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VOLUME:115 No.62, FEBRUARY 20TH, 2018

THE PEOPLE’S PAPER: $1

HEALTH: HIV - THE DEADLY GAME SWEETHEARTS PLAY

Gunned down as they played cards Residents deny Pinewood victims linked to drugs

By MORGAN ADDERLEY Tribune Staff Reporter madderley@tribunemedia.net PINEWOOD Gardens residents have been left shocked and in fear following the weekend shooting spree which left two people dead and four injured.

According to residents, who did not want to be named for fear of retribution, the two men shot dead on Friday night were riddled by a hail of bullets while they were playing a game of cards and were not involved in drugs.

As they come to grips with the “senseless” violence, those who live in the community told The

Tribune they are afraid to loiter outside their homes or drive through certain streets at night.

According to police, the first of two shootings in the area occurred shortly after 8pm Friday. A group of men were gathered under a car port at a residence on Saffron Street in Pinewood Gardens when two men armed with firearms drove up to the home on a scooter.

Three men were shot.

One was confirmed dead on the scene while the other two were taken to hospital, where a second man later died.

SEE PAGE SEVEN

HEALTH officials will recommend to Cabinet that a sin tax be imposed to pay for National Health Insurance, possibly impacting the cost of items like alcohol, tobacco, lard and substances containing high-fructose corn syrup, Health Minister Dr Duane Sands said yesterday.

He stressed Cabinet has not agreed to this position yet and he reiterated

his long-held view that NHI cannot succeed unless Bahamians make sacrifices to support it.

“Certainly from (the Ministry of) Health, we feel so strongly about this that we are going to make the case that some of these things that are harming the lives and the health of Bahamians ought to at least be used to contribute to addressing the damage that is being created,” he said.

SEE PAGE FIVE

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE multi-billion dollar Oban Energies project for East Grand Bahama has passed the government’s due diligence assessments, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis and officials of the oil refinery and storage company said yesterday.

A heads of agreement between the government and the developers was signed at the Office of the Prime Minister, though the agreement will not be disclosed to the public until it is tabled in the House of Assembly tomorrow.

Asked what criteria the company was required to satisfy prior to the negotiation of the heads of agreement, Dr Minnis did not provide much details but said the Bahamas Investment Authority (BIA) performed its due diligence work.

SEE PAGE SIX

TRUMP’S BAHAMAS PICK SAYS: I’M SORRY

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net

‘SIN TAX’ SACRIFICE NEEDED TO FUND NHI

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

REFINERY PROJECT GOOD TO GO

A BODY is taken from the scene in Pinewood Gardens on Friday.

Photo: Terrel W. Carey/Tribune Staff

DOUGLAS Manchester, the billionaire and real estate developer who was nominated by US President Donald Trump for the post of Bahamas ambassador, has issued an apology after accusations of having an unsettling management style that allegedly made some female employees uncomfortable.

The allegations date back to a time when Mr Manchester owned The San Diego Union-Tribune Television, a now defunct TV station he launched as owner of the Union-Tribune newspaper from late 2011 to 2015, according to international news reports.

SEE PAGE NINE

COB CLERK GUILTY OF $640K THEFT

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

FORMER College of the Bahamas employee Chimeka Gibbs was unanimously convicted by a Supreme Court jury yesterday for stealing over $600,000 from the college over a seven-year period.

The nine-member jury returned a 9-0 guilty verdict on all 24 counts Gibbs was charged with: eight

CHIMEKA GIBBS of stealing by reason of employment and 16 of falsification of accounts, concerning her actions between 2008 and 2015.

Justice Cheryl GrantThompson said Gibbs

will be sentenced on Friday. Gibbs, whose bail was revoked when the jury left to deliberate on a verdict, was remanded into custody until that time.

Yesterday marked the end of the trial for Gibbs, who was charged with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars between March 2008 and October 2015 while serving as an employee at COB.

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

SEE PAGE SIX

FACE TO FACE WITH THE MAYOR OF FOX HILL

SEE PAGE EIGHT

PAGE 2, Tuesday, February 20, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

DNA BREAKTHROUGH SHOWS TAINO LIVED ON AFTER COLUMBUS

PREACHER’s Cave in Eleuthera.

AN international team of scientists, led by Dr Hannes Schroeder and Professor Eske Willerslev from the University of Copenhagen, successfully reconstructed the full genome of a Lucayan-Taino individual from a thousand-year-old tooth discovered at Preacher’s Cave on Eleuthera.

Previous attempts to extract DNA from other samples from archaeological sites across the Caribbean had limited success because of the poor preservation conditions common throughout the tropics, a press released from researchers noted.

The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The results indicate that the Lucayan-Taino ancestry can be traced to northern South America. The researchers also found evidence that the Taino, the first indigenous Americans to feel the full impact of European colonisation after Columbus arrived in the New World, still have living descendants in the Caribbean today.

The tooth Dr Schroeder and his colleagues used to reconstruct the genome was discovered by an archaeological team directed by historian Dr Jane S Day of Research Atlantica Inc under the field direction of Robert S Carr, director of the Archaeological and Historical Conservancy, and identified by bioarchaeologist Dr William Shaffer of Phoenix College. The tooth was recovered in 2007 as part of an extensive study of Preacher’s

Cave, a Bahamian cave used for shelter by the Eleutheran Adventurers, the first English colonists in The Bahamas, who were shipwrecked on north Eleuthera in 1648.

The archaeological team was surprised to discover intact Lucayan-Taino graves within metres of the Eleutheran Adventurers’ cemetery. The project was carried out with a permit and support from the Antiquities, Monuments & Museum Corporation (AMMC), and funded by the Ministry of Tourism working toward the goal of establishing Preachers Cave as a National Heritage Tourism Park. The picturesque cave is a protected archaeological site that will enhance tourism on Eleuthera and The Bahamas.

Researchers were able to use this tooth to sequence the first complete ancient human genome from the Caribbean. The individual studied was a woman who lived between the 8th and 10th centuries, at least five hundred years before Columbus made landfall in The Bahamas. The results provide unprecedented insights into the genetic makeup of the LucayanTaino. This includes the first clear evidence that there has been some degree of continuity between indigenous peoples of the Caribbean and some contemporary communities living in the region today, despite the devastating effects of European colonisation. Such a link had previously been suggested

by other studies based on modern DNA. None of these, however, was able to draw on the ancient genome. The new research finally provides concrete proof that indigenous ancestry in the region has survived through to the present day.

Crucially, researchers found that the Native American component in the genomes of contemporary Puerto Ricans corresponds more closely to the ancient Lucayan-Taino genome than that of any other indigenous group in the Americas. However, they argue that this characteristic is unlikely to be exclusive to Puerto Ricans alone and are convinced that future studies will reveal similar genetic legacies in other Caribbean communities. In Eleuthera, Dr Day and Mr Carr collected numerous oral histories that suggest some residents of The Current are descended from the Lucayan-Taino.

The researchers were also able to trace the genetic origins of the indigenous Caribbean islanders, showing that they were most closely related to Arawakan-speaking groups who live in parts of northern South America today. This suggests that the origins of at least some of the population can be traced back to the Amazon and Orinoco Basins, where Arawakan languages developed, confirming existing arguments based on archaeological evidence of Taino migrations from South America northward through the Antilles.

THE TRIBUNE

Tuesday, February 20, 2018, PAGE 3

Passenger suffers broken arm as car and jitney collide POLICE are investigating the circumstances behind a traffic accident involving a jitney and another car, which left a female passenger of the car with injuries.

According to reports, the jitney, route 11, collided with a Honda Accord on Sunday on Fox Hill Road.

The passenger of that vehicle was treated for a broken arm and later released.

Video of the aftermath of the accident was posted on Facebook, showing an injured woman, who appeared barely conscious in a wrecked car.

Persons on the scene argued with the jitney driver, who had passengers in his bus, and was seen in the video looking at the injured woman before apologising for the accident.

Assistant Superintendent Craig Stubbs, officerin-charge of the Traffic Division, said police are investigating Sunday’s incident and that the driver was helping in the investigation.

The incident raised new questions about the jitney sector and its safety.

Despite this, the government is still expected to wait-out the results of its pilot project for a unified busing system before

amending any policy or procedure associated with the industry.

In an interview with The Tribune yesterday, Minister of Transport Frankie Campbell said that now was not the time for a “systematic” knee-jerk reaction.

He stressed that while the circumstances surrounding Sunday’s incident were unfortunate, officials needed to “stay the course” in their attempts to construct the ideal system for public transportation moving forward.

