By
Nathan ‘Jolly’ Green. July 27, 2020.

These
two laws shown just how serious a matter they are considered by the
Courts

Obtaining
pecuniary advantage by deception:

A person
who by any deception dishonestly obtains for himself or another
person or entity, any pecuniary advantage shall on conviction on
indictment be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five
years.

The
Theft Act:

(1) A
person who by any deception dishonestly obtains property belonging to
another, with intent to permanently depriving the other of it shall
on conviction on indictment be liable to imprisonment for a term not
exceeding ten years.

(2) For
the purposes of this section, a person is to be treated as obtaining
property if he obtains ownership, possession, or control of it and
'obtain' includes obtaining for another or enabling another to obtain
or to retain.

Regarding
the current Buccament deal. What I think we need to consider here is
if the action was taken by the Unity Labour Party Government of Saint
Vincent and the Grenadines, or if the work later described herein are
the effects of a few government ministers acting on their own accord.
We must also consider if an action at law will remedy what has taken
place and is about to be compounded.

Most of
what I now present is not accusing anyone of wrongdoing but is a
timeline or chronology of the facts, the historical past of
Buccament. Nothing is meant to infer or imply, expressly, or
otherwise that the people named or identified acted improperly or
illegally. I am not a judge or jury. I cannot say what is right or
wrong but do have personal opinions, which sometimes are wrong.

Ralph
Gonsalves and Dave Ames

Buccament
Bay Resort came about by the government accepting a developer without
carrying out proper due diligence on the main parties involved in
developing and building Buccament Bay Resort. The man David Ames
carried out a massive fraud on those investing in the resort. Those
investors were mainly British retirees who wanted to buy into a
complex to spend their holidays at and get an income from and to own
an individual villa at the resort.

At
one-point, Ames used members of the SVG Government and the prime
minister’s wife to convince a large group of British investors to
invest in Buccament. I doubt Mrs Eloise Gonsalves or the others from
SVG had any idea at the time that the investors would be defrauded
and lose their retirement nest egg, and in some cases their life
savings.

On July
13th and 14th, 2009, the Grove Luxury Hotel in Watford, England, was
filled with about 2,500 actual and potential investors, tourism
marketing and travel agency executives and government officials for
Harlequin Hotels and Resorts grand launch of three of their resorts.
See the video within the article link below

But what
made things worse for the situation is when Mrs Gonsalves got paid
what some describe as a large sum of money to design the interior and
supply the furnishings to the show house models on the site.
Questions were asked about when was that contract agreed upon?
Because it looked very much like it was linked to the deal of
Harlequin acquiring the land from the government. Of course, we
cannot say it was because that is not our place to guess about. What
I can tell you, shortly after finishing the show home fit-outs, Dave
Ames had it all ripped out and refurnished without further input from
Mrs Gonsalves. So, the expensive show homes fit-outs and furnishings
were discarded.

In
February 2013 BBC reporters alleged Dave Ames of Harlequin and
Buccament Bay resort had bribed Ralph Gonsalves. Naturally, as could
be expected, Gonsalves denied the allegations.

Gonsalves
never sued the BBC, and no litigation ensued, it died a death.

Vincentians
were shellshocked and horrified that their beloved and respected
Prime Minister could have such allegations made against him.

Ralph
Gonsalves then blamed the opposition party NDP’s chairman and
president, Arnhim Eustace for telling the BBC the story about
bribery. The Honourable Mr Eustace denied such accusations and
publicly called Gonsalves a liar.

Opposition
Leader Arnhim Eustace said he had instructed his lawyers to demand an
apology from Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves over statements he
made on a radio programme earlier this month.

Eustace,
speaking on the radio, said that his attorneys were also instructed
to file a lawsuit seeking damages if Prime Minister Gonsalves, an
attorney, refuses to apologise.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/St-Vincent-opposition-leader-threatens-PM-with-lawsuit

2013,
December 25, Buccament: Buccament Bay Resort is built in and on an
ancient flood plain. On this day, the Buccament River flooded, and
members of staff drowned.

In the picture Ricky Small cries for the loss of his dear wife Josselle whose life was taken by the raging waters at Buccament Resort.

Read the
commentaries at -

https://www.iwnsvg.com/2014/04/26/were-buccament-flood-deaths-murder-by-governmental-neglect/

2016,
Buccament Bay Resort Harlequin Hotels and Resorts’ Buccament Bay
closed to guests and the public on December 14, 2016. A spokesman
said fewer than 40 guests were staying at the 195-property resort at
the time. Interim Receiver appointed.

https://www.travelweekly.co.uk/articles/64491/harlequin-property-to-enter-interim-receivership-as-buccament-bay-resort-closed

In 2019,
Kelly Glass and his consortium tried to put a deal together with KPMG
the receivers, and that fell through due to the complexity of the
ownership situation. A court protection order has protected some of
the villa’s freeholds. Several different people own the property,
buildings, and land. No one could get an agreement with them all at
once.

