A property magnate embroiled in a corruption inquiry that has plunged a Caribbean offshore tax haven into a constitutional crisis is leading a legal challenge to curb publication of a report on the affair.
Mario Hoffman, developer of the tiny paradise island of Salt Cay, is due to go to the Turks and Caicos Islands’ supreme court on Thursday 4th June 2009 to try to excise what he says are unfair criticisms. Along with other developers, Mr Hoffman fears that the criticisms will appear in a report sent to the Turks and Caicos governor this week by Sir Robin Auld, a senior English judge who headed the commission of inquiry.
Mr Hoffman argues that the inquiry went beyond its remit and demands that he should have a right to respond. It has been alleged that Mr Hoffman awarded shares in Salt Cay’s golf club in exchange for political favours. Mr Hoffman strongly denies the allegations claiming that the shares were awarded as part of legitimate business deals.
Salt Cay is part of a group of semi-autonomous British territories known colloquially as “pink dots on the map” and this lawsuit is the latest twist in an affair that has prompted London to threaten to seize political control. The British plan is being challenged in a court case brought in London by Michael Misick, the Turks’ former prime minister. He resigned in March after Sir Robin’s interim report recommended that the UK suspended the islands’ constitution because of evidence of “serious dishonesty”.
The inquiry was launched after British MPs expressed alarm about corruption allegations they heard while visiting the islands. Mr Misick has criticised London for flexing its “strong arm of modern day colonialism”.
Alex Milne, senior counsel to the inquiry, this year described alleged irregularities ranging from political donations and property deals to the use of Rolls-Royce cars and private jets. LisaRaye McCoy Misick – a US sitcom star and Mr Misick’s estranged wife – told the inquiry she used private jets for trips and spent up to $137,000 (£84,000) a month on clothes to support her “first lady lifestyle”.
The Turks and Caicos is just one of several British-linked tax havens whose governance is being questioned.
In Gibraltar, a panel of three retired senior English judges recommended the removal of Derek Schofield, chief justice, last year in the “interests of good governance” while Scotland Yard officers are investigating suspected official corruption in the Cayman Islands. Bermuda has been embroiled in a scandal over alleged fraud in its state housing corporation.
The British-linked tax havens argue that they have made big improvements to their regulations.