Yesterday, the Southern Shores MP insisted the government had not relented in its efforts to provide the public with the safest and most reliable public transportation system possible, as he recommitted the Minnis administration to achieving the compendium of road traffic mandates they presented upon coming to office.

“We have not overlooked what we committed ourselves to doing,” Mr Campbell said.

“I, like so many others in the public, am bothered by what happened (Sunday).

But we are pressing forward with the pilot project and will see it through with the best plan possible,” he added.

Campbell said the

government has made strides in the right direction, and expects a workable plan to be generated in the coming weeks.

The proposed unification of the public bus system is part of the New Providence Road Improvement Programme (NPRIP), funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which also involved the upgrading of the island’s road network.

A $530,000 pilot project will demonstrate how the busing scheme will work, in an effort to boost the island’s “economic efficiency and sustainability”.

The Minnis administration has announced plans to establish a unified busing system - fuelled by smart technology - as part of a plan to improve the transportation network within the Bahamas.

An IDB paper, obtained

by Tribune Business in the early part of last year, revealed that little progress towards practical jitney/bus industry reform has been made despite numerous reports and studies being presented to the government, some of which date back to 1992.

According to the IDB, around 280 buses serve the Bahamian people on 23 different routes.

THE CRASH as seen in a video circulating on social media.

LAWYER CLAIMS SHOTGUN IN COURT NOT ONE IN VIDEO

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

THE murder and armed robbery trial of three men – Paul Belizaire, Devaughn Hall, and Kevin Dames - continued on Monday in the Supreme Court in Grand Bahama.

Geoffrey Farquharson, lawyer for one of the accused men, continued his cross-examination of the lead detective who defended his handling of the investigation into the September 2015 shooting deaths of a couple in Deadman’s Reef, West Grand Bahama.

Barry Johnson and his wife, Sheena, were discovered shot dead at their triplex apartment on September 12, 2015. They had been robbed of a set of keys and their GMC truck.

Det Sgt 772 Lorenzo Johnson was asked about a shotgun which was recovered by police and presented as evidence in court as one of the weapons used by a suspect in connection with the case.

Mr Farquharson suggested the shotgun in court was not the one seen in the surveillance video footage of the armed robbery and

GEOFFREY FARQUHARSON murder, and was recovered from another armed robbery investigation in Freeport in which Sgt Johnson had also been involved.

Sgt Johnson denied the assertion, saying he played a minor role in the other case and was acting on instructions of another officer who was the lead detective in the Freeport case.

“What steps did you take to assure that the shotgun brought in here was not the

WORKER CLEANING CEMENT MIXER DIES AS IT TURNS ON A MAN died in hospital shortly after being injured during an industrial accident at a hardware store, police said.

Shortly after 2pm Monday, two male employees of a block plant located at a hardware store on Wulff Road were cleaning

the inside of a cement mixing machine when it was reported “it automatically turned on”, police said.

One of the men was seriously injured and taken to hospital by ambulance, where he later died.

Investigations are continuing.

CORRECTION IN an article published on February 14, under the headline ‘Mother Left Distraught at Son’s Death,’ it was incorrectly reported that the mother of a man killed in a traffic accident

in Freeport was Lenora Gibson.

The mother’s name is Mabel Gibson of Hudson Estates.

The Tribune apologises for the error.

shotgun in that case?” Mr Farquharson asked.

Det Johnson said the shotgun had a serial number which he had written in his report, but Mr Farquharson put it to him that photographs taken by police of the weapon show

the serial number had been removed.

The lawyer then pointed out the shotgun in Deadman’s Reef had a strap attached to it, whereas the one in court did not have a strap.

The witness insisted it was the shotgun in question and suggested the weapon was sent to the ballistics lab in New Providence.

“The shotgun shown in the video does not resemble or look like the one in court – the straps are black in the photographs taken by police, but it is a different colour in the video,” Mr Farquharson said, suggesting it looked white or light beige.

The video surveillance footage shown in court was black and white. Sgt Johnson answered that he could not tell what colour it was from looking at the video.

Mr Farquharson stated the question arising from the shotgun’s appearance, serial number and the missing strap is a contradiction to the weapon presented as

evidence in the court.

He described it as the “height of slackness”.

He then questioned the detective about his investigations into the whereabouts of co-defendant Virgil Hall on the night of the murders.

He and Allan Alcime were among five men charged in the case, but both accepted a plea deal to testify as witnesses for the Crown. Murder charges were subsequently dismissed against the pair. The two were convicted of the armed robbery, and now are serving time in prison.

Mr Farquharson asked the witness if he had made an attempt to find out whether Hall had lived in Grand Bahama or Grand Cay at the time of the murders.

Det Johnson said Virgil Hall lived between his mother’s residence in Freeport, and Pinedale, Eight Mile Rock. But he stated Hall told him he lived in Eight Mile Rock.

“You never did any independent checks of

your own instead of taking Virgil Hall’s word about whether he was in Grand Cay or Grand Bahama on September 12, 2015? Mr Farquharson asked, who noted that Virgil Hall was arrested in Grand Cay following the murders.

The witness said Virgil Hall must have gone to Grand Cay afterward because he was at the murder scene in Deadman’s Reef the night of murders.

The lawyer then asked: “Did you ask officer Edgecombe (who was stationed in Grand Cay) how long Virgil Hall was living in Grand Cay?” Sgt Johnson said he would have asked the officer but could not recall what his answer was.

Virgil Hall and Alcime had testified they both were with Devaughn Hall and Paul Belizaire in Deadman’s Reef the night of the murders. They also testified Kevin Dames had dropped them off in the Deadman Reef area that night.

The trial continues.

PAGE 4, Tuesday, February 20, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

The Tribune Limited NULLIUS ADDICTUS JURARE IN VERBA MAGISTRI “Being Bound to Swear to The Dogmas of No Master”

LEON E. H. DUPUCH,

SIR ETIENNE DUPUCH,

jrolle@tribunemedia.net

Publisher/Editor 1903-1914 Kt., O.B.E., K.M., K.C.S.G., (Hon.) LL.D., D.Litt .

Publisher/Editor 1919-1972 Contributing Editor 1972-1991

EILEEN DUPUCH CARRON,

C.M.G., M.S., B.A., LL.B. Publisher/Editor 1972-

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Imagination is first step to ‘fixing’ Grand Bahama POWERFUL images of hundreds of hopefuls lined up for a governmentled job fair in Grand Bahama over the weekend delivered an unmistakable message. Grand Bahama is hurting. A once-thriving tourism-based economy is spiralling downward while the industrial component, largely owned by foreign interests, provides a semi-steadying base, deflecting from the general crumbling of much that made Grand Bahama a star in a 60s and 70s galaxy.

With fewer hotel rooms available and few cruise ship calls, new job openings are scarce and hard fought-for. Many homeowners are struggling, living in fear of foreclosure. Retail, transportation providers, attractions are all feeling the brunt. A large shipyard, a locally owned brewery, medical practices, government offices, an upscale boutique hotel and some rentals have become the economic stalwarts.

The full impact of Grand Bahama’s troubled economy was visible in the faces of those who waited up to six hours in the broiling sun for a chance to get a job. It is little wonder the government has made “fixing” Grand Bahama a top priority.

But in its rush to make Grand Bahama whole and vibrant again, government must be careful. Major announcements of multi-million or billion dollar deals promising hundreds of jobs may sound like manna from heaven. Excitement over a proposed oil refinery was so great the first press release sent out by Bahamas Information Services following last week’s announcement - that a Heads of Agreement would be signed with Oban Energies in days - called it a $400 billion dollar deal. That was later corrected to $4 billion and later increased to $5.5 billion as if the news of a shot in the arm of Grand Bahama’s sagging economy was enough to throw everything into a tailspin.

The question of whether or not an oil refinery with all the inherent risks is a good plan for Grand Bahama is a legitimate one though not what we believe needs to be addressed with utmost priority.

Our fear for Grand Bahama is that once again we are doing exactly what we have always done and if we do we will get the same results we always got. What we have always done and are about to do again is to sit back awaiting a moneyladen saviour to come strolling through the door with a business plan, and wishfully enough funds and integrity, to complete whatever they say they plan to do. Those plans come with our agreeing to concessions to make their investment more attractive though the lion’s share of the returns they earn will be shipped back to wherever they came from.

