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this e-mail
makes various allegations
Apparently
the Police dossier clearly indicates the following:
- 1) That in 2001 Dr. Brown
was having financial challenges;
- 2) That Dr. Brown is
listed in Island Construction Service's loan schedule as a 'Borrower';
- 3) That Dr. Brown was a
stakeholder in a company setup by Mr. Zane DeSilva to secure the Government
contract to export asbestos to Cuba;
- 4) That Dr. Brown and
Nelson Bascombe (the then Minister responsible for exporting the asbestos
material) never disclosed his stake-holding in Mr. DeSilva's asbestos company
to Parliament, or his Cabinet colleagues;
- 5) That the cedar beams
missing from the St George's Post Office job site have been installed in Dr.
Brown's A.P. Owen Rd. Residence;
- 6) That Dr. Brown, Nelson
Bascombe, Renée Webb along with a banker, pressured two of Mr. DeSilva's
partners to allow he and Mr. Arthur Pitcher to run the Southside Project;
- 7) That $422,000.00
dollars which was owed to Mr. DeSilva construction company from Dr. Brown's
A.P. Owen Rd. construction costs, was "buried" in the Southside project;
- Cool That Dr. Brown's A.P.
Owen Rd. residence main gate was installed at a cost of $17,000.00 which was
paid for by the Ministry of Transport;
- 9) That Dr. Brown
submitted an application to the Department of Planning to subdivide his
Flatt's property, which was rejected because it left the residents of the
property nowhere to park;
- 10) That the then
Minister of Planning Mr. Arthur Hodgson later overturned the Planning Board's
ruling and approved the subdivision of Dr. Brown's Flatt's property;
- 11) That Dr. Brown sold
the property that facilitated the parking for his Flatt's property guest and
residence to the Bermuda Government Parks Department for $200,000.00 to be
used as a public parking lot (Today, signs are still posted stating the
parking lot is private);
- 12) That Dr. Brown, via
his real estate agent pressured the Bermuda Housing Corporation's then Manager
Mr. Raymond Dill to purchase his Flatt's property for the sum of $500,000.00;
Mr. Dill refused because it did not fall within the ambit of the Bermuda
Housing Corporation's policy;
- 13) That Dr. Brown
invited Mr. Dill to lunch at Newstead and tried to pressure him into signing a
Sales Agreement he had carried to the meeting to purchase his Flatt's
property, which Mr. Dill refused to sign;
- 14) That some time later
Nelson Bascombe then the Minister in charge of Bermuda Housing Corporation,
the BHC architect, and Dr. Brown met with Mr. Dill in the Senate to try and
persuade him to buy the Flatt's property, Mr. Dill once again refused;
- 15) That Nelson Bascombe
called Mr. Dill and instructed him to put Dr. Brown's Flatt's property into
the BHC's rental housing stock;
- 16) Following the
Minister's instructions and without entering into an agreement with Dr. Brown,
Mr. Dill had the Bermuda Housing Corporation renovate Dr. Brown's Flatt's
property for the sum of $157,000.00;
- 17) That near the
completion of the Flatt's property's renovation, Dr. Brown's real estate agent
advised Mr. Dill that the property's mortgage was being called. This assertion
made by Dr. Brown's agent, was later found to be untrue; (claim made by Mr.
Dill and denied by agent)
- 18) That Mr. Dill
purchased Dr. Brown's Flatt's property for the sum of $450,000.00 in order to
recover the cost of renovation;
- 19) That Dr. Brown and
Nelson Bascombe were consultants to one of Mr. DeSilva's Company and that Dr.
