evidence in court, those who have lost out financially through the scheme are assured that they may still be entitled to compensation.

The Harlequin Property company was set to build 6000 luxury properties in the Caribbean, financed by deposits from UK investors. With only 300 of the properties actually built and the Harlequin Group having gone into liquidation, thousands of investors have been left in debt.

Rip Off Britain

The BBC’s consumer affairs programme Rip Off Britain investigated Harlequin Property for a second time earlier this year, after an initial broadcast in 2010. Although some early investors had been able to claim back their money, the returning of more recent deposits has been ruled out by the company since it entered liquidation.

Around 3000 UK investors are thought to have been involved in the Harlequin investments scheme. Chairman David Ames blamed the problems on the 2008 global recession and claims to have been let down by developers.

Recent evidence suggests the Harlequin case has been flawed from the start, with suggestions that it never owned much of the land it intended to build properties on, and a business model that relied wholly on continued foreign investment. (BFP Editor’s note: It’s called a ‘Ponzi Scheme’. We’ll say it, even if TLW Solicitors won’t.)

Investigations into Harlequin hotels & resorts

Harlequin Property has been subject to an ongoing investigation by the SFO (Serious Fraud Office) since 2013 and two warnings by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). 

Airline Partnership opportunities gained, lost and possible

Adrian Loveridge – tourism expert, hotel owner

With any number of uncertainties there can be very few other businesses like airlines which present a constant indeterminate challenge.

It only seems a twinkle ago since massive controversy hit the media over the sale of the valuable Heathrow slots by the now defunct BWIA for what many felt was an under-valued GB Pounds 5 million to British Airways in 2006.

In 2011 the current Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister, Kamela Persad-Bissessar commissioned a forensic management audit which concluded that a fair market value for the slots then ranged from GB Pounds 23 million to GB Pounds 44 million in a report dated 8^th May 2012.

Then with a blaze of glory in 2012 it was announced the replacement Caribbean Airlines was going to return to London, but this time flying into Gatwick.

Last week according to AirwaysNews.com, Caribbean Airlines (CA) will return its Boeing 767 fleet to lessor ILFC (International Lease Finance Corporation) during the first quarter of 2016, axing the Gatwick route and these aircraft will join the Air Canada Rouge fleet soon after.

This year, the airline has already returned two Boeing 737-800 aircraft with two more that are set to go soon. This will reduce the fleet to twelve B737s while retaining all five ATR 72 equipment.

Since the re-birth of the carrier, it has been difficult to follow what if any substantial part they play in supplying airlift to Barbados, specifically for inbound tourism and I probably am not alone into thinking ‘we’ as a destination do not have the best of working relationships with them.

Can this be changed or improved on specific routes, perhaps with a Barbados/Fort Lauderdale service or would this further alienate the existing legacy and low cost airlines? 

Guns, guns and more guns… Welcome to the new Barbados

We’ve seen it bad before, but never this bad.

We’ve had shootings before, but never so many and never have we seen so many young people so casually willing to murder others. Or try to.

Folks shooting each other in the legs like that makes it okay. Guess these little wild animals never heard of the femoral artery – one little poke an a person bleeds out in two minutes if nothing is done. And considering how long it takes to get an ambulance to respond anywhere on this rock, my advice is to do everything you can to get the shooting victim to the Queen Elizabeth right away.

Way things are going, before they are taught to read the children should be taught to duck and cover, and after the shooting ends to apply pressure to the wound. Way things are going, learning how to apply a tourniquet early on is far more valuable than the three Rs… reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmatic.

What the hell is happening ’bout hey?

debajan has some thoughts…

I Gun Talk Straight!

ENOUGH. Let me start again. TOO MUCH!

The gun situation or more precisely the shooting situation is horrendous. When submachine guns turn up in Nelson Street, it gives deeper meaning to the term gung ho.

What is the seeming fascination with guns? A feeling of power? Needed for protection? Status symbol? Bloodlust? Imagine all of these in a single person. Whatever the reasons, recent history has brought even the loudest advocates of privacy, and individual rights to the point of volunteering to surrender some rights and be willing to submit to random stop and search in order to tackle the gun problem.

Quite frankly, I don’t care whether gun amnesty only nets a small fraction of illegal weapons. Try it. If increased police patrols only detect a small amount of crime, do them. If police are short of vans, have more foot, bike and segway patrols. Any and all of this would do more than having a station full of desk jockeys telling callers “We have no vehicle” or “The car has gone to a more serious matter” or “There are several reports ahead of yours” when the gunman who just broke into your home can still be seen halfway down your lane.