The real solution does not lie in

searching for the investor who comes strolling through the door with mega plans, bearing gifts of gilded promises known as jobs. The real solution is using imagination and innovation to create a vision for Grand Bahama that builds on what makes that island in the northern Bahamas unique and what will sustain it long-term with as little harmful impact on the environment as possible. Then the investor may be local or foreign but the size of the project will be appropriate, and could be as small as a boutique hotel or as large as a regional hospitality training centre.

The long-term potential of Grand Bahama lies in areas including medical and sports tourism, in digital currency services and e-commerce development, in shipbuilding and in the green, blue and brown economies. Brown, for anyone not familiar, is the relatively new term for salvaging abandoned buildings and converting the formerly used into the presently functional and attractive.

In sports tourism alone, Grand Bahama could find its footing and excel.

Flat terrain makes it ideal for a number of related activities, including spring training grounds for pro baseball and/ or year-round training for swimming, diving, gymnastics, track and basketball teams and individuals. Its four golf courses could be upgraded to become outstanding world-renowned courses with new clubhouses and imaginative tournaments. Imagine a tennis academy or combination tennis, golf and academics. Each of those activities requires housing and ancillary services from food to medical attention.

Grand Bahama’s panacea does not lie in a pre-packaged deal wrapped in ribbons of jobs.

It lies in long-term solutions that only imagination and innovation can create, develop and sell, solutions that begin by looking at the island’s USP, Unique Selling Point. Grand Bahama has several – its proximity to the US, its strong infrastructure, its deep water harbour, its 80 miles of coastline and waters, its affordable housing thanks in large part to a flat economy that has kept prices relatively low.

Grand Bahama also has an excellent reputation in education.

These are the kind of areas our leaders should be looking at to carve out the kind of living community that is not dependent on players so large they can make or break the economy, running the risk of sweeping in on a wave of promises and departing in the dead of night, leaving a trail of heartbreak and disappointment.

So long as imagination is alive, Grand Bahama has a very great chance to live up to its name.

Is Oban deal all it seems?

EDITOR, The Tribune.

GOVERNMENT transparency in how Government is doing business was one of the big election issues for the FNM - remember all the noise almost blaspheming that went on over the privacy of the Agreements on Baha Mar and The Pointe now two projects which the FNM - Minnis/D’Aguilar have taken as theirs and never speak bad about them.

This OBAN ENERGIES refinery project - the sole word to describe the FNM process is stealth - it is totally unacceptable that Minnis will sign a MOU this Monday and we the public know absolutely nothing.

Location - all we know east Grand Bahama. Has BEST approved?

Principals?

Google

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net search comes up with some surprises, not good ones, especially when it certainly seems to indicate Oban might not have all the experience that Minnis talks about.

What happened to the acquiring of the old Hess refinery in St Croix which the same principals were directly involved in?

Through Monarch Energies they didn’t even qualify for the Liquidators, Lizards of NY to include them for the bidding process. Are they qualified? Which refinery have they operated? Environment - nothing - has an EIA been done? Now remember election was May 2017 we are not even at nine-months since then.

Transparency - the FNM in Opposition screamed against the PlP the public needs to know - hmm things change it seems when the FNM are in office.

Town Planning - has this even been applied for? When was the hearing? Were residents in the immediate area of East GB advised and could they give their input? A refinery affects public health safety – the air the residents breathe. Employment – Minnis stop fooling us – to construct a refinery you need highly trained welders –- the Grand Bahama Shipyard can’t find them and they bring them in from Europe and Peru – nothing will change ‘OOO’s of foreign workers.

W THOMPSON Nassau, February 17, 2018.

Show your Back to the true self same old EDITOR, The Tribune.

THE events that transpired in the House of Assembly on February 7th are well documented.

The outburst by the Member for MICAL Miriam Emmanuel have been played thousand of times and sent viral on social media.

WhatsApp and Facebook was inundated with audio recordings of the actual comments, so it is foolish for anyone to misconstrue what was said.

All Bahamians FNM, PLP DNA and XYZ have and are still expressing their disgust and disappointment

in what both she and the Speaker said. FNM MPs, in camera, are livid. No. one can dilute what was said.

No attempt to use me as s whipping boy will succeed, because Bahamians from all walks of life are sick to their stomach.

But coward “Whistleblower” who seems to hide behind the protection of those who would hide them, decided to attack this writer.

The whole Bahamas knows who I am. I am bold, unafraid, and consistently drawing attention to various issues. I offer my opinion of which I stand by and am entitled to.

But the Whistleblower, who lacks courage is not courageous to come from behind the curtain and show his/her face. Unmask yourself, stop throwing stones and hiding under the floor, face the music.

Cowards hide, but for at least forty years I have and always will sign my name like the man I am.

To the “whistleblower” I say this, I fear Jesus Christ Only, all others are powder puff.

Stand up!

IVOINE INGRAHAM Nassau, February 14, 2018.

W.

EDITOR, The Tribune.

ON May 10, 2017, many Bahamians forgot party loyalty as they voted for a change in government, a step they felt was needed for the good of the country.

A change was in order they thought, and, given various promises made by the new government it was felt that a change would come.

During the ensuing months some disillusionment had set in , but it was argued that “it was early days” and the new group “should be given a chance”.

However, events in Parliament last week have led many to believe that we are being faced with the “same

old same old” as it seemed the anticipated change was seriously sidetracked. A week before The Prime Minister was speaking tolerance in his address to the nation and this was followed by the most blatant example of intolerance by utterances made by the House Speaker and the member for MICAL. Just as his colleagues remained silent or giggled when Leslie Miller made his now infamous speech about women and beatings by their husbands or lovers , the House Speaker’s colleagues acted likewise as he went on a tirade which will forever blight the history of the

Bahamian parliament.

This continued when the Member for MICAL made her unfortunate remarks concerning wife beating, and her pathetic attempt at an apology did little to stifle the indignation encompassing the community.

It is a pity that the framers of the constitution did not think of an instrument like the Chiltern Hundreds in Britain so that the Speaker and the Honorable Member could make a somewhat dignified exit from the halls of parliament where they so obviously do not belong.

JEANNE THOMPSON Nassau, February 12, 2018.

THE TRIBUNE

Tuesday, February 20, 2018, PAGE 5

‘Sin tax’ sacrifice needed to fund NHI from page one “So, high-fructose corn syrup, grease, call it fat, lard whatever, shouldn’t be cheap and other items, alcohol, cigarettes, which have contributed in a mighty way to the illnesses and injuries of Bahamians, they should not get a free pass.”

In the early days of NHI’s conception, when the former Christie administration relied on the advice of consultants Sanigest Internacional, a sin tax was among the proposals identified as a way to fund NHI. Sanigest suggested in a report that a payroll tax ranging from one per cent to five per cent could be imposed; it identified a sin tax on alcohol and tobacco as another option; and it said a tax on auto insurance premiums could be another possibility.

Ultimately, the Christie administration insisted no new tax would be imposed, at least in the early stages of the programme, arguing to do otherwise would undermine the purpose of NHI. Nonetheless, Dr Sands revealed yesterday that health officials will also recommend a way to make the National Drug Prescription Plan sustainable. The plan was established in 2009 to improve access to prescription drugs and medical supplies in public and private pharmacies for chronic disease patients.

Dr Sands said: “While

we have not had a Cabinet conclusion, we’ve had discussions that suggest there needs to be a sustainable funding mechanism which could include sin taxes (on) alcohol, tobacco, fat or grease, as well as the possibility of a contribution not only towards NHI, but also towards the continued sustained approach to the National Prescription Drug Plan. As you know the National Prescription Drug Plan had been funded through the medical arm of the (National Insurance Board). And although it has been phenomenally successful, there was no long-term funding strategy and that point would’ve been raised a number of times by the previous minister responsible for NIB, Shane Gibson.”

Last year, Dr Sands said the NHI Authority (NHIA) and other stakeholders would relaunch NHI by the end of 2017. In so doing, he said they would answer critical questions like how the scheme will be funded and what model will be implemented.

Yesterday he expressed some disappointment that NHI has not progressed as quickly as he would have liked.

He said: “I would like it to happen as quickly as possible but it has been a stepwise approach to dealing with this.”

The legal concerns the NHIA board has about the substantial work it met in place has also not been

completely addressed, Dr Sands admitted.

