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TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS
November 12 - 18, 2011
NATIONAL
SIPT takes Varet ‘Jak’ Civre to court AFTER two years of TCI residents accusing the Special Investigations Prosecution Team (SIPT) of inaction while living large at the people’s expense, the group has finally charged and taken to court one man. Seventy-five year-old property tycoon and real estate professional Varet ‘Jak’ Civre was brought before Chief Magistrate Joan Joyner in the Providenciales Magistrates’ Court Thursday November 10, to answer charges of bribery. Attorney at Law Conrad Griffiths represented Civre and Mark Weekes represented the prosecution. Civre was arrested and charged on September 27 this year by SIPT and was granted a bond, or personal surety, in the sum of $36.35 million and instructed to make his first court appearance on November 10. His attorney Griffiths made a submission to Magistrate Joyner asking her to impose a new and reduced bail of $5m with Civre as his own surety, which Griffiths thought was appropriate. He informed the court that his client had signed the exorbitant bond imposed by SIPT in September since it was the eve of the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah, and Civre wanted to fly to the United States to celebrate with his family. However, now that he has returned to the TCI and made his first appearance in court, Civre is challenging the sum, deeming it grossly excessive and unreasonable. The attorney told the court of two other persons who were charged by SIPT and will likely appear in court alongside Civre, but they were granted notably smaller bail. He argued that the amount set by SIPT for his client is inappropriate
Prosecutor Mark Weekes
when compared to the $5,000 each that was granted to the other two persons, who remain unknown at this time. Those unnamed person are scheduled to make their first appearance in court on December 6. Griffiths told the court that his client is of good character and is not a flight risk since he has real and immovable assets in the TCI. The former Seven Stars owner was interviewed over a year ago in relation to the commission of enquiry in 2009. He was subsequently arrested six months ago and in addition to attending court voluntarily, has cooperated fully with SIPT in disclosing all of his assets. Magistrate Joyner adamantly refused to grant bail at a lower figure than the bond with the defendant being his own surety and suggested he find someone who would stand his bail for $10 million.
Published by Turks & Caicos News Company Ltd. Cheshire House, Leeward Highway, Providenciales P.O. Box 52, Turks & Caicos Islands, BWI W. Blythe Duncanson – Publisher/Editor-in-Chief Faizool Deo – Sports Samantha Dash-Rigby – Court Cord Garrido-Lowe – Graphics/Production Editor Dilletha Lightbourne-Williams – Office Manager Email: (Advertising) tcnews@tciway.tc, (News) tcweeklynews@yahoo.com, (Talk Back) tcweeklynews@gmail.com Tel. 649-946-4664 (office), 649-232-3508 (after hours) Website address: www.tcweeklynews.com
Griffiths suggested an alternative of a surety with $50,000 or $100,000 since it was unlikely that some one could be found to post $10 million bail. “That’s impossible,” he said. “I am never going to find someone with $10 million in net worth.” The lawyer further argued that during the many discussions he had with members of the SIPT, they never addressed whether Civre would stand his own bail or not, since they apparently did not deem that necessary. He reminded the magistrate she was not asked to decide whether Civre would be granted personal surety but whether his bail would be reduced. Magistrate Joyner reiterated that she would not consider a lower bail without a third party surety saying: “That is not how this court does it. It is written in stone”. In a document presented to Magistrate Joyner, SIPT stated that if the magistrate was minded to impose a new and reduced personal surety then it is requesting a special condition, being that Civre surrender his passport. Griffiths objected to this and pointed the magistrate to a document supplied by a doctor in London, which claimed that Civre must travel to Florida for medical attention. In addition, he wanted to be able to visit his wife along with his teenaged daughter who attends school in Florida, as well as his team of lawyers in London. The attorney rebutted the magistrate’s suggestion that Civre apply for his passport every time he wished to leave the TCI, citing that that will have a significantly negative impact on the elderly man. Both parties finally agreed on a reporting condition.
Varet Civre is considered one of the top experts in Marketing Science in Italy
Civre was granted bail on the continued surety of $36.35 million with a special condition that he must report to SIPT on Leeward Highway on December 5 and January 16, 2012 between 9am and 4pm. Civre was ordered to present himself in the Grand Turk Supreme Court on February 3, 2012 for a sufficiency hearing. SIPT comprises a group of British officials, led by renowned British Barrister, Helen Garlick, which was established to unravel a number of apparently fraudulent business transactions involving several property giants and five members of parliament in the former government, and bring criminal charges against them if warranted. The persons associated with the SIPT probe are former Premier Michael Misick, his Deputy, Floyd Hall, former Environment Minister, McAllister Hanchell, former Health Minister, Lillian Boyce, and former Housing Minister, Jeffrey Hall. Bribery and ‘lavish hospitality’ in return for favours are some of the allegations made against the parties involved. Civre was born in Turkey and holds an Italian passport. He is
the President and CEO of Sodalco Development Company Ltd and has been resident in the TCI since 1995. His charge of bribery stem from an allegation that a gift of $150,000 was made by the Seven Stars developer to former Deputy Premier Floyd Hall the day before the 2007 general election. The prosecution claim the money was: “purportedly as a campaign donation but which the Hon. Floyd Hall paid into the business account of his company, Paradigm”. Civre’s court appearance follows the November 03 arrest of a 47-yearold male former cabinet minister of the last government. Also, a 42-yearold female and former cabinet member was reportedly arrested on Monday, November 07. Additionally, Weekly News has received unconfirmed reports that another senior female within the previous government was set to be arrested on Thursday, November 10. It has been unofficially stated that a number of arrests of former officials and leading businesspersons – possibly as many as 20 – may be made within the next few days, with them all being dragged before the court next month.
Weekly paid public servants severance money doubled Governor Ric Todd on November 11, announced a number of changes to the recently launched public sector voluntary severance scheme, and foremost among them is a doubling of lump sum payment to weekly paid workers who volunteer to leave the job. The Governor’s office stated in a media release that these enhancements follow representations to the Interim Administration from a number of stakeholders, including the Civil Service Association.
The improvements are: • A doubling of the lump sum element of the voluntary severance terms for weekly paid workers from one to two weeks wages per year of service. • The deadline for weekly waged workers’ expressions of interest in the scheme has been extended by three days until midnight on Thursday, 17 November 2011. • Reducing to four years the limit on reemployment in the public
service, rather than a total ban. • Agreement that severance payments may, if the employee wishes, be paid in quarterly or monthly instalments. “I understand that this is a difficult time for all public servants,” said Governor Todd. “That is why I have listened to the feedback from several quarters and have introduced these improvements to ensure that we treat people as fairly and generously as we can through this turbulent time.”