A Bahamian judge has ruled that Ron Kelly, the Canadian entrepreneur who restored the British Colonial Hilton and purchased the South Ocean Golf & Beach Resort, received a “fraudulent preference” when $3 million was transferred to him by the failed offshore bank run by Prime Minister Perry Christie’s brother.
Sitting in the Supreme Court, Justice Hugh Small ruled that the $3 million transferred by Americas International Bank Corporation (AIBC) to Mr Kelly on September 4, 2001, about a month before the bank’s directors resolved on October 11, 2001, to wind up the bank, gave the Canadian “a preference over other creditors”. AIBC’s president and managing director was Gary Christie.
In his verdict, first reported by Internet newsletter KYC News, Justice Small wrote: “I am satisfied that the evidence establishes that AIBC was unable to pay its debts as they became due from its own money to its creditors in September 2001.
“The transfer of $3 million on September 4 from AIBC to Mr Kelly gave Mr Kelly a preference over other creditors. It took place within three months of the resolution of October 11 and therefore constitutes a fraudulent preference within the terms of section 72 of the Bankruptcy Act and section 262 of the Companies Act.”
In his defence, Mr Kelly said “at no time was he put on notice of the imminent collapse of AIBC and that Mr Christie informed him that the decision to place it in liquidation came as a shock to him also”.
Mr Kelly’s Bahamian hotel investments have effectively been taken over by the Canadian Commercial Worker Industry Pension Plan (CCWIPP), formerly one of the main leaders to his company, RHK Capital, after he ran into financial difficulties.
Source: The Tribune
