MICHAEL MISICK REARRESTED IN BRAZIL
Former Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands Michael Misick was re-arrested by Brazilian Federal Police late in the evening of Saturday 13th April 2013 in Sao Paulo, Brazil on the authority Slot Gacor of a Brazilian Supreme Court judgement, according to Governor’s spokesman Neil Smith.
Smith said that on Monday 15th April 2013, the Brazilian Justice Minister issued his decision to refuse Michael Misick’s appeal against a decision not to grant him political https://www.nailsalonhilliard.com/ asylum. The decision was published on Tuesday 16 April in the Brazilian Official Gazette.
Misick was first arrested on 7th https://www.herbalpremium.net/ December 2012 by Brazilian Federal Police acting on a provisional arrest warrant. Arrest was sought by the TCI Special Investigation and Prosecution Team (set up to investigate issues arising from Sir Robin Auld’s 2008-09 Commission of Inquiry).
TCI prosecutors submitted formal extradition papers on Monday 28 January 2013 within the required 60 day time limit from the time of Michael Misick’s arrest. It is hoped that the extradition process can now proceed unhindered.
Smith said in the press release that https://drakortv.org/ Misick faces a number of serious charges relating to corruption and maladministration in TCI during his time in office.
“ It is in the best interests of the TCI that allegations of wrong doing are thoroughly investigated and that Michael Misick returns there as soon as possible to answer these charges. As Michael Misick was born in a British Overseas https://www.tipsgameandroid.com/ Territory, he is, therefore, receiving British Consular Assistance; he was last visited by British consular officials on Monday 15 April in Sao Paulo,” Smith added.
“UPDATE ON SIPT CASES
Published Sun TCI on 15th April 2013
The Special Investigation and Prosecution Team (SIPT) on Monday April 15th dropped all criminal charges against Samuel “Sammy” Been after he reached an agreement with them and the Attorney General’s Chambers to give up a portion of his commercial building, the Sammy Been Plaza, on Airport Road, Providenciales. The value of the settlement is approximately $850,000.
Developer Richard Padgett has agreed to plead guilty to various charges including bribery on May 31st, 2013. Because he is medically unfit to travel to the Turks and Caicos Islands, Padgett will make his plea by way of video link from the Central London Court at 10 a.m. on that date.
SIPT Prosecutor Andrew Mitchell, QC, said if Padgett is sentenced to jail, provision will be made the have him serve his prison term in England and Wales.
The SIPT cases which were heard before Mr. Justice Paul Harrison, have been adjourned until September 16th, 2013.”
Attorney general settles with Samuel Been, prosecution discontinued
Published on April 16, 2013
Attorney General Huw Shepheard said on Monday that he has agreed to settle civil recovery proceedings brought against Samuel Been, one of the defendants facing criminal charges as part of the inquiries pursued by the special investigation and prosecution team (SIPT).
Samuel Been
“At the same time criminal proceedings against him for an offence of conspiracy to defraud and acquiring the proceeds of criminal conduct, contrary to s29 Proceeds of Crime Ordinance 1998 will be discontinued,” Shepheard said in a statement.
The settlement will result in the transfer to the TCI government of property owned by Been at Sammy Been Plaza, Providenciales, valued at $825,000, he added.
Been is the former husband of Lillian Boyce, a former minister in the previous Progressive National Party (PNP) government, who has also been charged with criminal offences in relation to government corruption.
It had recently been rumoured locally that Been would escape prosecution by agreeing to give evidence against his co-defendants.
Britain targets banks in Cayman and British Virgin Islands
Published on April 16, 2013
By Caribbean News Now contributor
LONDON, England — Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne is reportedly finalising measures Agen Sbobet to clamp down on two Caribbean tax havens.
Under tough anti-evasion measures being drawn up by the Treasury, banks in the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands will be forced to reveal details about customers suspected of hiding money offshore.
The Caribbean islands are among the world’s main offshore financial centres. More than one Agen Sbobet million offshore companies are registered in the British Virgin Islands alone, even though the total population is just 30,000.
“The places you can hide are getting smaller and smaller,” Osborne said at the weekend at the European finance ministers’ summit in Dublin.
“We are in advanced stages of discussion [with the two territories]. They are in no doubt about what we expect,” he added.
Osborne’s remarks drew an Agen Sbobet immediate reaction from Cayman Islands Stock Exchange Chairman, Anthony Travers.
