The late Sir Milo Butler’s family has won a battle with the US Justice Department over who should have first claim to $8 million raised from the sale of assets forfeited by convicted Bahamas-based fraudster, Derek Guise Turner.
Documents obtained by Tribune Business reveal that the Court of Appeal has rejected an appeal by the Obama Justice Department against an earlier Supreme Court ruling that placed the Butler family, and other Bahamas-based investors who lost money in Mr Turner’s scheme, at the front of the creditors’ queue when it came claiming against the assets recovered in this nation.
While all sides are awaiting the Court of Appeal’s written reasons for its decision, numerous documents obtained by Tribune Business show that the Butler family – including former Cabinet Minister and now-deputy FNM leader, Loretta Butler-Turner – were among Mr Turner’s biggest victims.
His sentencing documents, filed in the US district court for eastern New York, list “victims” collectively owed $55.374 million by Mr Turner. Among them is a ‘Loretta Turner’ who is owed $2.75 million.
Loretta Turner is also named as a party in the Court of Appeal action, along with Messrs Edward and Derek Turner, plus several Butler family companies, Franklyn Holdings and Milo B. Butler & Sons Investments. Another party to the Court of Appeal action, Peter Thomas Davis, was listed in US Justice Department documents as owed $3.5 million by Mr Turner.
In addition, Tribune Business can reveal that Mr Turner was released from a US federal prison in August 2011, after serving a “concurrent” 87-month sentence.