The criminals are bolder and more aggressive. They are also often more stupid. For a start, in believing that they are going to get away with their crimes. So we, the citizenry, have to be smarter – in the way we prevent, detect, report, prosecute and punish crime. Our response has to be that we will not let up. What are we going to do?

… continue reading I Gun Talk Straight at debajan

James Lynch – LIAT probably gone in less than two years

by James Lynch, former LIAT pilot extraordinaire! *

Recently when having discussions with my fellow Bajans, it has become clear that a few points need to be made.

First, LIAT has ALWAYS been based (Head Office) in Antigua, has NEVER been based (Head Office) in Barbados – no matter what the politicians may tell you. There has been a PILOT BASE in Barbados for decades – a pilot and flight attendant domicile, if you will – but not the registered “home”. Never has been. Never.

Second, airplanes are not tied to concrete foundations by rebar or galvanised water pipes. They are scheduled and flown wherever they are needed, and if you will insist on moving LIAT lock, stock and barrel to Barbados then you also need to clearly understand that you – yes, you, the taxpayer, you personally – will pay Froon, Fumble, Dumble, whatever we may call him now, several HUNDRED MILLION dollars more for the necessary new offices, hangars, facilities, etc., AND lose access to US Territories – Barbados is Category Two, and LIAT (Barbados) Limited will approach the US government as an African-class airline with ZERO safety rating.

You will also not get that many high-paying jobs – all of those are technical, licensed, experienced professionals and permanent employees such as pilots, engineers and mechanics who will just be relocated from Antigua to Barbados – all at YOUR expense. I suggest you start putting the brain in gear before you mash the pedal and burn more than rubber.

Third, having seen LIAT from the inside, I can tell you that Holder & Co are not the only thoroughly incompetent, irresponsible, unaccountable “employees” of LIAT… the airline is riddled with political appointees and incompetents of all stripes from all of the shareholder countries. Virtually NOBODY at LIAT is at risk of losing their job for screwing up, no matter what they do (within reason, of course). 

Dr. Karl Watson of Barbados National Trust “SHOCKED” by Sandals environmental damage

“In the short and medium run, tourism is really the only engine for our continued prosperity and economic growth. So, we welcome the Sandals development, however, I must say that having come down here this morning, I am a bit taken aback and shocked.

(snip)

Quite a number of mature trees have been felled and then I also see development on the way in the sea where a type of breakwater is being constructed, and I wonder whether the environmental impact assessment that aught to have been done for this project was really based soundly and on correct assessment, and whether the long term effects of both this type of deforestation, denuding of forest cover, exposure of the sandy layer, topsoil etc, or the creation of an artificial offshore reef; whether the future results of these developments have been thoroughly assessed.”

 

Can Barbados successfully tap the exploding Chinese tourism market?

Chinese tourists at Cricket World Cup 2007

Adrian Loveridge – tourism expert, hotel owner

The name Wang Jianlin may not resonate with you, but according to the South China Morning Post he is the richest man in China and recently announced plans to build the world’s biggest tourism enterprise which will overtake the current giant, Disney.

The chairman of the Wanda Group stated that his holding company will achieve an annual revenue of 100 billion Yuan (one Yuan currently equals .16 US Cents), attain annual net profits of US$10 billion and handle 200 million visitors by as early as 2020.

At this stage he has not ruled out entry into the aviation segment after China lifted a five year restrictions on applications for new airlines in 2013 ‘spawning a wave of privately owned start-up carriers’.

To even try and understand the exponential growth, Wanda’s in house travel agency revenue is expected to reach 10 billion Yuan this year, 20 billion by 2017 and 40 billion by 2020.

Last month Wang together with Tencent Holdings and Citic Capital led a US$967 million acquisition of ticketing website, Ly.com, which is currently the country’s third largest online travel site in terms of revenue generated.

The Wanda Group includes the ownership and/or management of over 70 luxury hotels, the world’s largest cinema operation, 110 plazas, 22 million square metres of leasable property, film and television production, substantial print media interests, art investment with total assets exceeding US$85 billion and spanning across four continents.

Code of Silence in effect over CL Financial Bailout

by Afra Raymond

Sad to say, this CL Financial bailout is resembling a situation in which well-connected persons are getting what they can, any way they can, but making sure not to get caught. Who were the beneficiaries of this lavish payout? What is this reluctance to release details?

That is the Code of Silence in effect.

