PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos Islands — The special investigation and prosecution team (SIPT) in the Turks and Caicos Islands has acknowledged that they have arrested a 47-year-old former cabinet minister, who has been released on a reported $5,000 bond. It is not known if any travel restrictions were imposed or if the suspect’s passport was confiscated.
While the SIPT would not reveal a specific identity until the man appears in court, one online publication has claimed the person arrested is former deputy premier and finance minister Floyd Hall of Grand Turk. This report came one day before the SIPT announcement.
Hall was a central figure during the early 2009 Commission of Inquiry into possible corruption, or other serious dishonesty in relation to past and present elected members of the legislature, and made news when he was led from the hearing room by authorities to his home to pick up the financial records of the Progressive National Party (PNP).
Floyd Hall has also been involved in an unfinished condo development in Providenciales and another similarly incomplete development in South Caicos. Hall has been reported to be the recipient of a $19 million loan from a Provo-based bank. The loan was reportedly granted after the National Insurance Board (NIB) made a multimillion dollar deposit in the bank. The same bank loaned $15 million to a Miami-based developer for the down payment to purchase 2,500 acres of Crown land in Middle Caicos in a transaction involving then Speaker of the House, attorney at law Clayton Greene, now the current leader of the PNP.
During the Commission of Inquiry it was learned that the financial records of the PNP were incomplete and did not reflect good accounting practices. Hall holds a Certified Public Accounting degree.
The 265-page final report of the Commission of Inquiry recommended criminal investigation by police or others in relation to Hall of possible corruption and/or other serious dishonesty including theft and false accounting and misfeasance in public office in relation to the following and other similar matters in recent years.
Amongst many other possible infractions outlined in the report were:
— Hall, in his capacity as Treasurer of the PNP: 1) failed to administer and keep proper accounts of the funds of the PNP; and 2) misled the party as a whole as to the true state of its financial affairs and the purposes to which its monies were being put;
— Payment by Jak Civre, the developer of the Seven Stars Resort, to Hall of $150,000 on 8th February 2007, the day before the election, purportedly as a campaign donation, but which Hall paid into the business account of his company, Paradigm, and also other unexplained payments were possibly corrupt payments;
— Hall, in accepting payment from Richard Padgett of $375,000 in February 2006 purportedly as a finder’s fee for services rendered some years before, but shortly after his planning appeal decision in Padgett’s favour, had potentially acted dishonestly, including by way of misfeasance in public office, and possibly corruptly;
— Hall took part in possibly corrupt transactions by accepting proceeds of the profits made by his brother, Quinton Hall, involving the disposal of Crown Land to an overseas developer at a large profit;
— Hall failed in several important respects to make adequate disclosures in response to the Commission’s requests, pursuant to its powers under the Commissions of Inquiry Ordinance, for full and accurate disclosure of his financial interests.