According to Travers, if the UK recovery is dependent on revenues from Osborne’s tax crackdown on Caribbean financial centres, then he is in for a rude awakening.
Travers said, “I am deeply Sbobet88 troubled that the meritless attacks on the Overseas Territories by [Austrian Finance Minister Maria] Fekter appear to be gaining traction. Furthermore, there seems to be no contrary assertion from the UK government and the chancellor as to the true position .This is in neither of our interests, as in turn it seems to me to leave the City open to further Franco-German attack by association. But this is an attack based on mischaracterization.
“A cursory review of the publically available statistics under the European Saving Directive which established fully transparent proactive tax reporting shows bank deposits in Cayman of EU Agen Sbobet residents of a statistically irrelevant US$25 million,” he pointed out.
“The correct answer to Ms Fekter should have been that the Overseas Territories already demonstrate full tax transparency .Given that HMRC already has full treaty access to Cayman accounts for UK tax purposes, the provisions of FATCA are simply duplicative, wholly unnecessary and will raise no additional revenue,” Travers added.
He went on to say that it has not escaped his notice that Osborne has also attacked the British Virgin Islands, which has similar tax transparency with the UK and the USA.
“He should know that the BVI has Situs IDN Poker an extensive network of some twenty one tax information exchange agreements providing for complete tax transparency notably to HMRC and the IRS; that they are concluding the FATCA negotiation with the UK, and the US and that they are considering moving to proactive reporting with the EU under the Directive,” he said.
He pointed out that the Cayman Islands, as well as the BVI and Bermuda, regard tax evasion as firmly off the table but yet they are continually labeled tax havens, a term that has become synonymous with illegality and wrongdoing.
“Our measures in Cayman far exceed the tax transparency available in Austria (and many other places, including the US) and yet we find no rebuttal from Chancellor Osborne, rather Poker Online the contrary. One can only gaze in awe at the misinformation being promoted by a UK chancellor and wonder why he appears willing to assist the French and Germans in their avowed quest to irretrievably damage The City of London’s global dominance,” Travers concluded.
Meanwhile, in a letter on Sunday to the editor of Britain’s Daily Mirror newspaper, BVI Premier Dr Orlando Smith responded to an article published on Saturday, headlined “Margaret Thatcher the tax snatcher?”
The article claimed that Thatcher’s £6 million (US$9 million) London townhouse is owned by a BVI company, which could have been a scheme that would help her estate avoid millions in inheritance tax.
John Christensen, of the Tax Justice Network, said: “How can a former prime minister spend more than two decades living in a house in London that has been owned for many years by a company based in the British Virgin Islands? We all have a duty to pay our taxes, and that includes former politicians.”
However, Smith said that the article makes the classic error of assuming that the use of an offshore structure is in some way improper for UK tax purposes or that some unauthorised benefit is obtained.
“That is simply an unsound assumption. The fact that HMRC has clear avenues to obtain all tax information from the BVI should in fact lead your correspondent to the contrary conclusion; that offshore structuring in the Overseas Territories is correct and within the law,” Smith said.
“The legitimate use of transparent offshore financial centres needs to be better understood by your journalists,” he concluded.
Governor marks Grand Turk hospital third anniversary
Published on April 15, 2013
On Wednesday, Governor Ric Todd visited the Cockburn Town Medical Centre in Grand Turk to mark the third anniversary of his predecessor, Gordon Wetherell, officially opening the facility three years ago.
The governor was accompanied throughout his visit by Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) government permanent secretary in the ministry of health, Desiree Lewis. They were joined on their visit by director of health services, Dr Nadia Astwood, InterHealth’s CEO Jill Magri, Cockburn Town Medical Center hospital administrator Dr Denise Braithwaite, engineer Donald Wilson and internist Dr Ravindra.
Todd heard how over the past three years the hospital has treated: 86,810 accident and emergency visits; 5,914 inpatient admissions; 141,375 outpatient visit; 1,462 inpatient and 1,948 day surgeries.
Some of the benefits and improvements of the new hospital over its predecessor include:
• The cost of overseas treatment has fallen from $60m to $10m each year.
• The ability to deliver local orthopedic services with an in-house surgeon, reducing overseas costs; as well as oncology services and reconstructive plastic surgery services.
• An improved international reputation – the hospital was quoted in a major meeting in Trinidad and Tobago last summer as an example of excellence, and awarded Diamond Accreditation by Accreditation Canada.
• A first class diagnostics service, enabling better diagnosis and, where patient required overseas transfer, the provision of clinical information / images essential for the receiving centre. There was no on-island radiologist or pathologist prior to the opening of the hospital.