“They are operating with the assurance as (previously) mentioned of the general position of the Attorney General’s Office,” he said. He was referring to the Office of the Attorney General’s legal opinion that the NHI programme cannot be reformed unless the contractual arrangements board members met in place are directly addressed. The NHI Secretariat, established by the Christie administration, executed contracts

DR DUANE SANDS MP with NHI providers before without it. the NHIA board was “Not making any apoloappointed and before vari- gies for the Attorney ous parts of the NHIA General’s Office, but they Act had come into force. have not been able to give Although observers in the us the final position within insurance industry said this the timeline that we had means the NHI Secretari- hoped,” Dr Sands said yesat’s actions were unlawful terday. “They’re obviously and should not be ratified, dealing with other matters the Office of the Attorney that their office might feel General has taken another is slightly more of a priority. view. The NHIA board, I speak of the immigration however, has yet to receive matters and others that have the written report contain- consumed a lot of resources ing that legal advice, and the of the AG’s Office. And board appears unwilling to we’re not entirely overmake certain key decisions whelmed with that reality

but we got to push on.”

Nonetheless, Dr Sands noted the NHIA board recently announced the appointment of a managing director for the authority, Graham Whitmarsh, and has done “a tremendous amount of work to…put together the rudiments of a working plan.”

“I’m also disappointed,” he said, “and I’d like to be further along, but I can assure there has been a tremendous amount of effort being made by the appointed board.”

FIVE IN HOSPITAL AFTER STABBING AT FREEPORT NIGHTCLUB

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

A STABBING at a nightclub in Freeport left five men in hospital, police said.

The incident occurred around midnight Sunday when several men had an argument.

Supt Walter Henderson

said the men were examined by doctors at the Rand Memorial Hospital who reported their injuries as serious. Police have taken several persons into custody who are assisting with the investigation.

Grand Bahama police are also investigating a traffic accident that left a teen

hospitalised with serious injuries.

Supt Henderson said an 18-year-old male resident of Hepburn Town, Eight Mile Rock is listed in critical condition following an accident that occurred on Sunday in the Deadman’s Reef area.

Shortly after 8pm police responded to a report of

HUNT FOR ARMED ROBBERS AFTER SERIES OF RAIDS POLICE are looking for the suspects responsible for three armed robberies which occurred in New Providence over a 24-hour period.

In the first incident, shortly after noon on Sunday, two armed men entered KFC located in the Golden Gates Shopping Centre, held employees at bay and robbed the establishment of an

undetermined about of cash before running away.

In the second Incident, shortly after 2am yesterday, a woman was driving on Sapodilla Boulevard in Pinewood Gardens when two men, one armed with a firearm, ran into the road causing her to stop. The man stole her pink Nissan March, licence number AK8524, and other items, before the two suspects sped off.

In the third and final incident, shortly after 3am Monday a man was standing near his vehicle in the Golden Gates Shopping Centre, when he was approached by two men armed with firearms, who robbed him of cash and jewellery. The men escaped in the victim’s blue 2011 Dodge Jeep. Investigations into these matters are continuing.

an accident on Queen’s Highway involving a grey coloured Saturn sedan with two occupants. The driver reportedly lost control of the vehicle which went off the road and overturned.

The victim was taken

by EMS personnel to the Rand Memorial Hospital where he was detained.

No. 1

in the UK for Value-added (The Guardian, 2017)

The passenger sustained only minor injuries. Police are investigating the incident.

Police also said two men were arrested after they were found with dangerous drugs in their possession over the weekend.

Police were on patrol in the area of Yorkshire Drive in South Bahamia, when

they stopped and searched a vehicle with two male occupants. On searching the car, officers allegedly discovered 2.4 pounds of suspected marijuana with an estimated street value of $2,500.

The men are expected to be formally charged in the Freeport Magistrate’s Court this week.

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PAGE 6, Tuesday, February 20, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

Grand Bahama refinery project good to go from page one “(The BIA) would’ve done financial assessments to ensure funding is there and that (Oban) can complete the project,” he said. “We would insist the environmental impact assessment and environmental management plan are done to ensure complete safety of each and every Bahamian as well as the environment.”

Critics have questioned whether the project can produce 600 jobs when completed, as touted by officials. Buckeye Partners, an oil storage facility in Grand Bahama with greater storage capacity than what Oban Energies plans to create, employs fewer than 200 people, by contrast.

“I read in the paper this morning,” Dr Minnis said, “some concern about the number of jobs. If you listen very carefully, the oil or

PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis, left, with Peter Krieger, executive director of Oban Energies.

Photo: Yontalay Bowe/OPM Media Services storage facilities in Grand and refining and hence the different products to those customers.”

Bahama now, Buckeye, increase in jobs.”

Likewise, Peter Krieger, Mr Krieger said it is are mainly concerned with storage. You’ll notice this executive director of the hoped that construction (project) is both storage company, said the Oban on the $4.5 billion project Energies project is more will begin by the end of the ambitious than what is cur- year, within 30 days after rently offered by companies building permits are given. like Buckeye Partners and The Progressive LibStatoil. eral Party has questioned “The refinery is a major whether Oban Energies has asset that differentiates adequate funding to exeus from either Buckeye cute the project. The former or the Statoil facility,” Mr Ingraham administration Krieger said. “This allows is said to have been conus to process crude oil and cerned about this when a refine them. It opens up a proposal for the project was market much larger than before that administration. just storage and the storMr Krieger, however, said age support needed for millions have already been the refinery is quite signifi- spent to assure stakeholdcant so it allows us to have ers the project is viable. a much more diversified “We have all of our group of customers that we financing in place,” he said. will be serving and it allows “We’ve already spent a sigus to offer a lot more nificant amount of money,

Death Notice Ellen Dianne Pritchard, 62

many millions of dollars in preconstruction to this stage. We’ve done our geo-technical work, our engineering work, our environmental survey, marine engineering work, we’ve already made a significant investment. However, in order to move forward with the banks, we need to deliver certain deliverables such as our approvals from the government, our permits and everything. Once we have delivered all that and there is a project to actually fund, at that point we will start drawing down on the money from the bank. All of that is there and waiting for us. We just have to go through the normal process that every financial institution would require you to go through before they allow you to access those funds.”

Mr Krieger also dismissed criticism that the environmental impact assessment for the project should have been completed and available for public assessment by now, given the company has been seeking the approval of the Bahamas government for some years now across several administrations.

Noting he hopes the EIA will be completed in 45 days, he said: “We’re actually ahead of the curve on that I would say. Typically, the environmental study, engineering and other preconstruction works would begin after you have your approval so that you know there is a project. Because our conversations with government have been

so positive, we decided to take the first step forward by engaging with the engineers. We probably have about two dozen local vendors currently working on the job for the preconstruction. We wanted to be proactive and get ahead of the curve.”

Mr Krieger also revealed that as part of the project, housing will be provided for up to 200 local residents post-construction.

“The housing programme won’t just house workers during the construction phase,” he said. He added that 80 per cent of jobs in the company will be preserved for Bahamians, and numerous training opportunities will be available as well.

The housing community will be “between ten and 20 miles away from the facility,” he said.

Oban Energies will develop its project in phases, with the first stage to feature construction of four million barrels of crude storage; a harbour; and deep-sea loading dock to service large vessels. A 50,000 barrel per day refinery will also be built. The group, which says it has more than 30 years’ experience in constructing large energy-related infrastructure projects, will build a 20 million barrel liquid bulk storage facility and a 250,000 barrel per day refinery.

East Grand Bahama MP and Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest has said the project will be a gamechanger for his island.

COB CLERK GUILTY OF $640K THEFT of Sea Breeze Estates, Nassau, The Bahamas, died at her residence on Wednesday, 14th February, 2018.

Funeral arrangements to be announced.

Arrangements by Kemp’s Funeral Home Limited.

from page one

According to court documents, Gibbs served as both a senior clerk and a human resources assistant at the college.

The jury was told Gibbs stole over $600,000 from

COB by reason of her employment at the institution. The jurors were also told Gibbs falsified numerous COB direct deposit files, the result of which purported to show she was entitled to over $200,000 in salary payments.

According to the evidence given at trial, Gibbs accomplished the latter feat by manipulating the information contained on certain documents to be submitted to the Bank of the Bahamas on behalf of COB. As a result, Gibbs received up to $13,000 over and above her monthly net salary of $2,395 between 2008 and 2015. In total, Gibbs paid herself $640,000 extra between those seven years to various bank accounts at Commonwealth Bank, Scotiabank FirstCaribbean International Bank and the Royal Bank of Canada.

