Bahamian government officials and many Bahamians are mourning the death of former Miami city commissioner Arthur Teele Jr., a city official who betrayed those he served by squandering their hard earned tax dollars and enriching himself at the expense of his constituents. Is it any wonder he was popular in the Bahamas, where that practice is known as routine?
Teele was married to the former Stephanie Kerr of West End, Grand Bahama.
At 6:05pm the former commissioner walked from his nearby home into the lobby of the Miami Herald. He pulled a semi-automatic pistol from a green canvas bag and put it to the right side of his head.
“Mr. Teele then stood with the gun to his head and watched the street through the the lobby’s glass doors,” the Miami Herald reported. “As police arrived, he shot himself, security guard Eduardo Pavon said. ﾠMr. Teele fell on his back. ﾠThe pistol clattered across the terazzo floor.”
Like New Jersey mobsters, corrupt public officials from Atlanta Georgia and money launderers from Montreal, Teele was welcome here as a friend to The Bahamas. Alma Adams, Bahamas General Consul in Miami told a local newspaper that, “We are all mourning his passing. He was a briliant lawyer and an advocate of the Caribbean.”
It is quite expected that Bahamians would appreciate and honour such brilliance. Brilliance in corruption, that is. After all, Bahamian government officials are not very good at distinguishing between right and wrong. ﾠThey are equally challenged when it comes to judging character. ﾠPerhaps that’s why the Bahamas government is in bed with so many corrupt deadbeats, like Mr. Teele, from all corners of the earth.
Sentimentality aside, Mr. Teele was a crook who milked millions of dollars from the hard working people of Miami while enriching himself and his cronies. ﾠThis typically Bahamian approach to business allowed Teele to amass a fortune, offshore, before his corrupt empire came crashing down.
In May, Teele was sentenced to two years probation for threatening a police officer. ﾠHe was scheduled to go on trial in September on charges of state corruption. Last week he pleaded not guilty to federal corruption charges after a grand jury indicted him on multiple counts of fraud and money laundering.
Federal prosecutors said Mr. Teele and a former vice-president of Fisk Electric Corporation, a Texas-based company, used a minority-owned firm as a front to win federal and county-backed construction contracts at Miami International Airport starting in 2001.
In December, Miami-Dade prosecutors filed 10 bribery charges against Teele, who was accused of taking $135,000 in kickbacks from a businessman whose company won lucrative contracts to refurbish poverty-stricken Miami neighborhoods. He was scheduled for trial in Miami-Dade Circuit Court in October.
In other words, “this con man used his minority status to rip off funds that were destined to assist less fortunate blacks, through urban renewal projects and minority contracts,” says a black Bahamian familiar with Mr. Teele’s exploits. “Few people I know of have ripped off other black people to the extent that this nigga has,” he continues.
It is hard to tell if any of this was considered by Bahamas Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell when he called Mr. Teele a “friend and a brother” to Bahamians.
Naturally, a crook of such standing would be glorified in the Bahamas, where criminality is deeply ingrained into the social fabric. ﾠWhere gangsters and drug dealers are called “businessmen” and rewarded for their community efforts, despite the fact that any money they contribuiute to community causes was most likely gained through illicit enterprises, or stolen directly from other less fortunate Bahamians.
It is disturbing that so many Bahamian government officials had such a close relationship with Mr. Teele. ﾠThey, of course, should be the first ones investigated for corruption, money laundering and mis-appropriation of funds, as one can often tell a lot about a person by the company they keep.
By: Francis Edwards, Bahamas-News.com