• Development of locally provided urology services using the skills of a UK trained practitioner with a strong regional reputation.
• High patient satisfaction levels.
• The hospitals’ teleconference capabilities support Ministry of Health work between the TCI islands.
“While the challenges of the cost of healthcare provision are a challenge to governments all over the world, today was an occasion to pause and reflect on how much healthcare has improved here in the TCI in recent times,” said Todd. “What I saw today were happy, satisfied patients and caring, hard working health professionals doing a great job.”
Lewis also explained to the governor the TCI government’s plans for the development of long term care and hospice facilities, which would release the Wellness Centre, located on the site of the previous hospital, to be developed for other uses such as psychiatry. Other developments under discussion include: expanding ophthalmology, mammography, echocardiography, neurophysiology, blood donor and transfusion facilities as well as looking to build a medical tourism offering.
Turks and Caicos still has one of lowest crime rates in region, says police commissioner
Published on April 15, 2013,Caribbean News Now
PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos Islands — Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force Commissioner Colin Farquhar has stated that the TCI still has one of the lowest crime rates in the region and has excellent success in solving crimes.
The territory recently had a spike in violent crime that was quickly countered with investigative and https://www.datdut.com/ patrol initiatives, which that had very positive affects in reducing crime.
Two high profile cases that received international attention have been successfully investigated and resulted in suspects being charged and remanded until June 7, 2013, at which time they will appear in the Supreme Court for a sufficiency hearing.
Various other investigations have led to crimes being detected in a matter of a few short days.
The commissioner acknowledged officers for their tireless efforts and for utilising sound police investigative strategies in apprehending the alleged suspects responsible for the crimes. He also thanked the community, businesses, and government for their assistance and support.
“It is realised that strong partnerships are imperative to ensuring a safe and secure society for our citizens as well as our visitors. The recent successes can be attributed to this,” Farquhar said.
The commissioner nevertheless stressed that residents and visitors must continue to exercise proper precautions and have an awareness of their surroundings, as it is recognised that there are still individuals who will take advantage of situations and persons to further their criminal enterprise.
The police will be initiating a program to work closer with hotel security officers, managers and other tourism related personnel on crime prevention. This is an addition to other special initiatives already in place, which have had positive outcomes.
Margaret Thatcher
The lady who changed the world
Apr 8th 2013, by Economist.com
ONLY a handful of peace-time politicians can claim to have changed the world. Margaret Thatcher, who died this morning, was one. She transformed not just her own Conservative Party, but the whole of British politics. Her enthusiasm for privatisation launched a global revolution and her willingness to stand up to tyranny helped to bring an end to the Soviet Union. Winston Churchill won a war, but he never created an “ism”.
The essence of Thatcherism was to oppose the status quo and bet on freedom—odd, since as a prim control freak, she was in some ways the embodiment of conservatism. She thought nations could become great only if individuals were set free. Her struggles had a theme: the right of individuals to run their own lives, as free as possible from the micromanagement of the state.
In Britain her battles with the left—especially the miners—gave her a reputation as a blue-rinse Boadicea. But she was just as willing to clobber her own side, sidelining old-fashioned Tory “wets” and unleashing her creed on conservative strongholds, notably the “big bang” in the City of London. Many of her pithiest putdowns were directed towards her own side: “U turn if you want to”, she told the Conservatives as unemployment passed 2m, “The lady’s not for turning.”
Paradoxes abound. Mrs Thatcher was a true Blue Tory who marginalised the Tory Party for a generation. The Tories ceased to be a national party, retreating to the south and the suburbs and all but dying off in Scotland, Wales and the northern cities. Tony Blair profited more from the Thatcher revolution than John Major, her successor: with the trade unions emasculated and the left discredited, he was able to remodel his party and sell it triumphantly to Middle England. His huge majority in 1997 ushered in 13 years of New Labour rule.
Yet her achievements cannot be gainsaid. She reversed what her mentor, Keith Joseph, liked to call “the ratchet effect”, whereby the state was rewarded for its failures with yet more power. With the brief exception of the emergency measures taken in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007-08, there have been no moves to renationalise industries or to resume a policy of picking winners. Thanks to her, the centre of gravity of British politics moved dramatically to the right. The New Labourites of the 1990s concluded that they could rescue the Labour Party from ruin only by adopting the central tenets of Thatcherism. “The presumption should be that economic activity is best left to the private sector,” declared Mr Blair. Neither he nor his successors would dream of reverting to the days of nationalisation and unfettered union power.