Yesterday, Gibbs’ attorney Roger Gomez Jr said his client was nothing but a “scapegoat” in the whole ordeal, as he suggested the

impossibility of Gibbs stealing such a large amount of money from “the country’s institution” over such a long period of time without so much as raising a red flag until years later.

Mr Gomez further questioned why neither the then-college’s president and its vice president of finance did not give evidence during the trial, as every document Gibbs would have submitted to BOB had to have been accompanied by a letter signed by both individuals.

Thus, Mr Gomez said his client was effectively “thrown under the bus” and made to take the fall for the misappropriated COB funds, which he contended was instead the end result of the “sloppy” and inefficient manner the country’s funds were being managed.

“Somebody had to put the smoking gun in my client’s hand,” Mr Gomez said.

However, Crown prosecutor Al-Leecia Delancey, who was assisted by

Antania Rolle-Taylor, submitted that Gibbs was guilty of the “cold, callous and continuous” theft of COB’s funds, and that there was no reason that could justify the amount of money Gibbs received when compared with her take-home salary between 2008 and 2015.

Ms Delancey further submitted that it makes no sense for each bank Gibbs was affiliated with to have a glitch in their respective systems that would result in her receiving all that extra money for seven years without her knowing. And even if was the result of a bank error, Ms Delancey questioned why Gibbs didn’t report it to her seniors.

Ms Delancey thus said COB was “hoodwinked, bamboozled” and led astray

by Gibbs’ actions for those seven years, all while she “ran amuck” in the college’s payroll department and was “balling” off the extra money she received.

“She has no excuse for her actions,” Ms Delancey said.

THE TRIBUNE

Tuesday, February 20, 2018, PAGE 7

Gunned down as they played cards THE PINEWOOD community, where residents spoke to The Tribune in the wake of the latest fatal shooting there. from page one According to police, the victims of Friday night’s shooting were Deshawn Symonette, 28, and Rashad Bethel, 27.

An area resident said he was at the scene and escaped by crawling to the home’s doorway as bullets flew overhead.

He told The Tribune: “We were playing cards right there and two fellas pull up on a motorbike.

(The gunmen) never came in the yard. If they did come in the yard everybody in here would’ve been dead.”

According to the resident, the victim who died at the scene, “was laying down right over there on the chair, and I guess when the gunmen come he probably get up, he thinking he saving (himself) but he run right in the hail of the bullets.

“I hit hard against this wall and I crawled…until I get to the (doorway). You see all these bullets gone through the door? All kind of bullets. I (crawled) towards that gas tank, (and) I say ‘Jesus Christ, I hope no bullet hit that gas tank.’

“I could hear the bullets whisking over me, because I was laying flat on the ground. I all bruise up (from crawling). Everybody was trying to get through the door. I see the door was crowded so I knew I couldn’t make it.

“When I hear the bullets cease, then I get up and I (ran) inside.”

When asked how the incident has affected him, the resident said: “We don’t even want (to) be out here (anymore).

“You know where I

THE SHATTERED window of a car in Pinewood. sleep? Last night I sleep on troublesome person, he is the ground. Because I fear not a member of a gang, he they might come and shoot is just like you and I. through the glass,” he added.

“A working man, enjoy“I know the police them ing a game of dominoes. they say don’t worry about That’s it.” nothing, they patrolling He added: “Violence in they coming around every The Bahamas and violence in half hour. But I still scared, these communities, we need man. Scared.” to get rid of this violence…

The resident has been this senseless violence.” living in this community Another resident also since 1986. Asked his opin- defended the character of ion on when crime in the the victims, dismissing newsarea worsened, he said: “To paper reports that they were be truthful there’s no crime involved in drugs. on this road. Not in Saffron She said: “It has nothStreet. Everybody who you ing to do with any drugs. see round here, they (work). Nobody through Saffron “But we have one or Street deals drugs or is in two people who does come any way involved in any from different areas.” drug activity. It’s so sad that The resident continued: people lost their lives here.

“I have a strict rule inside But to see a statement like this yard. No gun, no drugs. that is very wrong.”

And everybody knows that.

According to police, the So nobody come here with second shooting incident drugs or gun.” occurred Saturday evening, When asked about his around 7pm. relationship with the victim Three men along with who died at the scene, the others were attending a post resident began to sob. funeral event on ButtonThrough tears, he said: wood Avenue in Pinewood “I even can’t talk about Gardens when the occuthem. The tall fella who get pants of a silver coloured kill there, I trust him with Nissan March pulled up and everything.

Everything, fired shots in the direction everything. of the crowd, injuring them, “Innocent man. Innocent before speeding off. fella get kill for nothing.”

The victims were taken The uncle of one of the to hospital and are listed in victims reiterated this senti- stable condition. ment. The 55-year-old told A neighbouring The Tribune: “He is not a shopkeeper told The

Tribune how the incident has affected her.

She opened her store on Buttonwood Avenue seven years ago, and moved it “three or four years ago” after a shooting occurred “right outside her store window”.

The shopkeeper revealed she had just returned her store to Buttonwood Avenue “three weeks ago,” only for the area to be marred by another attack.

She said: “I hope (the violence) is nothing that is going to be continuous.

Because last couple years it was ongoing, it was always some sort of mix-up with the younger persons. But now it puts me back in (fear).”

A 22-year-old Pinewood resident also spoke to The Tribune. She said: “I do not feel safe in Pinewood.

There’s parts of Pinewood I don’t drive in at night, because you never know what will happen. So I stay on the main road.”

Photos: Terrel W. Carey/Tribune Staff

A BULLET hole in a washing machine.

PAGE 8, Tuesday, February 20, 2018

The Mayor and his raccoons W Face to HEN I was asked to pay a visit to the man they call “the mayor of Fox Hill” as he prepares to be consecrated to the Bishopric, I wasn’t ready for the surprise. No flashy car and lofty mansion here. Rather, I met a humble man and his wife – lovers of nature with a nest full of plants and animals and big, open hearts.

Their humble abode is filled with precious memories of the love they have shared over the decades with their six children. There is a sense of peace and contentment – and it’s apparently worth more than gold.

Rev J Carl Rahming and his wife, Evanglyn (nee Butler) own a large acreage just off of Bernard Road. Fruit trees abound, including sapodilla, several varieties of mangoes, guinep, and juju, as well as bananas, tomatoes and pigeon peas. You can find turtles in the pond, cats and dogs and then a most interesting cage filled with creatures that usually run wild – raccoons. They are his favourite pets and I stood in the cage in awe as he interacted with them. I chose to keep my hands to myself. I would see lots of raccoons scuttling across the tops of the trees when I was growing up in Winton Meadows. But this is the first time I saw them up close - and tame.

Rev Rahming latched the

Face

By FELICITY INGRAHAM

cage gate after feeding them, then told me I should have come in the evening to watch them play dominoes… I am still wondering if I should take him up on that.

He was born in the Fox Hill community and has never left, and he has probably been catching raccoons in this area since he was a little boy. He was born in Congo Town in the 1940s when donkey cart roads were still in use. The winding, narrow streets of Fox Hill are indicative of that period in time and are really just a slight widening and extension of the pathways to the market in town.

This was a time when kids entertained themselves with the likes of ring play, hop scotch, moonshine baby and spinning top. They would spend an hour in the field doing farm work, go to school bare footed and then return to the field right after school

A PHOTO with all six of their children before one son lost his life at the age of 6 in a drowning incident.

was out to continue work until sundown. In this way, everyone played a part in the success of the family.

Fox Hill is so very well known for sapodilla, and Rev Rahming said his parents were able to send him to school off the proceeds of these delicious fruit. He often went to town with his grandmother and would sell the fruit to buy his uniform, books, other necessities including his “Fox Hill Day outfit” – to this day it is one of the most significant events in the community for the year.

Rev Rahming pastors at St Paul’s Baptist church on Bernard Road, just west of the Fox Hill Park and parade in one of the most historic parts of the community. The church began in August 1870 and before his arrival, all of the leading pastors from that time until just a few years ago, were all from the Roker family. Rev Rahming broke the trend yet maintained the spirit of St Paul’s – a church that is involved in the community, doors open daily for members and non-members, and a mission to seek and save “the lost” and bring them into the Baptist family fold.

“When I was a little boy, I used to say that I would either be a comedian, politician, or minister (of the gospel); I guess I chose the latter,” Rev Rahming chuckled.

“I would find something

like a gown to put on, to use as a robe, and I would climb the sapodilla tree. I would be reciting scripture and things I heard them say in church or in Sunday School and the sapodilla tree would be my pulpit.