Brown was being paid $1,500.00 per month;
- 20) That Dr. Brown has
not disclosed this income pursuant to the rules of Parliament;
- 21) During the period
between 1999 and 2001, because of his purported political influence, Dr. Brown
is alleged to have received a direct financial benefit from the Government
purse over and above his salary and ministerial perks of $1,246,000.00.This
figure is notwithstanding the unlawful taking of the missing St. George Post
Office cedar beams and the labour of purportedly having them installed at his
A.P. Owen residence;
- 22) That the Acting
Director of Public Prosecution, Mr. Kulandra Ratnesser proposed that civil
action be taking out against Dr. Brown for the recovery of the monies he has
allegedly embezzled from the tax payers of this Country.
So PLP Members do not be easily deceived, the Police investigation did not
"exonerate" Dr. Brown from wrongdoing, the fact of the matter is that the
Acting Director of Public Prosecution, Mr. Kulandra Ratnesser allegedly
refused to review the relevant Police investigation dossier on Dr. Brown's and
some of his Cabinet colleagues' purported criminal activity, along with other
individuals connected to the Bermuda Housing Corporation. On review of the
Police dossier, it is apparent that the investigation was incomplete and
abruptly halted; in our system of Government only one person can halt an
investigation that is the Governor.
As a result of this scandal, the dismissal of contractors and various
employees from the Bermuda Housing Corporation, it has been revealed that in
late 2000, in an effort to secure the passage of the change of the 60/40
ownership rule legislation through Parliament, the Bank of Bermuda Limited's
charity, The Centennial Trust offered to contribute to Bermuda Housing
Corporation $40,000,000.00 to build low cost housing but this was rejected by
the Government. Given our current housing situation, Mr. Brown may want to
explain why?
When the MRI machine was first proposed to the King Edward Memorial VII
Hospital in 2000, I, like its then Chairperson Ms. Ianthia Wade, Mr. Raymond
Dill, and other board members and hospital executives, viewed documents
showing that the overseas company being proposed by Dr. Brown to oversee the
operation of the MRI machine, was in fact a company that he held an undeclared
interest in. This occurrence must be seen in the light of the recent
resignation of the King Edward Memorial VII Hospital Chairman and three other
board members this year. They all resigned following a cabinet office meeting
wherein the (then) hospital chairman was summon to attend and instructed
(which he refused to do) to sign off on the contract just given to Kurron
prior to it being presented to the board for approval or put out for
tendering.
In the Royal Gazette last Monday, Mr. El James stated that he never personally
received money from the Bermuda Housing Corporation and that is true. However,
the Police investigation surrounding Mr. James had to do with the use of the
Bermuda Housing Corporation funds to pay for work done at one of the Island
golf courses, which is in breach of the Bermuda Housing Act.
To dispel Dr. Brown's assertion that there is a political conspiracy involving
the Governor and the Government's Opposition, the United Bermuda Party that
simply is not true. I am a former supporter of the PLP looking again to once
again becoming a supporter and experiencing a Bermuda that the late Mr.
Freddie Wade had envisioned for us all. I have taking this action because I
strongly believe that it was wrong to just punish Mr. Terrence Smith when
there is clear evident within the Police Bermuda Housing Corporation's dossier
that other are guilty of wrongdoing.
In closing, I would like to say that at the appropriate time I will attend the
Hamilton Police Station with my lawyer and give myself up for my role in this
matter. I am also aware that in having accepted this task, I may have
committed an offence and I am prepared to accept whatever punishment the
courts may deed appropriate. I am a sincere Bermudian who believes in 'right
and wrong' and I ask that my actions are seen in the light of the result. I
was entrusted with information and once I read it, I had to choose to either
live with this knowledge and protect a unethical wrongdoers by being silent,
or expose the knowledge and let my fellow Bermudians make up their own minds
about Dr. Brown's and his cohorts' integrity...I sure did.
I also expect that the investigation into the purported wrongdoing in the
Bermuda Housing Corporation will be reopened, completed, and that the
appropriate punishment be meted-out in the event that Dr. Brown and the other
individuals reported in the documents have in fact committed criminal or civil
wrongdoing.
Signed By: Son of the Soil
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