On the world stage, too, Mrs Thatcher continues to cast a long shadow. Her combination of ideological certainty and global prominence ensured that Britain played a role in the collapse of the Soviet Union that was disproportionate to its weight in the world. Mrs Thatcher was the first British politician since Winston Churchill to be taken seriously by the leaders of all the major powers. She was a heroine to opposition politicians in eastern Europe. Her willingness to stand shoulder to shoulder with “dear Ronnie” to block Soviet expansionism helped to promote new thinking in the Kremlin. But her insistence that Mikhail Gorbachev was a man with whom the West could do business also helped to end the cold war.
The post-communist countries embraced her revolution heartily: by 1996 Russia had privatised some 18,000 industrial enterprises. India dismantled the licence Raj—a legacy of British Fabianism—and unleashed a cavalcade of successful companies. Across Latin America governments embraced market liberalisation. Whether they managed well or badly, all of them looked to the British example.
But today, the pendulum is swinging dangerously away from the principles Mrs Thatcher espoused. In most of the rich world, the state’s share of the economy has grown sharply in recent years. Regulations—excessive, as well as necessary—are tying up the private sector. Businessmen are under scrutiny as they have not been for 30 years. Demonstrators protest against the very existence of the banking industry. And with the rise of China, state control, not economic liberalism, is being hailed as a model for emerging countries.
For a world in desperate need of growth, this is the wrong direction to head in. Europe will never thrive until it frees up its markets. America will throttle its recovery unless it avoids over-regulation. China will not sustain its success unless it starts to liberalise. This is a crucial time to hang on to Margaret Thatcher’s central perception—that for countries to flourish, people need to push back against the advance of the state. What the world needs now is more Thatcherism, not less.
Gord Henderson, The Windsor Star
| Apr 06, 2013 | Last Updated: Apr 06, 2013
Canadians, proud but perennially shivering occupants of the Great Northern Meat Locker, must have been suffering from chilblains of the brain when we chose to look the other way while an opportunity to claim a hot and juicy slice of paradise was dangled under our drippy noses.
It boggles the mind, seeing the Turks and Caicos Islands for the first time from the window of a Brazilian-built Air Canada jet, looking down on a riot of blues, greens, turquoises and pastels, to think we let this 40-island splash of sand, sun and serenity in the Atlantic south of the Bahamas slip away when it coveted an intimate relationship with Canada that could have included vows of marriage.
Seriously? We let this suitor go without even trying? In nixing an engagement with TCI, as the locals call it, we doomed ourselves as a polar nation to forever being the polite paying guests in someone else’s tropical retreat because we lacked the chutzpah to seal the deal on our own place in the sun.
A lot of folks have never heard of the British Overseas Territory known as Turks and Caicos Islands. That might explain why mail bound for island businesses sometimes ends up in Istanbul, Turkey. But for Canadians who enjoy a bit of history, the tiny island chain, population a mere 32,000, is a curious case of what might have been if only an unassuming Canada had been willing to extend its reach beyond the 10 provinces and three northern territories.
Canada did have visionaries who saw the possibilities. Sir Robert Borden, the PM on our $100 bill, tried to persuade Great Britain at the end of the First World War to place some of its Western Hemisphere possessions, including the Turks and Caicos Islands, in Canada’s loving care. His proposal was given the brush-off by British prime minister Lloyd George at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference where triumphant global powers were busy sowing the seeds for the next world war.
And then there was Max. In 1974 Max Saltsman, an RCAF veteran and New Democratic MP for the Waterloo region, introduced a private member’s bill calling for Canada to annex a more than willing Turks and Caicos Islands.
His proposal, sadly, never made it to a vote. Critics dismissed it as a hare-brained idea, inconsistent with Canada’s high-minded stand against colonialism during the Pierre Trudeau years – even with as many as 90 per cent of islanders in favour of some kind of association with Canada. Fears were also expressed that the island chain, as Canadian territory, could become an open door for illegal immigration from the Caribbean. Other federal politicians took up the cause over the years. And yet it never goes beyond chatter.
Some would say that’s a good thing, given the difficulties the Turks and Caicos has faced in recent years. A longtime sleepy backwater, it experienced dazzling growth in the early 2000s, especially on the main island of Providenciales which became a leading destination for jet-setters and celebrities, creating a construction boom in upscale hotel/condo towers, shops and restaurants. The place looks more like South Florida than the Caribbean.