“My parents and grandparents would always encourage me and say that I would be a preacher someday.”

By the time he was 13, Rev Rahming had made a full commitment to the church he now leads: “It was a Wednesday night in July… simultaneous revivals were being held in the various Baptist churches by the Southern Baptist missionaries Vacation Bible School.

The missionaries came from America. I gave my life to Christ that night and there was no looking back.”

By the time the young Junior was 17 years old, he had become an official Sunday School teacher. By the time he was 19, he was ordained in a special service at Bethel Baptist Church on Meeting street. He would return to St. Paul’s in his native settlement as a young Deacon with bright hopes for the future. In 1969, the Baptist convention led by Rev H W Brown sent him to pastor the Progressive Baptist Church on Brougham St. He served there for 12 years until he returned to his home church. All the while, he never left his homestead in the tightly-knit community of Fox Hill and still visited St Paul’s regularly.

“I’ve been with this church all my life,” he said.

His future started quickly after he met Evanglyn, who lived in the Anne’s town community not too far away. They were married when Junior was 20 and throughout the years, they managed to build a beautiful yet humble homestead.

Mrs Rahming made most of the decorations in her home by hand, and has lovely flowering plants donning her front yard. She minds the herbs and seasonal vegetables around the house, while Rev Rahming likes the field and tends to the fruit trees and of course, his raccoons.

Five of their six children made it to adulthood and have their own fulfilling lives.

It seems that everyone in the Fox Hill community knows how to find this couple, whether at home or church. I spent time with them at both locations and found that people were coming in and out for various reasons, to get some kind of assistance, throughout my stay. Looking on the outside, you may say this couple is

THE TRIBUNE

REV J Carl Rahming with his cage of raccoons. of humble means, but their lives. It’s not too late. You pot of love is so full and can turn your life around somehow, they always have and make the best of it something to give. They even from any point. Drinking is sent me away with fruits not the answer. Fornicating, from the garden and plants spinning, cursing, swearing to beautify my lawn.

– they are not the answer.

Rev Rahming has Salvation is without money, adopted a simple formula without price.”

– God, family, community, As he prepares to take on country. the mantle of Bishop next “I think I was destined… month, St. Paul’s issued this sometimes you don’t under- statement: “His visionary stand what’s happening. It leadership; his selfless, faithhas always been my desire ful and effective ministry; his and I think it was the will of genuine and proactive love the lord. I answered the call of his fellowmen especially and I have no doubts in my his congregation, ministerial mind that the Lord is lead- colleagues and Fox Hillians; ing me and this is where I his humility and compaswant to be. We have had a sion; his readiness to forgive successful walk, we have had and seek forgiveness which our ups and down but I think are exemplary characterisI have been highly favoured tics and values have inspired and the Lord brought me the Ministers, Deacons, through. I have been in the Officers, Auxiliary leaders pig pen, but the lord brought and members of St Paul’s me out and today I could say Baptist Church, Bernard that I am more than a con- Road, Fox Hill to support queror… I proudly serve as Rev. Dr. J. Carl Rahming to the seventh pastor.” be consecrated as Bishop.”

He lives his life in such He has ministered mostly a way as to inspire others, from Fox Hill but also especially young Bahamian around the world. He visited men, to follow in his foot- several countries Africa and steps, especially in light of a the Middle East and learned murder and violence trend the traditions of ancient that continues to rock the Kemet. He was honoured nation. There was a time for leadership excellence when the Fox Hill commu- by Senator Jackie Vaughn nity was in mourning as a III in Michican, USA and mass killing happened right by Mayor Coleman Young on their doorstep. In Decem- of the City of Detroit in ber of 2013, gunmen opened a separate award. He forfire at a community event on merly served as President the Fox Hill Parade and took of the Bible Society of the the lives of four people while West Indies. The Bahamas injuring many others. The National Baptist Convenpeaceful event was rocked by tion held the ‘Rev Dr J Carl a barrage of bullets.

Rahming Parade’ in 2016.

“I don’t think we in Fox He credits his mother, Hill have really caught our- the late Doris Whyms and selves from that yet,” Rev grandparents Bernice DorRahming says. sett and Leonard Rahming “A community that is not for their inspiration on a path Christ centered is doomed,” that for him, has stood the he advised. test of time – one committed “I encourage young men to loyal service, starting with to take an inventory of their his own community first.

THE TRIBUNE

Tuesday, February 20, 2018, PAGE 9

Trump’s Bahamas pick says: I’m sorry from page one

DOUG MANCHESTER, the US nominee to become ambassador to The Bahamas.

His apology came in an email that was also copied to President Trump last week. It was in response to a Washington Post reporter who made inquiries about the work environment at U-T TV. “While I was chairman of the U-T San Diego, I became aware of egregious mistakes made by staff members,” Mr Manchester said in the email.

“When they were brought to my attention, I immediately took appropriate action.”

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, Mr Manchester did not offer any specifics but said: “I am terribly hurt to learn of these allegations and apologise to any employee who felt uncomfortable or demeaned while employed at the U-T San Diego during my tenure.”

In response to further questions from the UnionTribune, Mr Manchester said he has never been the subject of any complaints himself.

“In 55 years of business involving multiple

READERS HAVE THEIR SAY ON JOBS IN GB READERS have been giving their reaction to the stories making the news on tribune242.com.

After hundreds of job seekers attended the “Labour on the Blocks” job fair in Grand Bahama, John said: “Jobs, jobs jobs! Seem to be a key to reducing the crime problem and other social ills it brings with it ...apparently the highest unemployment is among the young, inner city dwellers and the least skilled.

Government can assist if it starts some of the road works and other infrastructure work it has proposed in New Providence and on the family (islands). There has to be sufficient work going on simultaneously so as to hire enough workers to affect the unemployment numbers and stimulate the economy.”

Stillwaters had this to say: “I don’t know ... there are just no jobs out there.

Population is too big for the limited amount of jobs and it’s going to get worse.

More layoffs as tourism dwindles and dwindles.

Tourism and banks were our two main industries.

Banks almost done in this country and tourism drying up. It’s scary.”

The_Oracle said: “The reliance on government to provide ‘jobs’ is the first fallacy and failure we have invited and must now suffer. Politicising permits, licenses, jobs, schools and teaching, hospitals, banks!

We are only reaping what we have sown.”

Tribune Business

YOUR

reported that Deputy Prime Minister K Peter Turnquest has pledged to review the property tax valuation system’s accuracy, while warning Bahamians and residents: “Don’t bully the taxman.”

TheMadHatter responded with: “He says ‘We are going to have to look at that to ensure we don’t cause significant shocks to…’. Sir, you don’t have to ‘look at’ anything.

You ARE the Min of Fin. You can make a regulation that no property tax bill be more than double what it was the previous year.

Then it would take 3 years to reach 8-fold instead of immediately. That would give ‘the people’ (who’s ‘time’ it supposedly is) time to catch up instead of the valuation system being given time. Which is more important? People? Or valuation system? You have the power to decide.”

And there was this from TalRussell: “Rather than dread the day your property assessment arrives from the government - lobby to stop foreigners buying whatever properties they can afford this (is) diving up property taxes for the locals.”

• Don’t miss your chance to join the debate on tribune242.com.

CHOICE FOR THE FAMILY WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/JOYFM1019

PEOPLE queuing for jobs in Grand Bahama.

businesses and more than 6,000 employees, I have never had any action as to sexual misconduct, including U-T TV,” he wrote by email, the newspaper said.

“When egregious sexual misconduct was brought to my attention, executives were terminated but none was ever brought against me.”

Cory Fish, director of human resources when Mr Manchester owned the newspaper, told the UnionTribune, “As with any company, there were allegations of harassment. Every claim was investigated, thoroughly, and appropriate actions were taken as necessary.”

Several U-T TV staffers contacted by Union-Tribune reporters over the past week said they had not been harassed, did not file any complaints and did not know of anyone doing so.

However, The UnionTribune reporters learned of a settlement paid to at least one employee during the Manchester years. The newspaper said two sources with direct knowledge of the situation said that the company paid a woman who filed a harassment

complaint against a nonnewsroom executive (a man who no longer works at the newspaper).

In response to this, Mr Manchester told the UnionTribune: “There was never a payment made to anyone as a result of my actions, although there was a payment involving another executive.”

According to the Washington Post, under Mr Manchester’s ownership, he “employed an unconventional, anachronistic management style that upended the newspaper’s culture and made many female workers uncomfortable, according to more than a dozen current and former employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity.”