Now in
July 2020 PM Ralph Gonsalves announces he has now acquired all the
property and the government is currently holding it as one unit which
enables him to sell it unencumbered. He has entered a contract to
sell it to Sandals.

https://www.iwnsvg.com/2020/07/23/govt-owns-buccament-resort-property-for-now/

What is
really worrying is that Gonsalves has said that he has come to
agreement with some of the creditors and others have a year to make a
claim. But the claim will be against the government of SVG, there
will be no claims against Sandals because they have a clear clean
title. So, the property has been moved sideways and SVG is
responsible for any future claims, is that an acceptable risk?
Because if SVG did nothing they would not have any risk.

Gonsalves
has not said so, but I believe the only way he can do this deal is
via a series of compulsory purchase orders. The problem is that the
Act for Compulsory Purchase is not designed to put together a deal to
sell a resort and surrounding lands to a resort developer and owner.

The Act
is primarily to be used to acquire land for public use and to be
owned by the government, such as roads, road widening, public-owned
airport like Argyle.

I am now
asking the Prime Minister Dr Ralph E Gonsalves, have you used
compulsory Purchase to do this deal?

Adam
Stewart said that in January 2020, he and his father and Camillo and
Ralph met in Miami “and put this deal more or less together”.
Does that clarify that the property was not offered on the open
market? Was this then a negotiated deal between Butch Stewart and his
son, and Ralph Gonsalves and his son. Was this once again Gonsalves
acting alone with no government oversite.

Getting
away from that, here is my problem. Suppose the land and property at
Buccament is now being sold free of encumbrances and claims. Has it
since been advertised for sale to all qualifiable comers, has it been
offered publicly, internationally? Because it has never been offered
before unencumbered, this is a new deal and may interest several
prospective buyers. But a contract has been pre negotiated with
Sandals, which may well give them a pecuniary advantage over the
different groups, individual owners, and other qualified resort
owners who remain uninformed of the availability of the now
unencumbered resort. Taken from the hands of the Receiver, bought by
the government of SVG, and sold by the government to Sandals Ralph
Gonsalves and Butch Stewart

without
giving any other party the opportunity of offering or bidding on the
deal, it does not sound right to me.

Can it
be in the best interest of all the creditors, and those with a legal
call on payment from the sale of the resort? Are they getting the
best payment possible?

My mind
is taken to the Rotarians four-way test:

Is it
the truth?

Is it
fair to all concerned?

Will it
build goodwill and better friendships?

Will it
be beneficial to all concerned?

It has
nothing to do whether it is a good deal for SVG, SVG holds no
investment in the property, hundreds of British citizens do, and they
were robbed from the start. I hope none of them are being robbed at
the finish.

Any loss
to SVG was caused by the original deal with Dave Ames who turned out
to be something other than what we expected. Ralph Gonsalves granted
him and his family citizenship in SVG, the same Vincentian
nationality Gonsalves keeps telling us is not for sale at any price.
If only due diligences were properly carried out on Dave Ames, SVG
would not be owed money for the NIS, VINLEC, VAT, or for anything
else, and hundreds of old folks would not have been robbed. Under the
receivership rules the government would have got nothing because
there will be insufficient funds. What is important under the
Gonsalves deal, does the government get paid and in doing so water
down what is due to preferential creditors?

Gonsalves
is a brilliant orator and can sell snow to Eskimos. It will be
fascinating to see the full deal, the structure, and if any of the
parties involved in the ownership have an advantage over anyone else.

We know
that Vincentian landowner Mr Bernard Punnett and his sister owns much
of the site; what they get cannot be dictated to, they are in the
most influential position. I doubt they are part of any compulsory
acquisition.

So, in
finishing -

We have
only been told the briefest details about the Buccament Bay Resort
deal. The rest we must guess and stab about in the dark. Like all
these matters half stories, half-truths, and lack of transparency,
has been a problem from the very beginning. Then having to rely on
what we are told by a man that is known to tell lies.

But we
must also remember, and never forget, the resort at Buccament is
built in and on an ancient flood plain. Despite a river protection
wall having been built by Harlequin prior to the flooding, when it
flooded last in December 25, 2013, several resort employees were
drowned. It can flood again, and it will, as it has done for millions
of years. Ralph Gonsalves knows that, I hope he told the Stewarts
before they signed the contract, unless there is a buyer beware
clause. Because SVG may just be inline for more litigation, but this
time with serious people.

Hence is this an SVG Government deal or not? Is it ultra vires, fraudulent or illegal?

END

IMAGES: Supplied by author

DISCLAMER: The opinion, belief and viewpoint expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinion, belief and viewpoint of iNews Cayman/ieyenews.com or official policies of iNews Cayman/ieyenews.com