After serving three years in a Texas jail, Bahamian political activist George Wilson, 56, may seek legal redress against the United States Government.
"I have very good attorneys in the United States, and principles of law say where there was a wrong there should be a right," Mr. Wilson said during a press conference held Tuesday at Workers House, Harrold Road. "We have the matter under consideration."
Flanked by family members and close friends, Mr. Wilson, clad in a dark blue suit and matching blue and yellow tie, appeared to be in good spirits. "It's better in The Bahamas," he said.
Mr. Wilson was released from prison last Monday and arrived home yesterday.
Last month the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit determined that the 18 counts of fraud charges brought against Mr. Wilson, the trial he underwent, the jury verdict against him, and the sentence imposed, as well as a $1 million fine, were unlawful and in violation of American law.
Mr. Wilson, former president and sole shareholder of the now-defunct Winston Hill Assurance Company, was facing 20-years in a Houston prison after being convicted in 1999 on fraud charges involving a multi-million dollar insurance scam, extending as far as the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The company was established in 1986 with headquarters in New Providence. It specialised in placing difficult insurance risks which other standard insurers would not accept.
Prosecutors charged that beginning in 1986, Mr. Wilson appropriated 10 per cent of the company's insurance premiums and laundered the money through a bank.
In September 1999, Mr. Wilson was convicted by a jury of multiple charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, money laundering, mail fraud, and engaging in monetary transactions involving property derived from specified unlawful activity.
But he had always maintained his innocence, and made it clear that he thought the case against him was "racially motivated."
"The prosecutors said that this was a gigantic conspiracy of over 100 major individuals all over the United States, including myself and Norwood Rolle, who was here in The Bahamas. The curious thing about this is of the 100 people they were talking about, only two were black and those were the only two who were indicted, and I was the only one who was brought to trial, found guilty and sent to prison," Mr. Wilson said yesterday.
He also charged "that all of the witnesses were the rest of the people whom they say were in this gigantic conspiracy, were all white."
Despite this however, Mr. Wilson said he is planning to travel to the United States soon, which he considers "a great place."
"I have always advocated that the American system is probably the best system in this world today," he said, "if operated by honest and straight-forward people."
Questioned as to what are his immediate plans, the political activist said, "to work untiringly for the betterment of our Bahamas." However, he failed to say whether he would seek to reestablish ties with either the Progressive Liberal Party or the Free National Movement.
"I have never followed the strict guidelines of any party," he said. "I was not here, but I was happy to follow the results of the last election and I think that the Bahamian people confirmed something that I have always held that the Bahamian people are neither PLP nor FNM. The Bahamian people do what is best for them," he said.
Over the past five years, he said, besides coming to recognise the power of the Almighty God, and studying the Bible, he spent time studying American law and writing.
"I am about 60 per cent completing a book that I have been working on over the past five years, but you would appreciate it that I couldn't finish it because I didn't know what the end of the story would be," he said jokingly.
Family members held a party at Workers House in his honour. There the Guardian got the opportunity to speak with his mother, Hilda Wilson, who said she was smiling from February 14, when she got word that he had won his appeal.
"That was the best Valentine's Day I have ever had in my life," she said.
Mrs. Wilson, 72, said that when her eldest son was sentenced to 20 years, her first thought was she would not live to see him released from prison.
"I give God thanks and I used to pray a lot. I carry him to church every Sunday in his name and left it at the altar. This is the result. George is back home and I am happy," she said.
By Keva Lightbourne, The Nassau Guardian