I was not at all surprised at the reported statements of the Minister of Finance, Larry Howai, on the 22 July 2015 High Court judgment ordering him to provide the detailed information I had requested on the CL Financial bailout. The High Court granted a 28-day stay of execution and the Ministry is reportedly in consultation with its lawyers, claiming that “A decision will be made within the period of time allowed by the court,”. The article closed with this quote –

“…Finance Minister Larry Howai said in the statement it should be noted, none of the requests refer to “how over $25b was spent in the Clico bailout”…”

Given that the very request was for the detailed financial information which has been deliberately suppressed since 2009, it is of course impossible to say with any certainty just how much Public Money was actually spent on this CL Financial bailout. That is the inescapable fact at the center of this scandal. The Minister’s tautology is really a powerful explanation of this point.

The fundamentals are that Public Money must be managed and accounted for to a higher standard than that which applies to private money. That is the accepted position in terms of good practice in public administration. Larry Howai is a qualified accountant and was a career banker before his appointment as Minister of Finance & the Economy. I do not accept that Howai is unaware of these standards. We are entitled to a full and detailed accounting of how this vast sum of Public Money was spent…

… continue reading this article at Afra Raymond’s blog: CL Financial Bailout – The Hidden Truth

Pat Hoyos: Plasma gasification will bring economic and environmental disaster to Barbados

“The Government of Barbados has given up all of the country’s future rights to determine its waste to energy management to an unknown company, whose plan is to build a plant using highly dangerous technology that has failed in every attempt made so far to turn garbage into electricity.”

Welcome to Corruption Unlimited

“Barbados has given up all future rights to an Unknown Company…”

Oh yes my childrens… Gather ’round and I’ll spin you a tale of how each Barbados government for the last 30 years has promised to implement integrity legislation and conflict of interest standards, but never did. Never will without serious international pressure.

Owen Arthur promised integrity legislation, but never delivered. Then, on a politician’s salary, PM Owen Arthur donated US$150,000 in after tax dollars to a cricket charity! What a great man!

Then “Goin’ wid Owen” was caught putting campaign donations from corporations into his personal bank account!

No charges though because Barbados doesn’t care about corruption.

PM Thompson Says His Use Of CLICO’s Business Jet Is None Of Your Business

Then the next Prime Minister, David Thompson, through his law firm money laundered $3.3 Million Dollars for his friend Leroy Parris.

And David Thompson and the DLP promised Integrity Legislation.

But they never delivered.

Now Freundel Stuart says “Trust me, trust your government” about the garbage-to-electricity plant.

And Bajans are not allowed to know if any politicians have shares in the companies that will benefit from the Barbados Government contract. 

So… to all the Bajan politicians who aren’t standing up and demanding that the people be allowed to know who is profiting from government contracts… (Censored)

Take it away, Pat Hoyos…

THE HOYOS FILE: Tipping Cahill deal into the dumpster

YOU KNOW THAT A POLICY is dead on arrival when the usually accommodative local chamber of commerce breaks its silence to say so. That, to me, was the big game changer last week. 

Your Child Is Sick: Welcome To Barbados Queen Elizabeth Hospital

We had an email from a wife last week, crazy that her husband was not getting even the minimum proper care after surgery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

We’re not going to print her email because we don’t want to interfere with an ongoing situation. Instead, we bring you something we published back in 2007. From what we received last week, nothing has changed.

How disgusting it is that our elected and appointed representatives steal everything and leave family members to purchase medicine and dressings for their loved ones.

You would think that we were some African outpost. God DAMN the last 20 years of politicians who stole everything. When they get sick, they fly to Miami.

But we can’t…

Barbados Free Press

Dear Friends At Barbados Free Press,

I won’t give you the details because I don’t want any reprisals for writing you with the story of his “medical treatment” at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Please edit my letter and change the words so no one knows it is me that wrote to you. (editor’s note: done)

Every day I or one of the family stayed with my son and kept him clean and brought him food. This was necessary because of the lack of food, bad food when it came IF it came and the lack of trained nurses and supplies. Especially supplies.

None of the ward toilets where my son was had paper, none had soap or paper towels for drying. Everyone must bring their own.

I had to buy “Intrasite gel” for my son’s wounds because the hospital had none that they could give me after 3 days. This…

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Adrian Loveridge: No need for Barbados to be the world’s most expensive tourism destination

Lots of beaches, sand, surf, sky everywhere. Why should people pay most for Barbados? Maybe they should… but why?

“We have to either redress this reality or perception or risk losing more market share.”