Last May, President Trump nominated Mr Manchester, nicknamed “Papa Doug,” to become the US ambassador to the Bahamas.

A Senate committee heard his nomination but it was not approved before the end of the 2017 Senate session.

President Trump re-nominated Mr Manchester in January.

PAGE 10, Tuesday, February 20, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

Saipan’s casino gambit The numbers make your eyes water.

Millions and millions of dollars gambled across the tables - all in a mega casino thousands of miles from anywhere. How does it happen - how do you make it work? In our second installment of Bloomberg Businessweek’s investigation Matthew Campbell delves into the world of Imperial Pacific.

T

HE strongest desire among China’s wealthy is to get their money — ill-gotten or otherwise — out of the country, safe from the threat of government seizure. One prevalent method for magicking money across the border, in defiance of strict capital controls, begins with companies called junkets.

They bring wealthy clients from the mainland, where gambling is illegal, to the VIP rooms of casinos in Macau. There, the junkets extend the clients credit to play baccarat, a game of luck at which they’re likely to win or lose a negligible amount. At the end of play, clients cash out their balance in the currency of their choice. The debt is collected in yuan, in China. Everybody wins: The clients have converted yuan into dollars or euros or sterling, and the middlemen get a cut.

In 2011, a mother and son from Harbin, a hardscrabble city in China’s northeast, became involved with a junket called Hang Seng. Cui Lijie (then about 52) and Ji Xiaobo (about 32) had grown wealthy through investments in real estate, lending, and pawnshops, and despite being newcomers to Macau, they tripled the new venture’s client list in a year—from 200 high rollers to 650, according to filings.

Macau gaming experts told me that Hang Seng offered far more generous credit than its competitors, making it a go-to junket for moving large amounts of capital. In 2013, the company’s betting volume reached more than $4 billion a month — easily among the largest operations in the city.

But then, in 2014, China’s government cracked down on the Macau laundromat, and Hang Seng’s volume dropped by two-thirds.

Cui had recently taken control of a company called First Natural Foods Holdings Ltd. As the action in Macau tanked, First Natural announced it was changing its name to Imperial Pacific and would seek to build a casino on Saipan.

For an American face to lead the development, the company hired Mark Brown, an Atlantic City native who’d run Donald Trump’s casino empire.

Brown was so revered by his Trump colleagues that some executives grew mustaches to mimic his own, and in 2004 he appeared at the future president’s side on The Apprentice. But after Trump’s company declared bankruptcy, his star fell. In

Suisse, as president. Yan had suffered an alarming career setback in 2011 — he was arrested at Hong Kong International Airport for carrying a gun in his backpack — but he had connections, including to David Paterson, the blind former governor of New York, whom Yan had once helped navigate a menu at a Shanghai luncheon. In 2015, Yan persuaded Paterson to join an Imperial Pacific advisory board and make introductions to other political figures.

Paterson delivered, demonstrating just how easy it is to get prominent American government figures to work for an opaque, year-old Chinese casino developer.

He quickly got in touch with Ed Rendell, the ex-governor of Pennsylvania. “They wanted some Americans involved in case anything came up with the

2009 he was fired from an executive role at Las Vegas Sands’ Macau operations, and a subsequent move to Sydney was blocked by Australian regulators. When Imperial Pacific approached Brown in 2014, he was working at a casino in Cambodia.

Imperial Pacific also hired Shen Yan, a Chinese banker who’d held senior positions at Deutsche Bank and Credit

regulation or legalities,” Rendell told Bloomberg in a 2016 interview. “One of my assistants and I did some research on the internet.”

He signed on for $5,000 a month and persuaded Haley Barbour, the former Mississippi governor, to take the same gig. Louis Freeh, the former FBI director, also became an adviser. Eugene Sullivan, a retired military

judge, and James Woolsey, the former CIA director, joined Imperial Pacific’s board of directors.

(Barbour resigned on Feb 8 in response to questions for this article. Paterson and Rendell, who stepped down earlier, told me they had no knowledge of improper activities by the company.

Freeh, who is no longer on the advisory board, and Sullivan, who last year reduced his role from director to adviser, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Brown, who left in December, declined to comment.

Woolsey told me: “I have not been made aware of any issues of safety or improper relationships with politicians.

If impropriety is proven, I will not be comfortable staying on the board.”)

With a celebrity cast on the payroll, Imperial Pacific turned to bringing in money — immediately.

Even before ground was broken at the construction site, it got permission to open a temporary casino across the street, in a dutyfree mall. It was a ho-hum space, the size of a suburban Olive Garden. Yet in its first three months after opening in November 2015, VIP bets totalLed $5.3 billion, across fewer than 20 tables. That was more than a third of the action at Wynn Macau — a lush resort with 192 tables, Michelin-starred restaurants, excellent airport access, and global name recognition.

The trajectory was unprecedented, verging on impossible, or at least not legally possible. A year later a former casino worker, Danny Ewing, sued Imperial Pacific for wrongful termination. He claimed that one executive, a board member, was “allowing, if

not encouraging”, her workers “to submit incomplete and misleading” know-yourcustomer declarations, which casinos must collect to document the source of bettors’ funds. Ewing also alleged that Imperial Pacific helped players structure transactions to avoid reporting requirements and that he’d been fired after he complained. (Imperial Pacific denied the allegations, and the suit was settled; in its statement, the company said it doesn’t believe its betting volumes are excessive.)

Imperial Pacific kept dealing in stupefying amounts of cash, and extending credit accordingly. At the end of 2016, filings show, one client alone owed it $96m.

If the sums were bewildering, one thing became clear: the nature of lawmakers’ fact-finding trip to Macau.

Torres, who became governor in 2015, claimed at the time that it was paid for by a company with no connection to the bid process, called Esteem Capital. But in early 2017, a judgment in an unrelated Hong Kong case revealed that Ji had presented himself in the past as an agent of Esteem — and that its Hong Kong address was identical to that of Imperial Pacific.

On my third night on Saipan, Yan consented to meet at a cafe in town. I didn’t know what to expect of a banker-turned-casino-boss with a concealed-firearm rap, but Yan arrived looking stylishly prosperous, in a fitted T-shirt, jeans, and red slipons. On the condition that I not quote him, Yan agreed to lead me on a tour of the permanent casino, which had opened a couple of months before, ending the temporary site’s lucrative run.

The new facility was just around the corner, towering at cartoonish scale over the tourist district’s shabby lowrises — a palatial mashup of Mediterranean opulence and nautical icons. Its ivory-colored facade was festooned with gilt mermaids, dolphins, and clamshells, accented by blood-red spotlights. (Locals call the building Satan’s Palace.)

Yan and I passed between two brawny, trident-wielding Poseidon statues to reach the triple-height lobby, beyond which lay the clanging expanse of the main casino floor, where a rowdy Chinese clientele crowded around baccarat tables. The big money, of course, was flowing off to the side, in a series of VIP rooms. Yan took me into an empty one, as if to make a what’s-the-big-fuss kind of point: traditional Chinese décor, heavy carpeting, leather chairs. VIPs themselves were off-limits. When a portly one approached, Yan abruptly handed me off to an aide and made the universal gesture for “shoo”.

To leave required navigating a maze of active construction equipment.

While the casino has been welcoming high rollers since July, it’s unsettlingly half-finished. The sprinkler system isn’t functional, and three firefighters have to be posted inside at all times. The attached hotel, which is supposed to open later this year, is still a skeleton, and the casino basement has repeatedly flooded with sewage.

In one case, according to a person who experienced it, the result was an ankle-deep sludge of human waste in a locker room.

Last May, after Imperial Pacific requested

permission for its “soft opening,” a special body appointed to supervise the development delivered a scathing private report to Governor Torres. According to a person who saw the document, it warned about metal debris scattered on the casino roof, which could turn into deadly projectiles in one of the typhoons that regularly batter the island; structural steel that appeared to be missing bolts; and columns with kinks that could indicate a risk of catastrophic collapse. The report urged Torres to keep the public out until Imperial Pacific could guarantee safety. But the governor rejected the advice, according to the person familiar with the report. The government later removed the supervisory body’s oversight.

(The governor’s office told Bloomberg Businessweek it was assured by engineers the site was safe; Imperial Pacific said it complied with all building regulations.)

To understand Torres’s willingness to accommodate Imperial Pacific, it helps to consider his family. Torres, 38, has three brothers, all lawyers at a family firm called Torres Brothers LLC. The governor worked there himself until 2008. In the first eight months of 2017, according to regulators’ records, Imperial Pacific paid Torres Brothers $126,000.