That’s history. The boom came to a screeching halt with the Great Recession and the end of good times and easy money. The cranes are gone, along with thousands of imported construction workers. The business headlines say it all. The Economist: “Paradise Interrupted.” The Independent: “An Economic Free-for-all that veiled a culture of corruption.” And this from the Caribbean Centre for Money and Finance: “Turks and Caicos Economy in Meltdown – Paradise Suspended.”
In 2009, appalled by reports of massive government corruption, the British government reasserted direct control over the essentially bankrupt colony and has been footing the bill for basic government services while it tries to have the former premier extradited from Brazil to face corruption charges.
In other words, it’s a right royal mess. Not that your average visitor would notice. Tourists continue to pour in, enticed by 350 days of warm sunshine annually and by 12 km of glittering white sand on Grace Bay, repeatedly listed as the world’s best beach. The island is too rocky and arid to be pretty. But the beaches, reefs and restaurants? In a league of their own.
Here’s the strange thing. Canada, officially, has never climbed in bed with Turks and Caicos. On the ground, it’s a different story. A Canadian company provides the power. The hospital is Canadian operated. The two most senior police officials (on loan) are former RCMP officers. Canadians own and operate hotels, restaurants and recreation and adventure companies. The head of the real estate board is a Canadian.
It doesn’t show on a map. There are no boasting rights. But we’ve slipped in and quietly made ourselves right at home. I suppose that’s the Canadian way.
British PM urged to act over British Virgin Islands
Published on April 6, 2013
Road Town, British Virgin Islands. Wikimedia/Captain-tucker
By Caribbean News Now contributor
LONDON, England — Britain’s prime minister David Cameron has come under pressure to act against the secretive offshore industry at June’s G8 summit, as leaked evidence continued to mount that politicians and tycoons from all over the world have used the British Virgin Islands to hide funds.
The premier of Georgia, Bidzina Ivanishvili, was the latest to be named, along with prominent Pakistani, Indian, Thai and Indonesian figures – while there was fresh evidence of Britons acting as front directors for companies based in offshore havens such as the BVI, the Guardian newspaper reported.
A senior Liberal Democrat figure said the leaks showed the secret haven of the BVI “stains the face of Britain”, as anti-corruption campaigners called for action.
“How can David Cameron keep a straight face calling for the G8 to make big business pay tax when we let the BVI use British law and British protection to suck in billions in dirty money?” said Lord Oakeshott, a former Treasury spokesman.
“How much British aid paid to corrupt countries like Pakistan ends up behind a BVI brass plate?” he asked.
Robert Palmer of the campaign group Global Witness repeated the call for Cameron to act, saying, “The massive cache of leaked documents demonstrates how hidden ownership of shell companies facilitates corruption, tax dodging and other crimes.”
He added, “The time to deal with this issue is now. Given that he has pledged to tackle these secretive shell companies at this year’s G8 summit in Northern Ireland, he and his fellow leaders must commit to publishing information on the people who ultimately control and own companies.”
The names of thousands of owners of secret offshore companies are currently being published by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), in collaboration with the Guardian and other international media.
This follows the leak to ICIJ of a hard drive containing 200GB of internal files of offshore incorporation agencies in the BVI, Singapore and the Cook Islands.
Grand Turk Cruise Centre to re-open April 8
Published on April 5, 2013
The Turks and Caicos Tourist Board has announced that cruise ship calls to the Grand Turk Cruise Centre will commence on April 8, 2013.
The Board, which has been working in close collaboration with all the relevant stakeholders as well as the local public health department, said it is confident that all measures have been taken to ensure the health and safety of visitors.
The cruise sector, which accounts for a majority of visitors to the Turks and Caicos Islands, is a vital cog in the tourism industry of Grand Turk and the Board said it is cognizant of the impact that the cancellation of cruise ship visits may have exerted on the businesses and residents of the Island.
Ralph Higgs, Director of the Turks and Caicos Tourist Board
Commenting, Ralph Higgs, director of the Turks and Caicos Tourist Board, said, “Throughout this situation, we continued an open dialogue with the most senior executives involved in the ports operation. We understand the severity of the impact of the cancellation of cruise ship visits not only to the local business community of Grand Turk but to those guests who have selected to visit our shores via cruise line. Moving forward, the government feels confident that all the appropriate measures are in place and that Grand Turk will continue to provide the vacation opportunity of a lifetime to our visiting guests.”
