Criminal investigation called for into failed Turks and Caicos bank Some four years after it collapsed, the failure of the TCI Bank in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) has still not been fully investigated and the latest call for a criminal investigation into the matter has been made by David Kosoy, chairman and chief executive of the Bahamas-based Sterling Financial Group, who made several attempts to purchase the bank prior to it going into receivership. Also prompting renewed public scrutiny of the circumstances that led to the banks collapse are recent revelations that the bank made some $36.5 million in bad loans and 56 parcels of Crown land were purchased using money borrowed from the bank by un-creditworthy individuals, who are now in default and could have their property repossessed by the banks liquidators. As a result of poor lending and management policies, the bank ran into solvency problems within five years of operations and closed its doors in April 2010, taking down with it money belonging to some 4,000 small depositors and $23.5 million in pension funds contributed by way of deposits and purchase of stock by the National Insurance Board (NIB). Then CEO of the NIB, Trevor Cooke, who is now the national chairman of the ruling Progressive National Party (PNP), initially moved $18.5 million of pension fund assets into the TCI Bank. In early 2010, when the bank was known to be experiencing liquidity problems, another $5 million, to be treated as a priority charge on the banks assets in the event of liquidation, was deposited by the NIB in a last ditch effort to save the bank. However, although this attempted rescue was not widely known at the time except to the banks board, then Governor Gordon Wetherell and NIB officials including Cooke and then chairman Erwin Quelch, three large depositors were apparently tipped off as to the banks temporary liquidity and withdrew in excess of the $5 million bailout, leaving the bank in worse shape than it had been, leading to its immediate closure. The identity of the three depositors has never been revealed. The inexplicable decision by the NIB to invest pension funds in such a high risk entity is belied by Quelchs pronouncement shortly before the bank collapsed that the NIB has a primary and fundamental duty and obligation to protect, enhance or mitigate against any potential losses to the NIB fund for the benefit of its thousands of stakeholders. In the meantime, former NIB director and CEO Cooke has been recently reappointed as a board member of the NIB and current chair Lillian Misick at the time took exception to a comment attributed to her in relation to Cookes re-appointment. Misick was quoted by a local newspaper as saying that Cookes many years experience with the organization and his corporate memory will be helpful in moving the NIB forward. Article published: May 07, 2014 by caribbeannewsnow Ian Thomas Billy Langaigne - Sigh - reminds you of a bank collapse anywhere? The more things change, the more things stay the same.
Posted on: Thu, 08 May 2014 13:43:43 +0000
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