Adrian Loveridge – tourism expert, hotel owner

With Sterling reaching an eight year high against the Euro, making most European countries dramatically less expensive as holiday destinations and the Canadian Dollar below 80 cents when compared with its southern neighbour, the pressure is on to making Barbados perceived as offering value-for money.

So when a Spanish based bank with a huge presence in the United Kingdom recently published the results of a survey entitled ‘Barbados Caribbean island is most expensive place to visit’ it should send a huge tidal wave of realism to our various tourism policymakers and planners that we have to either redress this reality or perception or risk losing more market share.

Santander UK currently serves more than 14 million active customers from 921 branches and 66 regional Corporate Business Centres in the United Kingdom. As of 31^st December 2014 it was the most switched-to-bank attracting 1 in 4 new retail accounts.

The survey, largely undertaken by Opinium Research/ONS Travel Trends 2014, stated ‘British people visiting Barbados will feel a particular nasty sting in their wallets this summer, having to fork out an average of GBPounds 109 a day in spending money – not including the cost of a hotel’.

Around the world Barbados was placed as No. 1 in a list of the ten most expensive countries for British people to visit based on average daily spend. Second was the United Arab Emirates.

Just as alarming, is that Santander concluded that the daily costs of visiting Barbados have risen from GBPounds 79 per day or nearly 38 per cent since 2010.

Currency trader illegally made US$300 million for UBS Swiss Bank – He goes to jail, the big-shots keep their jobs and bonuses!!

“But so far, no senior executives have been prosecuted in a scandal that helped shred public faith in an industry and has cost some of the world’s biggest banks and brokerages $9 billion in fines and seen 21 people charged…”

Oh my children; gather round and Daddy will tell you a story of how the world really works…

In 2006 Tom Hayes was an intelligent nice young man of 25 years old who loved the numbers of finance; so much so that UBS Swiss Bank hired him to be a yen derivatives trader for their Tokyo office.

And Tom did an excellent job for UBS – earning the Swiss bank over US$300 million dollars in three years and 45,000 trades. YIKES!

Excellent job except for one thing… Tom was conspiring with other people to rig the markets, and he sent out thousands of emails to do it.

Did his bosses know? Ha! Does cheese go well on toast?

Now Tom and a few other low level people will probably be going to jail.

But the bosses? Everything be so fine, just fine. UBS and Citigroup paid fines, but none of those bosses will go to jail or lose their jobs.

Children… this is the way the world is.

Same same in Barbados. Everywhere.

Say… do we have branches of UBS or Citigroup in Barbados? Really? Well…

Insight – How Libor whiz Rain Man became ‘the guy everyone was going to blame’

He was so obsessed with the numbers that he did not see his downfall coming.

The first trader convicted by a jury in the global Libor rate-rigging scandal was a maths whiz nicknamed “Rain Man”, who slept as an adult under a superhero duvet cover he had owned since he was eight. 

US Ambassador to Barbados, 2006: Owen Arthur’s sugar decision “defies logic and sours prudent budget”

Sugar is over, finished…

With the recent revelation that the Government-owned Barbados Agricultural Management Company left 1000 acres of cane to rot in the fields – and that our country’s total 2015 sugar harvest might not reach even 10,000 tonnes, BFP re-blogs this post.

It’s time to leave sugar behind. It is a deep, dark hole that sucks money and energy from this nation. None of our children will cut cane or pick cotton, and the cost of Barbados sugar production is the highest in the world.

It’s over folks. It’s over.

Almost ten years ago, BFP asked Prime Minister Owen Arthur about his plan for sugar…

Remind me… what was the Barbados government plan to replace the sugar revenues?

Oh ya… I remember now…

1/ Beg the Europeans for money – playing upon white man’s guilt.

2/ Sell the rest of the island to foreigners.

Ya… good plan, Owen!

Barbados Free Press

“Instead of pouring more money into sugar, the Government of Barbados would be better served letting the industry die a peaceful death, as St. Kitts did in 2005.”

“This massive investment in the sugar industry defies logic and sours an otherwise prudent budget.”

“Sugar is so intrinsic to their national identity, however, that Barbadian taxpayers apparently support this fiscal profligacy.”

Mary Kramer, US Ambassador to Barbados, January 27, 2006

WikiLeaks just released a massive new treasure trove of US Embassy Bridgetown previously secret cables.

We’re looking at many of them in our article WikiLeaks: Massive release of Barbados US Embassy documents. You can help too by going to WikiLeaks Embassy Bridgetownpage and digging in!

But we’re going to post this cable on its own because it makes for very interesting reading.

Considering our current economic situation, Barbados Labour Party supporters will jump right on this cable as vindication…

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