The company has also been an active acquirer of long-term land leases on Saipan. (Only native islanders can purchase land.)

During my time there, I received a list of transactions that illustrates how some of the leases benefited Torres’s relatives.

The details are on record at the island courthouse.

Imperial Pacific has operated via a blizzard of limited liability companies with generic titles. And in November 2015, one such entity bought a land lease from Torres’s sister-inlaw, Rowina, for $667,000.

She almost quadrupled her investment, having purchased the land about five months earlier for $180,000. The lease documents bear the signature of her husband, Torres’s eldest brother, Vincent — widely considered the alpha male of the family — and that of Cai Lingli, a member of Imperial Pacific’s board.

Another series of transactions, the largest worth about $4m, have been a windfall for a man named Serafin Camacho. The governor is first cousin to Camacho’s wife, Lillian, and godfather to his adult son, Joel, who’s a member of the Saipan zoning board, which will rule on Imperial Pacific’s future development. Serafin’s sale documents also show Cai’s signature; the deals paid out immediately, even though the lease for one doesn’t begin until 2042.

Imperial Pacific said its land deals were in “full compliance” with the law. Vincent Torres and Joel Camacho both said they saw nothing improper in their families’ dealings with the company.

The governor’s office said that any implication the land deals are improper “lacks an understanding of the size” of Saipan and the governor’s sprawling family. As for Imperial Pacific’s choice of legal representation, Torres said he has “no involvement in [his siblings’] business transactions ... and no direct financial stake in their company.”

THE TRIBUNE

Tuesday, February 20, 2018, PAGE 11

MAN ACCUSED OF NIGHTCLUB MURDER

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

A 25-YEAR-OLD man was arraigned in a Magistrate’s Court yesterday over allegations he murdered a man and attempted to kill two others at a nightclub earlier this month.

Vernal Johnson, of Dumping Ground Corner, stood before Deputy Chief Magistrate Subusola Swain charged with a single count of murder and two counts of attempted murder stemming from the February 9 incident.

It is alleged that on the

day in question, Johnson murdered Rico Taylor, and attempted to murder Anfernee Major and Jarvis Joseph.

According to initial reports, shortly after 11pm on the day in question, a group of people were at a nightclub on Hutchinson Street off Poinciana Drive, when three men entered the club and got into an argument with one of the patrons.

One of the three men subsequently produced a weapon and fired into the crowd, resulting in three male patrons being shot.

The suspects then got into a burgundy coloured Japanese

vehicle and sped away.

Police were dispatched to the scene and upon arrival discovered that the victims were taken to hospital in a private vehicle and ambulance. A short time later, one of the men was pronounced dead.

The other two men were said to be in critical condition.

Johnson was not required to enter a plea to the charge and the case was adjourned to April 12 for service of a voluntary bill of indictment.

He was remanded to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services in the interim.

VERNAL Johnson at court yesterday.

Photos: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

FOUR CHARGED WITH DEFRAUDING RBC OF $26,000

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

KRISPINTINA Munnings is pictured.

THREE men and a woman were arraigned in a Magistrate’s Court yesterday charged with collectively defrauding several persons and/or entities of over $27,000 in just over a month.

Kaisprintina Munnings, Jamaris King, Duran Mackey and Chrispen Johnson all stood before Magistrate Derence Rolle Davis accused of collectively obtaining $27,760 from the Royal Bank of Canada accounts of people and businesses.

It is also alleged that the four collectively stole $26,700 from various RBC locations throughout New Providence between late November of last year to February 13 of this year.

Munnings faced the most charges of the group, as she was alleged to have fraudulently obtained a total of $15,160 from the RBC

accounts of Central Pines Liquor Store, Eileah Pearce and Renato Ramacola between February 2 and February 5.

It is also alleged that she stole $15,000 from various RBC locations in New Providence between February 3 and February 6.

It is also alleged Munnings acquired $15,160 in criminal proceeds between February 2 and February 5, and also laundered a total of $15,050 between those same dates.

Regarding King, it is alleged he fraudulently obtained $3,600 from Theodore Taylor’s account at RBC; stole $3,000 from RBC; acquired $3,600 in criminal proceeds and laundered $3,000 worth of criminal proceeds on January 29.

Regarding Mackey, it is alleged he fraudulently obtained $6,000 from CJ’s Welding and Machinery’s RBC account on February 10. He is further accused of allegedly stealing $5,750 from various RBC locations

DURAN Mackey (left) and Jamaris King (right). in New Providence between funds on November 30, February 11 and 13.

2017.

It is further alleged he It is also alleged Johnson acquired $6,000 in crimi- acquired $3,000 in criminal nal proceeds on February proceeds on November 30, 10 and laundered $5,750 and laundered $3,000 on worth of criminal proceeds that same date. between February 11 and 13.

All of the accused Regarding Johnson, it pleaded not guilty to the is alleged he fraudulently charges. obtained $3,000 from the King’s and Johnson’s RBC account of Nikoloas matters were adjourned Salpadimos on November to March for trial, while 29, 2017.

Munnings’ and Mackey’s He is further accused matters were adjourned to of stealing $2,950 of RBC April.

PAGE 12, Tuesday, February 20, 2018

THE TRIBUNE

RESCUERS search for survivors at the collapse of a garbage mound in Maputo, Mozambique, Monday, Feb. 19, 2018.

Photo: Ferhat Momade/AP

17 killed in garbage dump collapse JOHANNESBURG Associated Press HEAVY rains triggered the partial collapse of a huge mound of garbage in Mozambique’s capital on Monday, killing 17 people who were buried by debris.

Authorities believe more bodies could be buried at the Hulene garbage dump on the outskirts of Maputo, and a search was underway. The garbage in the poor, densely populated area where the disaster

happened rose to the height of a three-story building, according to the Portuguese news agency Lusa.

Lusa and Radio Mocambique both reported 17 deaths. Half a dozen homes were destroyed and some residents in the area fled for fear of another collapse.

“The mountains of garbage collapsed on the houses and many families were still inside these residences,” Fatima Belchior, a national disaster official, told Lusa. Authorities are

trying to help people who lost their homes, she said.

The Hulene garbage dump is the largest such facility in Maputo. People often comb through the garbage, searching for food and items to sell.

Health workers have long raised concerns about the impact of the fumes, flies and other hazards of the dump on the surrounding community. Municipal officials have previously discussed the closure of the dump.

STUDENTS HEAD TO FLORIDA TO PRESS FOR GUN LAW CHANGE PARKLAND, FLORIDA Associated Press

A HUNDRED Stoneman Douglas High School students are busing 400 miles to Florida’s capital Tuesday to urge lawmakers to act to prevent a repeat of the massacre that killed 17 students and faculty last week.

The students plan to hold a rally Wednesday in hopes that it will put pressure on the state’s Republicancontrolled Legislature to consider a sweeping package of gun-control laws, something some GOP lawmakers said Monday they

would consider.

Shortly after the shooting, several legislative leaders were taken on a tour of the school to see the damage firsthand and they appeared shaken afterward.

“I really think they are going to hear us out,” said Chris Grady, a 19-year-old senior who is going on the trip. He said he hopes the trip will lead to some “commonsense laws like rigorous background checks.”

The attack last Wednesday seemed to overcome the resistance of some in the state’s leadership, which has rebuffed gun restrictions since Republicans took control of both the governor’s office and the Legislature in 1999.

However, there is still strong resistance by many in the party to any guncontrol measures, leaving the fate of new restrictions unclear.

Students also have vowed to exert pressure on Congress as the aftermath of the rampage resonates beyond Florida and from coast to coast.

Hundreds of chanting protesters converged Monday

on a downtown Los Angeles park, demanding tougher background checks and other gun-safety measures after the shooting.

Some signs held up by the California demonstrators read, “Your Children Are Counting On You.” Sen Bill Galvano, a Republican and the incoming Florida senate president, said the state Senate was preparing a package that would include raising the age to purchase any firearm to 21, creating a waiting period for purchasing any type of firearm, banning bump stocks that can allow semi-automatic guns to spray bullets quickly and creating gunviolence restraining orders.

Authorities said suspect Nikolas Cruz, 19, had a string of run-ins with school authorities that ended with his expulsion. Police also were repeatedly called to his house throughout his childhood. Cruz’s lawyers said there were repeated warning signs that he was mentally unstable and potentially violent. Yet he legally purchased a semiautomatic rifle.